A visual chronicle of suburban NJ
I was surprised to find this snowy egret in Shallcross Pond in Kenilworth. Just, y’know, hangin’ out, four feet from the bike path.
When I got a liiiiiiittle too close, it flew across the pond.
Don’t worry, it came back later! I didn’t scare it off too badly.
Last week, after I had decided I was finished mucking about a trail near a pond, I made for the trailhead, which is what one does when one wishes to stop mucking about on a trail. To my surprise, I found the trailhead blocked by a family of Canada geese.
I wasn’t really sure what to do, and neither were they. They were standing in a narrow bottleneck between the parking lot and a larger concrete landing at the beginning the trail, and neither of us could pass the other right there.
I decided to press on, in hopes that they would back up into the parking lot, giving me clearance to exit the trail and return to my car. But they stood their ground, and as I drew near, I heard a funny noise— hissing. Hissing geese!
It suddenly hit me that these were protective parent geese, and I was a threat to their goslings.
Visions of savage goose attacks flew into my head.
I backed away slowly, and quietly stood as far to the side of the trail as I could.
Mama Goose, keeping her head down and pulsing it forward like a sleepy snake, hissed and led her family past me. And without a word, they ungracefully slipped into the pond and swam away in a single file.
But not before I got a family photo.
I saw a bunch of red admiral butterflies! I think they were mating. Mostly they were zipping around way faster than my camera could catch them, but occasionally they’d rest on the ground near me for a minute or two.
(By “I saw a bunch” I mean “I saw more than one.” I’m not sure whether I saw two or twenty.)
Representatives of the Liberty Science Center, which is located about an hour away from us (in Jersey City), came out to Maplewood’s Green Day to give demonstrations on composting (among other things).
In order to compost, you need worms, right? So they brought some red wigglers along, and let the kids hold ‘em.
As you’d expect, the red wigglers wiggled a lot.
Because it was an educational science demonstration, they got into the science of how and why you need worms for composting.
There was even an anatomical model of the innards of an earthworm (shown above), which is quite honestly the thing that drew me over to the booth, because I am a giant nerd.
This concludes my coverage of Green Day! ‘Til next year.
This is my favorite photo from the day.
Rizzo, of Rizzo’s Reptile Discovery, brought some tiny turtles to show off at Maplewood’s Green Day!
I was lucky enough to nab this shot while he was standing still to answer a question from the guy standing in front of me; otherwise, he was bobbing all over the place. Neither this photo nor his website give any indication of what a fun performer he is/was.
This skeletal remnant has been lying near/in a trail on the Watchung Reservation for at least a few months, since the last time I came through this way.
The ribs and tibia make it something bigger than a rabbit, but the molars are reasonably small. The spot is also surrounded by gray fur. A dog, maybe, hit by a car on the nearby Glenside Avenue and rolled over here to die? I sure hope not. 
I’m not sure why I’m more upset at the idea of a dog dying here than, say, a badger dying here.
Ducks! At Echo Lake in Mountainside. This is the east end of the lake.
I specify this because Echo Lake is a very long, narrow lake, and it matters.
Enough with all these local histories I’ve been inundating you with for the past few days!
Here are some Canada geese on a hill by Best Lake in Watchung.
The Watchung Stables are located on the Watchung Reservation. As evidenced by this photo, they do in fact contain real live horses.
The stables used to be the site of a Nike missile launcher! There are reportedly no longer any signs of that, though.
