George's Sea Stars

One of my biggest goals this summer is to find a living sea star out on the Boston Harbor Islands. I had heard rumors of sightings from other colleagues who had gone out and seen some on George’s Islands. The weeks we have been out on George’s I’ve searched feverishly for the five-armed echinoderms, but have come up with no luck. You can imagine how envious I was when I found out the group at the Courageous pulled some up with their crab traps.

A large group of kids were exploring the water line on Thursday and I joined them in one of my favorite activates. As they looked for sea glass and crab claws, eagerly showing off their findings to their camp mates, and myself I was keeping my eye out for a star. While I was talking to one girl another girl came running but to me “Look what we found! What is it?” In her hand was a sea star! On closer inspection I saw that the sea star was not alive but was the endoskeleton of a sea star that was bleach white. Even though it wasn’t a live sea star it was the first evidence I have personally found of sea stars in Boston Harbor. The founders of the white sea stars promptly decided that the sea star skeleton was less interesting than the shiny, colorful sea glass and tossed it back into the sea.

The hunt will have to continue for the elusive sea stars in two weeks when we return to George’s for the last time this summer. Hopefully this time the search will be more fruitful!

-Nora D.

Crab, Crab, Crab...Lobster!

It's no secret that All Access has had a productive summer on the fishing side of the program. Every time Andrea casts a fishing line into the water, she is pulling a skate or a bass up! With Andrea busy being the Queen of Fishing, Kharliyah and I have taken the gauntlet in crab catching.

We have found an abundance of rock crabs, Jonah crabs, spider crabs, and green crabs. We have found so many almost every kid who has gone out on all access with us knows the differences between all four species and how to tell the difference between male and females.

On our last day at Spectacle we had a surprise visitor in one of our crab traps. As I was pulling up the trap for one of the last groups of the day, I excitedly exclaimed that we had caught a lobster!! Our excitement spilled over to all the kids on the pier when they saw what we had in our trap. It was a welcome change to all the crabs we had been catching all day. Everyone crowded around to get to touch and take a picture with the lobster. Kharliyah did an excellent job balancing the crowd and holding the lobster at the same time!

After we were done showing off our celebrity of the day we returned him to the water. It was a great way to send our last groups of the week at Spectacle off! It was another great week on All Access and great way to continue the good vibes into George’s next week!

-Nora D.

What Mysteries Do Sea Glass Hold?

 On Wednesday, David Coughan and I took a small group form the Saint Ann's camp to explore Spectacles rocky shoreline. The girls were thrilled to be finding small treasures between the rocks. These treasures were many, many pieces of sea glass! Spectacle has hosted many things in it's life before becoming a state park. It once had hotels, a plant, and was the city's garbage incinerator for a span of time. All the glass found on the beaches are a result of the island's past. As tempting as taking these sea jewels back on the boat with you, all glass must remain on the island because it is part of the national park system.

As we slowly made our way down the beach, faces completely focused on the ground trying to find glass better than the last piece of glass we found. Whenever one of us found something unusual or out of the ordinary we could stop and call the group over. One camper loved finding porcelain piece and another found a large royal blue piece that was absolutely stunning. I tried finding little blue, aqua, and soft green sea glass because I love those colors. The most common colors we found were browns and greens. My unique find of the day was a turquoise bead. It was the only one we found on the beach.

David happened to have a good eye and found a rare color of sea glass, pink! We all oooh'd and aaaaah'd as David held it up in the light. The girls were jealous they had not found this rare treasure to add to their large collections that were now overflowing in everyone's hands. David encouraged us all to think about were this pink piece of glass came from. A vase, a perfume bottle; there could be some many possibilities given the history of the island. Was it valuable? Was it very important to some one at sometime?

Til the next sea glass adventure
-Nora D.

Firsts During The First Week of Summer

If I wasn't already excited for summer, I am even more excited after our first two days out on the islands. This first two days, we embarked the Provincetown II to reach George's Island. We might have started a new tradition of playing "Quackadilly" on the boat ride over. Both rides over Carlos made it to the final two but was beat out by Andrea the first day and by Cristian on the second.

