Today we started the morning off by eating breakfast in the Sea
Camp's dinning hall Nature's Classroom style. After breakfast, we loaded onto
the bus and headed to Wellfleet Audubon. There, we began by learning about bird
banding. This included the process of capturing the birds, collecting their
data, and tagging the birds. The nets they use to catch them are nearly
invisible, as it is made up of extremely thin nylon. We were fortunate enough
to witness the process of data collecting and tagging a bird when we watched
the "master bander" tag a common yellowthroat male. We then proceeded
on a walk through the salt marshes. On the way to the salt marshes, we saw
turtles and an eel ramp. The ramp provides the eels with a path to freshwater from
the saltwater where they are born. The ramp leads to a bucket of sorts, which
is carried to the freshwater each evening. Upon arriving to the marshes we saw
(and captured) fiddler crabs. We learned that the male crabs have an enormous
claw on one arm. Why? For absolutely no reason other than to impress the
ladies. How inconvenient. Then, with nets and buckets, we captured several
ribbed muscles and grass shrimp. Next we arrived at the shore just as the tide
was retreating. There we found three horseshoe crabs (two of which were
mating), many dead crabs washed ashore, and mud snails. Some of us got the
opportunity to hold the lone horseshoe crab and even let it skitter along our
arms. While learning about the horseshoe crab body, we debunked the myth that
these crabs are dangerous in any way. Lastly, we made lunch and ate it on the
bus on the way to Marconi Beach.
Once we arrived
to Marconi Beach, we examined the wrack line, did an experiment, and collected
rocks. The experiment consisted of building a 15-second sand castle and
counting how many waves it took to knock the sand castle down and then wash it
away. For many groups, it took around 5 waves to completely wash the sandcastle
away. We then had approximately 10 more minutes of free time then each grabbed
a rock and loaded back onto the bus.
During the
second half of the day, we visited the incredibly interesting and important
town of Woods Hole, Cape Cod. Ben Kelts (our gym teacher) joined us at this
time. Splitting into our "A" and "B" groups, we toured the
area both on foot and by boat with Zephyr Marine. On land, we visited a lab at
the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. While there, we were presented with the
opportunity to handle some sea creatures. There were sea urchins, starfish,
lobsters, crabs, hermit crabs, conches, scallops, and many more. Don't fret, no
one was pinched, stabbed, or poisoned. On the boat, we sent down a camera on a
sled and watched the live feed from the ocean floor. We even spotted a
horseshoe crab! Then we put down a dredge for creatures and a container/net for
plankton. We collected and inspected things such as a scallop, sea urchin,
starfish, and many plankton. Finally it was time for dinner. We ended the day
by eating pizza together. When we get back we will hopefully go down to the
beach before bedtime. I hope you enjoyed our blog entry immensely because we,
the authors (Ava and Harper), argued an insurmountable amount regarding the
commas, wording, and phrases in this piece. Have a lovely evening.!
Sincerely,
The WHMS Middle School
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