April “Open the House”

Our “Open the House” weekend was a huge success! Family and Friends of Sedge joined six new interns, one new staff person, one old staff person and our Director of Aquatic Education to kick off the 2008 season. Many hands made light work as we cleaned the house, hooked up a rain barrel, got out the kayaks and Jon boat, scrubbed oyster bags and did a variety of other chores. We worked so efficiently that we even had a chance to spend several hours paddling in the marsh.

Eighteen people sat down to dinner Saturday night. Everyone contributed to a huge potluck meal supplemented with some local shellfish. The blue mussels that we had removed from the shellfish bags were a delicious added bonus. Later that evening we decided to go “lightless.” Even though half of the group had never been in the house before, everyone adapted very well to being completely in the dark. Although there was a cold wind blowing most of the night, several people elected to sleep out on the upper deck or on the pontoon boat.

Sunday morning former staff member Tom Virzi guided us on a bird banding expedition to Gull Island. Although we were unsuccessful in banding any American Oyster Catchers, we did get a chance to go ashore and check out eggs in nests of both Oyster Catchers and Black Backed Gulls. It got windier as we returned to Sedge but the storm clouds to our west never reached us. We cleaned up the house, had lunch and made it back to the dock without ever getting wet.

I was very pleased with the performance of the new Sedge Staff. We have a fine group of people who are very willing to help with any task. They kept good notes in their journals and I know their writing will help them to learn more quickly and begin teaching at Sedge this summer. I look forward to working with all of them.

I hope interns and Friends of Sedge who were at the Sedge “Open the House” will read and contribute to this blog.