Avalon 7

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Sitting crossed-legged beside a gravel road, watching a snowy egret slowly high-step-it through swaying marsh grasses, is the way to spend a morning. In truth, at that moment, it seemed like the only way to spend a morning.

Black legs and, oh, those lemon-yellow feet!

The egret was methodical. Each move deliberate. Each step measured. One never knows when a quick meal will present itself. That’s true for egrets and egret-watchers alike. Although, I don't know how I feel about raw fish, even if you wrap it in cold sticky rice.

- Photo taken at the Wetlands Institute, Stone Harbor, NJ

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Avalon 6

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South of Avalon is the Wetlands Institute at Stone Harbor. It's a non-profit organization dedicated to education and research founded in 1969 by the president of the World Wildlife Fund, Herbert Mills.

The protected 6,000 acres of coastal marsh and wetland are inland from the ocean. Its visitor center appears to float on a sea of golden salt-tolerant marsh grasses, principally saltmarsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora).

Cordgrass is an environmental engineer of sorts. As it grows out of the water, sediments accumulate around its base that, in time, are added to the land mass.

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