The Wildlife Report

First off, I want to mention that on Monday when we met the new kids, I got lucky and got another batch of kids who were either taking or took gymnastics. Within the span of 3 days these talented little ones have instructed me enough on walking handstands that I can now walk a few feet without my feet! Special thanks to Devy and Camilla for their gymnastic guidance.

This week we were a lot more observant and found a lot of neat critters! On my hand in the next picture is this weird patch we found on a mussel shell that I just ripped off. I have no clue what it is, but it looked awesome.

On Tuesday the staff and kids were very observant when we were prepping the crab traps. When we pulled one of the crab traps in, we somehow caught a juvenile PIPE FISH! It was barely over an inch long and barely thicker than a toothpick; it was by far one of the coolest finds in my book this whole summer. One of the kids named James shared the same ecstatic feeling as I did and quickly got him in a bucket in the shade for further examination. I wish I could have showed you guys this amazing little thing, but we ended up putting it back into the Harbor before we got the chance to snag a few photos. It was later that day that I did some research on pipe fish and the green little guy or girl that we had is a relative of Sea Horses and Sea Dragons. We also have noticed that on the mussel shells that we use as bait, there are often these small creatures that accidentally fall into our hands. On closer examination, we seem to have found these small shrimp-shaped creatures that are about a centimeter in size, small species of worms that resemble sea worms but without pincers, and these pieces of seaweed that seem to twist and twirl in place which the kids and staff (including myself) have nicknamed "dancing worms."

We have seen a lot less moths in the past week or so, however flies have been on the rise! These flies are annoying; we have kids and staff alike getting nipped or poked by these flies! Believe it or not, but Sean happened to stumble across some molted snake skin that belonged to a small snake that noone has yet to spot in Pier's Park. Who knows what we will find next?

I'll get more photos of these critters in the following blog posts!
Raymond Chai

The Harbor is Alive! (And Clean!)

This week, we had a small group of older elementary school-aged children come see us at Carson Beach. They wanted a chance to learn about the beach, the harbor, and to be able to participate in some of the activities that we offer as well! Their group was focusing on civic engagement and natural science, something they hoped we'd be able to tie in with. I was super excited to be able to share some of the knowledge I have not only about Carson Beach specifically, but about the Boston Harbor overall.

Here I am giving a little spiel about the harbor; I started by asking how many of them had been to this beach before. When not many hands were raised, I asked how many think they would swim in this water. I went on to declare that Carson Beach is one of the cleanest urban beaches in the entire country. When I talked about beaches in California, Florida and Hawaii not being as clean, both children and counsellors' faces were shocked. It was amazing to be able to share this information and be able to visibly see that it was actually being processed.

After we discussed the importance of keeping our beaches clean, so that we can use both water and sand, we went on to play some games on the beach and create some art on the shore. We attempted sand raking, but unfortunately the tide was only starting to move out and expose the perfect damp sand.

So, a small group and I worked on filling up buckets of water and pouring it on the sand in order to make our own wet sand for creating sand art! Also, I introduced some of the children to periwinkles, and my friend Elijah here because quickly interested and enthralled by them. Overall, it was an amazing day and the same group will actually be returning tomorrow for more fun. Can't wait to see what else the beach has in store for all of us!

Until then,

Bridget M.