The male Northern Harrier glides low over the mudflat silent like a gray ghost, carrying something furry in its talons. He swoops down to a landing on a small island in the marsh, next to a female harrier and a mound of dried twigs. Out of the nest the pair built on the ground pops the head of a hungry chick eager for the rodent dad brought home.

Watching wild raptors feed their young could make you forget where you are. Not quite.  As you look at the birds through binoculars you can’t miss the 18-wheelers roaring behind them and  the big green Turnpike sign that says “Exit 15W 2 miles.”

Richard W. DeKorte Park, off Rt. 17 in Lyndhurst, is an amazing sanctuary of nature in the midst of one of the most industrialized and foul-smelling spots in the state.

All around it are flat office buildings and warehouses. In the distance rise the smokestacks of power plants, the steel girders of the Pulaski Skyway and the Manhattan skyline. Behind the entrance is a landfill. On the far side garbage trucks rumble up a hill to dump their load at yet a second landfill. Hell, part of DeKorte used to be a landfill.

But the thousands of tons of household waste got capped; in 1982 the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission opened the site to the public as a 110-acre nature park with glistening ponds and trails winding through salt marsh cordgrass.

DeKorte has become a key stopover for migrant birds; 260 species have been counted. We spent an hour and a half a few days ago walking the easy marsh trails, and saw 24 species including ruddy duck, with its reddish body and bright blue bill. Not exactly rare, but bet you won’t find them in your local park with the Canada geese.

If you are very lucky you may see a migrating bald eagle high above, or an osprey dive into the water feet first just yards from where you are standing and emerge with a fish in its talons.

Terrapin turtles, water snakes and muskrat also hide in the reeds, and there’s red fox among the wildflowers.

If you work in the area, grab your lunch and stop by the swamp. You’ll never see this kind of action at the office.