Catch of the World Seining at Beczak

Back at Beczak for another fun River Explorers program! The kids learned about fish native to the Hudson River, and from around the world, and then donned waders and went seining. They caught 73 critters: 57 anchovies, 8 blue crabs, 4 shrimp, 3 white perch and 1 tomcod. They did a little math, too, adding their catch to the totals for the month.

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...

Nearby Nature

Birds at the park:



Turtle at the train station (there is a wetlands area right next to the parking lot).



While we were there, another similarly sized turtle surfaced. This guy went under, swam out to her, and tried (unsuccessfully) to mate with her. Mikro was fascinated, and I am sure he'll be going on about it to anyone who will listen.

"Wow, mama, I've never seen turtles mate before! Can we stay and see if they do it again?"

My little naturalist is a turtle voyeur...

Nature, Science, Poetry and Imagination -- A Week of Fun

Mikro enjoyed Beczak Environmental Education Center's Hunt for Hatchlings program, featuring an egg hunt, egg painting, and learning all about different kinds of animals who lay eggs.





He's also enjoying his new series of science classes about space. This week was about the life cycle of a star and different types of galaxies.



We also had a great time at a composting workshop with our homeschool group, at the community garden where the group has a plot. And Mikro and I got to hang out with friends afterwards.



This weekend we celebrated Mikro's birthday. I can't believe my baby is 7!

On Saturday, we went to the opening of the Children's Room at Poets House, and attended a wonderful reading by Mary Ann Hoberman and Linda Winston, from their anthology The Tree That Time Built: A Celebration of Nature, Science and Imagination. They wrote a poem about the Hudson River and its source at Lake Tear of the Clouds with the children who attended the reading. Mikro had great fun, and especially enjoyed the poem about fossils (naturally!) and getting his book signed.









In the Children's Room, he played with an old Royal typewriter, and wrote a poem with one of the volunteers. He also got a little wild and crazy in the reading nook with the huge pillows and stuffed animals, as did the other little boys present. The staff at Poet's House is amazingly tolerant of little boy exuberance... We stayed for the ribbon cutting ceremony (all the kids who wanted to got to take a snip), then ate lunch in Rockefeller Park, where we enjoyed Tom Otterness' The Real World sculpture garden and watched pigeons, before heading uptown to see How to Train Your Dragon, which Mikro loved.