“FEATHER & FLIGHT”: This photograph of a great horned owl mother and baby by Wayne
Domkowski is part of the “Feather & Flight: Juried Exhibit” at the D&R Greenway Land Trust Johnson Education Center in Princeton. The exhibit, which features more than 80 works of art celebrating birds, runs through February 9.

D&R Greenway Land Trust’s Johnson Education Center galleries take flight with more than 80 works of art in “Feather & Flight: Juried Exhibit,” on view through February 9.

“Birds are more than beautiful; they are bellwethers of environmental health,” says Curator Diana Moore. “This exhibit celebrates birds, and also highlights conservation’s significant role in supporting crucial travel patterns for the 4,000 species that migrate. Because of New Jersey’s location along the Atlantic flyway, our natural resources are critical to avian survival.”

“Since 1989, D&R Greenway Land Trust has been preserving New Jersey land in places such as the Abbott Marshlands below Trenton that support critical bird habitat,” says D&R Greenway President and CEO Linda Mead.

“Through our increasing success in preservation and stewardship, remarkable New Jersey landscapes remain, sustaining native species and inspiring regional artists.”

At the Sourlands Ecosystem Preserve, the first property purchased by D&R Greenway for preservation in 1992, in partnership with the New Jersey Audubon Society, the forest provides critical breeding habitat for neotropical migratory birds such as the veery, ovenbird, and other wood warblers, scarlet tanager and wood thrush. The Cedar Ridge Preserve, also preserved in 1992, is a large mosaic of meadow, grassland, shrubland, young and mature forest, streams, and floodplain that provides habitats for “edge species” — red-tailed hawk, American woodcock, Baltimore oriole, northern flicker, eastern towhee, indigo bunting, and brown-headed cowbird.

Agricultural land has provided home and sanctuary to grassland birds and other wildlife for hundreds of years in the Northeastern United States. D&R Greenway’s Cider Mill Grassland Preserve — preserved in 2010 — is a sanctuary for imperiled grassland species. Bobolinks and eastern meadowlarks nest and hunt for food, using hayfields, meadows, and pastures for breeding and building nests on the ground. D&R Greenway manages this preserve as a safe haven for grassland-dependent species.

D&R Greenway Land Trust’s Johnson Education Center is located at 1 Preservation Place in Princeton. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information, call (609) 924-4646 or visit www.drgreenway.org.