Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Joe The Squid by Clyde K.

            Hello, my name is Joe and I’m a squid who lives in a tank at the Field Station, bored out of my mind. Let me tell you my story:

            I used to live in a creek, swimming peacefully and going wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I lived like that for years until a messenger shrimp started knocking on my Eelgrass apartment door. Uh-oh, I thought when I saw the shrimp’s scrawny little turned-out face. It was Bob, the emergency messenger, the guy who mailed the important stuff.

            It was a warning that The Wild Leonard had reunited with the Wild Junior Rangers! Luckily, we had already had our armies set up: the Moon Jellies that could sting, the pinching crabs, the biting Deerflies and Mosquitos, we thought we were set. BIG mistake. When the Deerflies bit, the Wild Leonard stuck them to the Hat Of Death! Mosquitos, bug spray. Moon Jellies, simply avoid them (they don’t move so great). Crabs, shoes. 

            The Wild Leonard and his Wild Junior Rangers stuck, sprayed, and dodged their way over to the creek. The first one there was a Wild Junior Ranger who looked very sure of himself. At this point, I tried to hide, but he saw me first. “Hey, Lenny,” said the Wild Junior Ranger, “I want to catch that squid!”. “Sure, Raymond”, said the Wild Leonard, who had just caught up. “Go catch some squid.*Hissss*”.
 


            To be continued (Dun dun dun…)



So, back to how I ended up in this dump of a tank; I was running away from a psychopath of a Wild Junior Ranger called (sly) Raymond(o),who was gripping a fiendish extraction device called a “net”. All of the fish neighboring my apartment were all safe inside their homes of seaweed and looking at me like, Sorry, dude. You’re on your own!


            Meanwhile, the Wild Leonard and his Wild Junior Rangers were launching their plans about how they would catch me, which I didn’t notice until later. “Use poison,” a Wild Junior Ranger called Captain Mollard said.  “No, no you fools!”, said the Wild Leonard. “the Evil Antibiologist Sarah wants the beast alive! I sure hope you like to seine.”.


            As I swam for my life, I tried to lose Sly Raymondo by making the giant of a boy fall down. I weaved and zig-zagged around until Sly Raymondo slipped and fell flat on his face! I didn’t waste my chance. I scurried up and inked him!
“AAH! MY EYEEEEEEES!” , he said as the ink stung his face, dying it black. As I chuckled to myself, feeling rather clever, Captain Mollard and Leland the Vicious jumped out from behind the Island ‘o’ Death (a sandbar) and started lumbering after me. Hmm, they’re moving pretty slowly, I thought as I darted away, and they are splashing a ton. I realized that it was a trap one moment too late. Just before I fell in the seining net, I vaguely saw the Wild Leonard and his minion Wild Junior Ranger ‘o’Ryan Orion.


            Then, I (along with a few Silversides) got pulled onto the beach where the Wild Leonard and his Wild Junior Rangers observed me cruelly until I blacked out and woke up in the horrid tank I told you about. So, yippee for me and my grand old life.



                                         THE END

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Marsh Walk and Ripe Blackberries


Kendrick St. Blues a great way to start the day.


It's Blackberry time!


Clyde,Joey, And Raymond.


The Mollard.





Field Station Nature Walk- Future by Clyde K.




Hello, welcome to the UMASS Field Station. Here we have 943,023,471 square ricinths (5.453 square miles, 46.874 square werts, 671,209,675,391,039,472,340 cube inchletmini10s) of conserved land. To the right we have Red Cedar, used to make tea, gin and bandcop. Also, growing on it is eraperash ivy, evolving from the rare and elusive poison ivy. Eraperash ivy senses heat, and if a living thing touches it, it’ll wrap around the living thing and give it an excruciatingly itchy rash that can be fatal if itched too much. Also, it never intends to let go. It had a cousin called Virginia Creeper, but that went extinct. Up here, we have a troublesome plant called Fox Grapes because the first person who looked at it thought its leaves looked like a fox head. It is troublesome because it would’ve outgrown everything here if we hadn’t fenced it off. I will resume your private tour later, in which you will learn about the Wild Leonard, a hostile humanoid creature.     

 Alright, step right up if you want to continue your tour
so I can finally tell you about the rare Wild Leonard. The Wild Leonard is an extraordinary creature that can be seen running around, drooling and hissing uncontrollably around the property, capturing Wild Junior Rangers. It does this by whacking the Wild Junior Ranger upside the head and then bringing it back to its cave, where the Wild Leonard robs the Wild Junior of its Reese’s Creme Pie and Italian Ice.

Then, the Wild Leonard goes off to look for more Wild Junior Rangers after devouring the pie. We think that the Wild Leonard used to be a guy called Lenny. Apparently, Lenny used to be in charge of the Wild Junior Rangers. Supposedly, the Wild Junior Rangers stole his Reese’s Creme Pie and he was so annoyed, he went crazy and turned into the Wild Leonard.

Also, around here you will find the carnivorous Goatium (its favorite food is goats) evolving from Codium. It can grow up to 34 tets or 4 feet long. Also, we have Cobragrass (it looks like a Cobra) which evolves from Eelgrass. It’s so big, it can eat a Bluefish whole!

We will finish your tour here after lunch. 

             




Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Wednesday and Thursday in Pictures


The Jewel Weed is in bloom


Sweet Pepper Bush too.


The Wednesday crew goes on a nature walk



Dr, Boyle's students from UMass Boston at work in the lab.


Marsh Wren



Jr Ranger checklist by Flano

What you need to bring to the field station
A Smile- A smile goes a long way
A good attitude- only show up if you want to not because you are forced
Water- This is a necessity, you are going to spend five hours there
Towel- It is always good to have, otherwise you will freeze after getting out of the water
Bathing Suit- Wear it to the field station, you never know when you are going to get wet
Lunch- Something big enough to hold you off till one
Water shoes- Because we go to the marsh, the beach and go in kayaks
Notebook- To write stuff down and for beautiful drawings
Writing utensil- Pen or pencil, pens are better because no need to sharpen
Closed shoes- For if you have to do work or go in the lab

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Monday Avacado and Seeweed trained our newest Jr. Rangers


Seeweed, Mack, Claire, and Avacado on a plant ID walk,


Gathering shells from the beach 



Correct ID wins you a Jr. Ranger patch


Ditto


Mack


Claire


Monday, August 4, 2014

Why You Bugging? by Len



Sit down to sketch
That which is framed
By the mood you’re 
In

Around the shoreline
Manmade pond
Walk

A moment or two before sunrise
Avian murmur aligns with the spinning hum of the
Almost syncopated not quite rock and roll
Dance

The morning light reveals flags unfurled
Hundreds of spider webs dappled
Dew and insect
Sing

Box on a pole
With a hole
At water’s edge

Babies stuffed like Cannoli  
Beaks smearcaked with bug bits
Sprinkle

By midmorning all but one will fledge
Out of the frying pan and
So it goes

Blue and white
A tree sparrow
Wings its way straight at you

Duck
A Cormorant
Great and Snowy Egrets perched

Circles in the sand
At water’s edge
Blue Gills nesting
Deer Fly

Swat