Potomac - Stratford Hall 2/18/17

[RCW3D]

A 70 degree in February? You just have to head to the water! I played tour guide to a friend and his two boys (5th & 7th grade), they had a blast! My friend's kids kept seeing my posts on Facebook and wanted to go bad, I definitely had to make a trip happen. We arrived about 2 hours before low tide and immediately started to find teeth, it didn't take long for them to understand the whole process before they were setting out on their own to sift the areas they thought was going to have the best finds...and boy did they find stuff! Tigers, Requiem, Snaggletooth, Lemon, and some Sand tigers...and then I heard a cry, "I've got one with lots of teeth!" Their first trip and they pulled up a Cow shark tooth...and then a second one as well! A group of Boy Scouts came to the beach for a little while and I encouraged them to se the sifters that we weren't using and they were soon finding teeth as well, eagerly bringing them to me so I could identify it for them. One of the Boy Scouts let out a yell, "I found a Great White...or a Meg, I don't know which?" Sure enough, he found a small Meg up near the high water mark, that kid was smiling ear-to-ear...and I don't blame him. One of the Stratford Hall workers came down to the beach and headed past the ropes to check something out, when he came back he walked over to the boys and presented them with a real nice shark vertebrae. A little while later he was back past the ropes and came back 30 minutes later and gave the boys a piece of a whale (dolphin?) skull. My friend's kids were on cloud nine! Then they got another gift from a college student that was combing the beach, a fossilized crab. I never would have known but he pointed out everything to kids and I, absolutely fascinating! As we were leaving, they found a pretty large bone as well, both boys were overjoyed at finding it too!

 

I have to say, if you can take a kid with you and introduce them to this hobby, DO IT! These boys loved every minute of it and learn as they do!

I would love to present some nice pictures of our finds but I didn't bring anything back, I just guided and helped them where I could. My wife surface collected, she found a neat fish vert but everything else was the normal small stuff.

My wife's finds.

 

The boy's finds

 

  

Me and the boys, sifting away!

 

[ynot]

Always nice to see the entusiazum of young collectors!

Thanks for sharing.

Tony

[Boneheadz]

Sounds like an awesome day! It only takes a day like that to get a kid hooked. You gotta watch those Boy Scouts sometimes though, I've had there parents plant stuff and act like they found it to get the kids more interested. Not saying thats what happened here just I've had them do it to me. 

[Darktooth]

Looks like you had a blast! Congratulations on recruiting  some future paleontologists!

[RCW3D]

7 hours ago, Boneheadz said:

Sounds like an awesome day! It only takes a day like that to get a kid hooked. You gotta watch those Boy Scouts sometimes though, I've had there parents plant stuff and act like they found it to get the kids more interested. Not saying thats what happened here just I've had them do it to me. 

It was legit, the only adults in this area was my group, the Scout Master stayed at the entrance to the beach.