June 23: Schodak Island

So today we went to Schodak Island. Our adventure for the day was to connect with nature. We started out our day like normal, we met in Hart 206, which we haven't done since week 3, and we read blogs. I didn't read mine though; soon I will. After the blogs were read, we ventured off. Schodak Island is a little south of Albany. Upon our arrival we ran into a lady that was already there and she told us to take a look down the path; there was a turtle there. This is the turtle in the picture below. When Toby realized that it was not a snapping turtle, he picked it up. almost immediately, the turtle retracted into its shell and peed down Toby's leg. We learned that this is a defense mechanism. The turtle was scared. The girls wanted Toby to put the turtle into the water, but he put it back where he found it. We find out later that this was a good decision.

Scared Little Turtle

 We then went back down to the river and stood on the dock. We got a brief lecture from Toby about the river. The early Native Americans called it the river that flows two ways. This is because it is a tidal estuary. during low tide, the tidal influence of the water is stronger that the current. We saw this when a stick was flowing upstream rather than down stream. When the tide starts to come back in, the water will again flow downstream. The picture below shows a cement plant near Coeyman. This plant is the largest mercury pollutant in New York state.  The cement plant burns coal which emits Mercury. Bacteria then convert the Mercury into methyl mercury. Methyl mercury gets absorbed into the plants which the fish eat. Humans then eat this fish. This process is called bio-accumulation. It is also the reason that there are warning signs about how much fish someone should eat. It can be fatal in areas where people depend on fish to survive. I find it frustrating that regulators are more worried about how much money it costs to rid of the mercury than the damage the mercury does to the ecosystem.

Cement Plant

 After we got our lecture we were able to walk around for about twenty minutes. Me, Michelle and Krista decided to go check on the turtle. We ran into it laying eggs. At the time we weren't sure what it was doing, but Toby cleared it up for us.

Same Little Turtle Laying Eggs

After our short adventure, we walked along a trail to go fishing in a creek connected to the river. Unfortunately I have no pictures for this, though because I was in the water. One by one everyone, except for two people, got into the water. When I jumped in, I sank about 8 inches into the mud. My poor sneaker probably hate me. Kassiana and Katie had the best reaction though, when they screamed bloody murder, and Kassiana jumped into my arms. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. We are encouraged to try new things, and this was definitely new. Today was a nice relaxing, and a lot of fun. Until tomorrow...