Village Earth Day Celebration

Our little village held its Earth Day celebration on Saturday. Mikro had a wonderful time. He saw stick insects at Teatown Lake Reservation's display, made a fish print, learned all about fish of the Hudson River from Christopher Letts, participated in the driftwood sculpture contest, and made some arts and crafts with recycled materials at the crafts table. Of course, mom was drawn in by the irresistible pull of art supplies, and ended up making a fish collage... Dad and Mikro took part in the beach cleanup, while my cane and I watched. We all watched the birds, and saw killdeer and a turkey vulture who landed on the beach, as well as the usual geese, ducks, seagulls and cormorants.

Village Earth Day Fest, Flint Knapping, and Hawks!

Today was our village's Earth Day celebration, at a village park on the Hudson River. There were free t-shirts and trees, live music, a shore cleanup, and booths for nature and environmental organizations. And there were trees to climb, rocks to balance on, an eel to touch and help return to the river, and lots of grass to roll in.



We found out the hard way that eels can secrete a slimey substance to help them escape predators-- that stuff took a lot of washing to get off our hands! The eel was about 22 inches long, and I'm sure he's happy to be back in the Hudson.



I love being by the river. Isn't this cloud covered picnic table the perfect place to daydream?



Later in the afternoon, we headed to yet another amazing park on the Hudson, for a program at our local Nature Center on flint knapping.



After flint knapping, the kids went on a hike. Mikro especially enjoyed climbing down near the water...



A pair of redtailed hawks stole the show, hunting and perching nearby to finish their meals. The female flew down and struck a rat literally less than ten feet in front of me. I nearly jumped out of my skin! They seemed fairly unconcerned by humans, except for occasionally giving us a seemingly "My dinner, not yours!" glare as they chowed down...

Earth Fair Outdoors at NYC's Grand Central Terminal

Mikro and I went to Earth Fair today and enjoyed:

Bio Bus: a veggie oil fueled science lab on wheels, where we learned about Daphnia (water fleas), tiny crustaceans with a very complex anatomy, including a heart and digestive tract, which can be observed moving under the microscope.



Making semaphore flags to spell out "Earth", and touching and learning about a hermit crab, an oyster drill snail, and clams and mussels from the educators from South Street Seaport Museum.



Chatting with artist Michael Albert, and doing some coloring, which we traded for a signed poster:



Checking out a preview of the history Channel's new America: The Story of Us series, watching a cool movie about endangered species and habitat destruction called What Is Missing?, and participating in the Walking With Dinosaurs Roar project:



Interacting with Baby T Rex, one of the dinosaurs from the Walking With Dinosaurs show: