A quick visit to the Kearny Marsh last week in hopes of seeing a harbor heron (great egret with a gray band on its right leg and small transmitter on its left) brought none of those special birds.
But we did see several other great egrets, a bazillion dragonflies, some jewelweed, pennywort and foxtails.
We also saw a least bittern (below) zip past — always a nice bird to spot. Read more about the least bittern here.
Click "Continue reading…" below the photo for more photos.
This week the Meadowlands Environment Center is holding a space camp for students entering the seventh grade.
Tuesday’s session was about the sun, stars and planets, and students went outside to learn about the sun in whole new ways (see 1:45-minute video). 
MEC’s Laura Venner talked to the 15 students abot the sun and SOHO, an international project involving NASA and other space agencies to study the sun.
The space camp, one of a half-dozen offered by MEC
All MEC camps are held at the new Center for Environmental and Scientific Education (below), a “green” building that incorporates sustainable materials and alternative energy, in DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst.
Click "Continue reading…" for two more images.
This two-minute video is about the Harbor Herons Project, a collaboration of NYC Audubon, NJ Audubon, the Meadowlands Commission and many volunteers. 
It should be played with the "sound" on.
Several great egrets and double-crested cormorant fledglings that were banded earlier this summer are now being spotted in the Meadowlands, confirmation that our marshes are pivotal to the success of herons in the entire metropolitan region.
Here is a link to our previous post on the Harbor Herons Project, including a link to the project’s Web pages.
Click "Continue reading…" for more information and photos from this project.
It’s prime time for dragonflies across the meadows… Some by landfills, others by marshes.
Click "Continue reading" for more dragonflies.
For the 
past few years, the Meadowlands Commission and a bunch of volunteers have been helping New Jersey Audubon and New York City Audubon with a project called the Harbor Herons Project.
The object is to study the foraging behavior of egrets and herons that roost on the East River and near Staten Island to see if the birds from different nesting colonies are foraging at different sites and to see how the birds use the metropolitan landscape, including the Meadowlands.
This year, researchers have banded several birds and put transmitters on some in an effort to keep track of their travels. 
Some of those birds — great egrets, and double-crested cormorants, have been seen in the Meadowlands — and the great egret’s radio signals have been picked up here.
You can help the research by keeping your eye out for banded/transmitter birds.
The photo on the left is of a great egret youngster with a silver band on its right leg and a transmitter on its left leg (image enlarged on right).
Kate Ruskin of NJ Audubon sums up the progress:
* 17 great egret fledglings radio-tagged (transmitter is below right:
– Black letters on white
– Positioned on the left leg, above the joint with the antenna pointing down (they’re small, less than 3% of their body weight, but visible)
Click "Continue reading" immediately below to learn more.
We took this shot of a mystery caterpillar last month by the AMVETS Carillon in North Arlington.
Can anyone help with an ID?
If you’re in a boat by the Hackensack River’s marshes at low tide, keep your eye out along the banks for a tiny critter call
ed a fiddler crab.
One claw is oversized, to the point it almost looks like the crab is wielding a fiddle — hence the name.
Very strange. Very cool.
The fiddler crabs pictured here photographed at the Saw Mill Creek Wildlife Management Area.
More on fiddler crabs here.
We saw indigo buntings twice this morning, once on Disposal Road between Meadowlands Commission headquarters, then again on the Transco Trail between the Lyndhurst Nature Reserve and the Saw Mill Creek Trail in North Arlington.
We have seen them in the same area several times now.
