The meeting didn't start as well as we'd have liked. The speaker didn't show up, so we proceeded with the business part of the meeting (going over some changes to the bylaws) at the Cusano Environmental Education Center, and then... still no speaker.
The Refuge is familiar territory for a lot of us, though, so we launched out on a route around the top of the Impoundment.
Plenty of turtles were out basking. We got to see a really nice redbelly (Pseudemys rubriventris) and a bunch of painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) and some of the non-native red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta).
Back at the Environmental Education Center we found a tiny treat in the pond they have in the middle of the building - baby painted turtles basking in a weedy section of the pond.
I want to thank Gary Stolz, the Refuge Director, for arranging our use of the facility, and everyone who attended for making it such a good time.
We'll be taking a break for the summer and won't be meeting again until September, most likely the last Friday the 25th, when we'll be treated to a talk on envenomation by none other than Scott! Scott, my erstwhile herping buddy, is an emergency medicine physician and has combined his specialty with his love of snakes in an expertise of the effects of venomous snakebite and how to treat it.