Our first day on George's, we were met by high heat, a hot sun, and little to no shade. The groups we came to the Island with found salvation in Fort Warren's cool and dark tunnels. Though we had few participants to brave the heat with us, we had great day for ourselves. Kharliyah and I started the day exploring the tide line. I had heard rumors of seastars in the tide zone and was eager to have success in finding some. Though we were unsuccessful in finding seastars we found a killdeer and her two chicks. They were so tiny when I tried to take a picture, they didn't show up! I also saw a pair of ducks with ducklings which were also adorable!

Andrea set the bar high for fishing this summer at SHSB. She helped kids catch not one but five striped bass! This has never happened before at George's Island or any other site. We also caught Red Crabs on the second day on George's. It was fun to talk to kids about what kind of animals crabs are and how to tell a male and a female apart. Rock Crabs are also a native species that have been recently outcompeted by Asian Shore Crabs and Green Crabs, so it was great to catch many of them instead of invasive species.

My favorite part of both days was the boat ride home. Not because the day was over but because it showed the connections the AABH team made with kids. Kids were coming up to us asking to play "Quackadilly" again, talking to the boys about sports, asking questions about the harbor, or seeing a few kids fall asleep after a very active day.

I'm excited to see what the rest of the summer holds!

Nora

New Scene For The Summer

Happy Summer 2016 everyone! I am back for my second summer as a Senior Harbor Educator and could not be more excited. A quick refresher about myself. I grew up and currently still live in Dorchester. I love everything about Boston, from the Seaport to Fenway Park. I migrated north for college where I majored in Environmental Biology. I become overly enthusiastic about birds and constantly carry a bird guide with me at all times. I enjoy swimming and hiking whenever I have free time.

Digging for Clams at Carson!

Between Summer 2015 and 2016 I did a lot of traveling. I spent time in Ireland, France, Italy, and Germany. It was amazing to see the diversity of culture and people we have in our world. My two biggest highlights of the trip were swimming in the Mediterranean and see the Cliffs of Moher.

Horseshoe crab!

  Last year I worked mainly at the Carson Beach site. As much as I will miss the clams, kayaking, and soccer events, I will be changing sites this summer. I will be working on the All Access Boston Harbor trips three days a week. I am looking forward to many boat rides, fishing stores, and tide zone explorations. The fishing scene at Carson is very sparse, I am hoping we will be getting a lot of bites out on the islands! Spectacle Island is one of my favorite islands; you can swim there which is definitely needed after a competitive kickball game! I can't wait to see what I learn this summer at All Access. I have an awesome team working with me that is going to make the summer a fun one!

Until next time,

Nora

New Scene For The Summer

Happy Summer 2016 everyone! I am back for my second summer as a Senior Harbor Educator and could not be more excited. A quick refresher about myself. I grew up and currently still live in Dorchester. I love everything about Boston, from the Seaport to Fenway Park. I migrated north for college where I majored in Environmental Biology. I become overly enthusiastic about birds and constantly carry a bird guide with me at all times. I enjoy swimming and hiking whenever I have free time.

Digging for Clams at Carson!

Between Summer 2015 and 2016 I did a lot of traveling. I spent time in Ireland, France, Italy, and Germany. It was amazing to see the diversity of culture and people we have in our world. My two biggest highlights of the trip were swimming in the Mediterranean and see the Cliffs of Moher.

Horseshoe crab!

  Last year I worked mainly at the Carson Beach site. As much as I will miss the clams, kayaking, and soccer events, I will be changing sites this summer. I will be working on the All Access Boston Harbor trips three days a week. I am looking forward to many boat rides, fishing stores, and tide zone explorations. The fishing scene at Carson is very sparse, I am hoping we will be getting a lot of bites out on the islands! Spectacle Island is one of my favorite islands; you can swim there which is definitely needed after a competitive kickball game! I can't wait to see what I learn this summer at All Access. I have an awesome team working with me that is going to make the summer a fun one!

Until next time,

Nora