07/12/2014
Well hello there again!
I hope everyone made it home okay! Today's adventure started at around 2:00 PM. The weather was perfect, lots of people around, and most importantly I got to see the Boston Harbor in a manner in which I had never seen it before. I had been there before, but to actually pay attention to my surroundings in a more profound manner was a quite an experience. We all gathered in a section of the long wharf and started observing our surroundings. As you can see from the pictures below, the view was marvelous!
As I started to observe the water, I noticed many jellyfish. Some of them were alive, while others were not. I noticed the difference because some were contracting their "muscles", or pulsing, and the ones that were not, were simply being driven by the movement of the water. I was surprise to see so many of them near us, but some of my classmates informed me that once we go deep into the harbor, near the islands, there are going to be many more, which was the case.
As we kept walking we passed by a tidal pool, picture below, which had men made rocks, rockweed, and green algae.
At 3 PM, we embarked in the trip the whole class was waiting for. A nice, relaxing boat ride to explore a bit of the Boston Harbor Islands. As I said goodbye to the city, I welcomed the sun, the breeze, and the adventure.
We saw and passed many different islands, but I had never seen up close Deer Island, where as we now know is where all of our "waste" goes and gets treated. Pretty amazing huh?
In the middle of our adventure, we were witnesses of a not so good scenario. A boat decided to not pay attention to the buoys and crash right into an island that has washed away as the years have gone by. This island is best known as Nixe's Mate. Let's just hope everyone is okay!
The ferry's first stop was at George's Island. It looked quite big and many people were enjoining the sun either by walking around or by jumping in the water. I was amazed by the amount of people that were there and also around all the islands that we were fortunate to visit. I have to say that I felt very ashamed of waiting such a long time to do this. I cannot wait for our other field trips!
The second stop was at Hull where a school was located right in front of the ocean. Let me just say that I would have loved to go to school there plus the view just makes it even more incredible.
Our third stop was at Hewitts Cove located in Hingham. There were many condominiums around the bay as one can observe from the pictures below. I also saw many boats in the area and many people actually joined us in the ferry at this stop.
On the way back to Boston I observed lots of jellyfish and a beautiful sky. At this point, I sit back and enjoyed the ride. Our last stop was in East Boston. One can get off at this stop and go directly to the Boston Logan Airport. How fun is that? Maybe next time I go away I'll think about riding around the bay before leaving my city.
I hope that everyone enjoyed the trip because I clearly did. I learned so much about the type of animals that one can find at the harbor as well as the different types of islands that our beautiful city has. I never really knew how much Boston had to offer until our trip today. I got to interact with pretty amazing people, while not only exploring, but also learning. I am looking forward to our class tomorrow as I know we have much more to learn! I want to leave everyone with this two last pictures as I thought they captured more than Boston history, but also an amazing time.
Well hello there again!
I hope everyone made it home okay! Today's adventure started at around 2:00 PM. The weather was perfect, lots of people around, and most importantly I got to see the Boston Harbor in a manner in which I had never seen it before. I had been there before, but to actually pay attention to my surroundings in a more profound manner was a quite an experience. We all gathered in a section of the long wharf and started observing our surroundings. As you can see from the pictures below, the view was marvelous!
As I started to observe the water, I noticed many jellyfish. Some of them were alive, while others were not. I noticed the difference because some were contracting their "muscles", or pulsing, and the ones that were not, were simply being driven by the movement of the water. I was surprise to see so many of them near us, but some of my classmates informed me that once we go deep into the harbor, near the islands, there are going to be many more, which was the case.
There were some other animals in our surroundings, like the ducks below, which in my opinion, were adorable. I was amazed to see so many species around me. Not only did I see different types of animals in the water, but when I looked up in the sky there were also some birds.
I have to touch on the part were Professor Berman started to trow bread into the ocean. I was not quite sure what the reason was, but when I heard my classmates shout out of excitement I knew something was up. I looked down to the water and there they were, humongous stripers. Now I used the word humongous because I had never seen such big fish right in front of my eyes. As I had mentioned before in class, I grew up near the sea, but never had I seen fish quite like the ones I saw today. There were about a dozen of them who were fascinated by the bread or maybe by our class, no one will ever know. =)
(The best picture I was able to get is the one below, the stripers were super fast)
As we kept going with our adventure, we walked to the end of the wharf where the view was beautiful and many of us go to see a very unique black bird. I was particularly impressed by it as this animal went into the ocean, stayed there for, in my perspective, a very long time, and then came out as if nothing had ever happened. I asked Professor Berman for the name of this bird and he suggested that I should find out and let him know. Well Professor, I think I have the answer and please correct me if I am incorrect. After doing some research I believe the bird we saw was a double crested Cormorant. These birds dive into the water to obtain food, mostly small fish, and then go into the surface in order to dry their wings. I was not able to take a picture of the Cormorant, but the pictures below shows where I saw this astonishing creature. (Source: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Double-crested_Cormorant/lifehistory)
Moreover, as we walked to wait for the ferry, we stopped by this floating dock or lets call it a floating "house", in which I observed many different color algae. Some of it was green, while some other parts were brown. We could not really categorize the other color plant or specie we saw. It was bright orange and some of it was red (one may see the orange part in the picture below). It kind of looked like a mushroom, but Professor Berman mentioned that tomorrow we were most likely going to be able to see it up close.
As we kept walking we passed by a tidal pool, picture below, which had men made rocks, rockweed, and green algae.
At 3 PM, we embarked in the trip the whole class was waiting for. A nice, relaxing boat ride to explore a bit of the Boston Harbor Islands. As I said goodbye to the city, I welcomed the sun, the breeze, and the adventure.
We saw and passed many different islands, but I had never seen up close Deer Island, where as we now know is where all of our "waste" goes and gets treated. Pretty amazing huh?
In the middle of our adventure, we were witnesses of a not so good scenario. A boat decided to not pay attention to the buoys and crash right into an island that has washed away as the years have gone by. This island is best known as Nixe's Mate. Let's just hope everyone is okay!
The ferry's first stop was at George's Island. It looked quite big and many people were enjoining the sun either by walking around or by jumping in the water. I was amazed by the amount of people that were there and also around all the islands that we were fortunate to visit. I have to say that I felt very ashamed of waiting such a long time to do this. I cannot wait for our other field trips!
The second stop was at Hull where a school was located right in front of the ocean. Let me just say that I would have loved to go to school there plus the view just makes it even more incredible.
Our third stop was at Hewitts Cove located in Hingham. There were many condominiums around the bay as one can observe from the pictures below. I also saw many boats in the area and many people actually joined us in the ferry at this stop.
On the way back to Boston I observed lots of jellyfish and a beautiful sky. At this point, I sit back and enjoyed the ride. Our last stop was in East Boston. One can get off at this stop and go directly to the Boston Logan Airport. How fun is that? Maybe next time I go away I'll think about riding around the bay before leaving my city.
I hope that everyone enjoyed the trip because I clearly did. I learned so much about the type of animals that one can find at the harbor as well as the different types of islands that our beautiful city has. I never really knew how much Boston had to offer until our trip today. I got to interact with pretty amazing people, while not only exploring, but also learning. I am looking forward to our class tomorrow as I know we have much more to learn! I want to leave everyone with this two last pictures as I thought they captured more than Boston history, but also an amazing time.
Daniela Baeza-Prepetit
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