Canoe Trip, Central Jersey Sierra Club, Hamilton-Trenton Marsh, 609-688-0282. Canoe and kayak trip through the Marsh led by Mary Leck. Trip will last about four hours depending on tides. By reservation. Saturday, October 19, 11:45 a.m.
Fall Colors and Birds, Stony Brook Millstone Watershed, 609-737-7592. Mary Leck leads field trip and guided fall walk. Preregister. Saturday, November 16, 9:30 a.m.
Winter Walk, Washington Crossing Audubon Society, 609-730-8200. Field trip led by Mary Leck. Preregister. Saturday, January 11, 9:30 a.m.
Spring Walk, Washington Crossing Audubon Society, 609-730-8200. Field trip led by Mary Leck. Preregister. Saturday, May 3, 8:30 a.m.
To join the Friends of the Hamilton-Trenton Marsh, a grass-roots initiative to protect the marsh, call the Delaware & Raritan Greenway, 609-924-4646.
Hamilton/Trenton
Marsh
One
of our rich regional resources is the tidal freshwater
wetlands on the Delaware River bordering Hamilton, Trenton and
Bordentown. The
easiest way to get to it is by turning onto Sewell Avenue off
of South Broad Street in Trenton. This dead ends into John A.
Roebling Park. A short drive down the hill brings you to the
wetlands. This quiet backwater, in one of the most populated
areas of Mercer County, supports over 1,000 species of plants
and animals.
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beaver deer raccoons gray
squirrels muskrats woodchucks opossum river
otter brown
snake red
fox chipmunks bullfrogs green
frogs pickerel
frogs tadpoles red-bellied
turtles eastern
painted turtles snapping
turtles red-eared
turtles eels sturgeon bass carp catfish shad yellow
perch alewife dragonfly
nymphs fishing
spider leech midge
larvae water
bugs water
strider predaceous
diving beetle pickerel
weed yellow
pond lily arrowhead duckweed algae bladderwort
– a carnivorous pond plant cat
tails great
blue herons green
herons ring
necked ducks wood
ducks marsh
wrens owls hawks falcons red
winged black birds osprey cormorants monarch
butterflies dragonflies swallowtails cabbage
white oak
trees red
maple sweet
gum dogwood swamp
ash ferns mountain
laurel rhododendron tulip
poplar |
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An
inexpensive guide book, such as the Golden Guide Pond Life
will help you and your class with identifications.
Your
trip need not be expensive. There is no admission fee to the
park. Go as unencumbered as you’d like.
But, depending on your goals, some of the tools you
might bring to enhance your observations could include:
inexpensive
hand lenses
bug
boxes
magnifying
glasses
binoculars
microscope
and slides
dip
nets
insect
nets
clear
bottles – baby food jars are great – for observing small
insects
wide
mouth jars for larger insects and water creatures
a tray or two that will hold a couple of inches of water for observing your pond specimens –
white enamel ones make observation easiest
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sieves
and strainers
seine
net
a
few feet of rope or heavy string to mark off a few
square feet of land to explore the variety of life
hip
boots or waders
tweezers
milk
cartons with the bottoms cut off to use as scoops
Be sure your children bring their journals to record their observations while they are fresh in their mind. Detailed sketches will help hone those observation skills and enhance science practices.
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When
you are done with your collecting please put all of
the plants and animals back where you found them.
Removal of these items from this parkland is
prohibited. |
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Pictures are of
Trenton, Burlington City and Florence teachers
exploring the marsh with the assistance of Dr. Mary
Allessio Leck, Professor of Biology at Rider
University as part of the Teaching Science Matters
teacher professional development program.
