My Favorite Pen by Molly A.

From Molly A.

Today I lost my pen :( The day started out fine. A bit windy, but fine. My friend Avery and I biked to the Field Station, and met Lenny and Ed there. Lenny had to do something, so he sent us girls out to the Sandplain Grasslands with a camera and tripod to observe and take pictures of birds and other things we saw. We did just that for a while after Lenny left, but then we tried to angle the camera to take a picture, the tripod would not move up and down. Ed and I tried to fix it, and in the process of jiggling it a bit, a tiny little washer fell into the grass. We both stared at it a second, and then started to panic. Uh Oh.  We then spent about 15 minutes working on figuring out where the little washer went, before Avery came over and gave the tripod arm a good yank down, determining that the tripod was not broken at all and we were making a fuss over a little washer. We then tried to resume our work, but it started to sprinkle... The sprinkle turned into a quite formidable, bucket pouring storm quickly though, and we were forced to dash for the Field Station. I Was just about to start writing about this day when I realized that in my mad dash I must have dropped my pen, which happened to be a favorite pen, given to me by a friend. Of course, the only sensible thing to do, in my eyes, that moment, was run out into what had become an undeniable downpour to look for my beloved pen. I am quite loyal to things that are important to me. After about 5 minutes of retracing the steps our walk took, I was drenched though, and had not found my pen. I returned to the Station, and started to write with a foreign pen. I was quite desolate, but my tale was not over yet... After the rain cleared, Ed just happened to glance at the ground, and notice my pen just sitting underneath Lenny's grill; I had been sitting 3 feet away the entire time. So a rainbow and a found pen is the end of a story that started out quite rainy. 

The Station – Day One

The Station – Day One

Raymond McClure

I would like to tell you about some of the plants you can find at the Field Station.

The first to talk about is St. John’s Wort. It’s a perianal flower that has medicinal qualities. You pick the plant when it’s flowering and put the flowers and stems into a jar of oil (olive oil) and place the jar in the sun as if you were making sun tea. The plant will turn the oil a reddish color. The oil can be used to rub onto sore muscles and for minor abrasions.  

Juniper bush or Red Cedar (the same plant with two different names) berries have a medicinal quality as well, the berry can be made into a tea which is good for you if you have a sore throat, it’s also a cure for dysentery.

 I’ll write about fish and other things next time.  Next week we’ll begin exploring the fresh water pond.

New Jr Ranger

This is Raymond M.  One of our newest Jr Rangers.  Raymond lives on Nantucket, he attends The Light House School.  Raymond enjoys fishing and science and we think he's going to be a great addition to our staff.  later today Raymond will post his first report on this blog page.

2013 Schedule of Guided Family Nature Walks

This year the Jr. Rangers offer Guided Family Nature Walks Monday through Friday at the Field Station.  Other times by appointment.  Come out a take a walk with us.

Guided Family Nature Walks
UMass Nantucket Field Station
180 Polpis Road
(508) 228-5268

Look! Up in the sky.

Uncovered and windswept

Annie Laura Barnes

Annie Laura Barnes

In the summer of 2012 the Jr. Rangers found the rusted remains of a gear wheel, exposed after a summer storm at the beach entrance to the harbor in front of the UMass Field Station.  It was set aside as something to consider and research for a later date. In February of 2013, three very powerful winter storms exposed the wreckage of what appeared to be a very large boat! Dr. Oktay contacted a local authority who thinks the boat sank off Tuckernuck in a storm in 1939, was then salvaged and moved to the protective dune in front of Folger’s marsh. This summer the Jr. Rangers will continue research into the life and times of this boat. Follow the story here. Sunny and Orion began work on uncovering this mystery boat this past February, pieces of the boat are on the bench in front of them, Orion takes up the story from here.

Len   

From Orion D.

Today was a foggy around 65 degrees. It was windy and threatening to rain.  At the field station I went to the beach to look for pieces of a boat called Annie Laura Barnes which sank near CrossRip  Jan 18, 1939. It was then moved to the current location in order to make the bluff.

The first evidence of a shipwreck was found there in the summer of 2012. We didn’t know it was a ship then. We thought it was just metal that someone had dropped on the beach. We found it just walking around and found a piece of metal sticking up. We went over to see what it was. It was a circle of metal hollowed out with a smaller circle of metal inside it. It looked like a gear. We also found more counter weights that looked like nails in the bottom of a bucket filled with cement.  We also found big nails.

Over the winter, big storms blew away some of the bluff. In fact, the dune fell apart and the ocean came into the marsh breaking down the dunes. This is when the ship appeared! Lenny found out a bit about it. The ship carried coal and wood to Island Lumber a long time ago. Today I got to be the archeologist!  With the metal detector, I dug and found a big pipe, fence post, counter weight, and a cube of metal. I had a lot of fun.

Come to walks every weekday beginning at 10am and check out the beach and wildlife.

Guided Nature Walks at the UMass Field Station

180 Polpis Rd.

Monday – Friday

10 AM - other times by appointment

Free and open to the public

(508) 228-5268