Sherman Hoffman Audubon

Once again Sedge Island NREC welcomed the Sherman Hoffman Audubon Island Explorers Campers.






On our first full day we got up at 5:30 to see the beautiful rising sun, and welcome a beautiful day. We were out of the Sedge house by 7am and out in the bay by 8am. Daryn caught a blue fish that morning and Brett assisted her in filleting it after the paddle. We clammed over the US Army Corps of Engineers Dike at the Barnegat Inlet and discussed the ferocity of Mother Nature. On our way back we poked through chordgrass stalking and catching fiddler crabs, and later on that day Brett found out that Terrapins do hurt when they bite!



The group helped in Sedge Island’s clam research project by cleaning our clam bags to allow for good water flow though the bags and counted the dead clams in each bags as well as sea stars. We recorded our data, and later helped separate 2000 clams for researchers to “plant” in Sedge Island’s clam lease.


The groupp witnessed the Mosquito Commission come test the water twice and come back later to spray for the larvae on the back of the island. The group discussed, interpreted and then demonstrated "The Balance of Nature" where everyone participated to work together to not tilt the giant teeter totter.

We clammed in the back of the house and seined for different specimens. Wednesday night the students started working on their field guides choosing from one species they had seen on their island experience.


Thursday was a HUGE day for the students as well as Sedge Island Staff and Camp leaders. There were 3 major research projects conducting research on Sedge Island. John Wnek, who is working on his doctorate at Drexel, had researchers tagging terrapins, doing nest surveys and taking blood samples for DNA. Dr. Gustavo from the shellfish commission was out with a few researchers and planted the clams that we had helped sort and count for him earlier in the day. For many the most exciting visitor to the island was Tom Virzi who is working on his Doctorate at Rutgers University on American oystercatchers. Tom was out on the marsh banding Osprey al week and as a group we were able to paddle out to a nest and see firsthand the banding of a 3-week-old osprey!


Later on that day we paddled through the mosquito ditches and got a close up view of the peregrine falcon and the 2 chicks flying off the hacking tower and chasing birds. We headed to the Bahamas and were clamming on a sandbar when thick fog rolled in. Still in view of the Sedge House we decided to head back and abandon our hopes of Bahamas Bliss.






On Friday we welcomed the parents for our own special show and tell. Parents rotated around 6 different stations including kayaking skills, crabbing and clamming, seining and species identification, water quality and weather monitoring, bird watching with the spotting scopes and terrapin tagging.



The group did a phenomenal job with their presentations and everyone was very impressed and proud of the students.

It was a pleasure to have the Audubon Campers and we look forward to many more years of working together.

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