I joined Pierce's Grade 4 class for a terrific field trip to a Hudson River estuary at the nearby Liberty State Park. Along with two interpretative guides, from the Liberty State Interpretative Center Estuary Explorer program, the students took turns gathering or seining fish, shrimp and crabs in nets most of which were returned to the water- a few hardier fish were brought back to the interpretative center. It was a beautiful day with the Statue of Liberty in the background. The highlight was a live female horseshoe crab, a living fossil, who was quite determined to hang onto her clam lunch. We've been interested in horseshoe crabs since watching the fascinating PBS Nature documentary, Crash, and Pierce has a horseshoe crab in his unusual plush collection. Click on the pix to enlarge.
