Message from the President

Hello my friends,

Writing this post is bittersweet because it is my last as your President, a position I'm honored to have been allowed to fill for the last four years. My term expires at the end of January, but I'll still be around, just not as president.  This time of year is frequently used for looking back on accomplishments and memorable moments, something I don't do as often as I should.  I find myself more often looking forward to the next new thing, a behavior which I think means sometimes I don't fully appreciate the organisms, adventures, and people I've encountered in the past.  I'll try to reflect on some of my experiences as President here, but it won't be an exhaustive list, there are just too many!

One of the major events impacting my time in office is, without a doubt, Covid-19.  Does that banner image above bring back memories? As CMNA President, I took office just as the global pandemic took off.  Personally, I was fortunate not to lose any immediate family members to the virus, but I have friends who did.  My condolences to any of you who lost loved ones or friends.  For us, as CMNA officers, a major impact was on how we could safely continue our activities when we were restricted from social interaction.  Frankly, for me, the social aspect of this group is at least as important as the learning and outdoor aspects.  I'm pleased that we found a silver-lining to the cloud social distancing: Think & Drinks!  I know Zoom meetings are not as satisfying as in-person meetings, but, as someone who was alone (family away at school or work deployments), I truly looked forward to and appreciated the online interactions with all of you.  Thank you for making my time in isolation bearable.  I think we've found a pretty good approach now with Think & Drinks and Walk & Talks. I appreciate the relatively consistent timing of them and I've heard from many of you that you do too.

A more recent and more positive event was our inaugural annual (fingers crossed!) bioblitz at Caw Caw with Peter Alden.  That event required a lot of behind the scenes work to get set up (thanks Kristina for leading the push!) but was very successful.  You can read (or reread) Colin's  previously posted account at https://www.coastalmasternaturalists.org/articles/113889-caw-caw-bioblitz-with-world-renowned-naturalist-peter-alden and find a summary of observations and a complete species count at https://www.coastalmasternaturalists.org/articles/136408-caw-caw-bioblitz-2023-results.  I worked a bit with Peter online to help him get comfortable with Zoom and we seemed to get on fairly well.  Then we met in person, and I felt like I was getting together with an old friend who I just hadn't met yet.  I even ended up loaning Peter a pair of boots to use during his trip to SC (he'd packed very light).  In addition, I was able to more fully interact with leaders of other local natural history groups.  I am hopeful that our initial push in reaching out to them will encourage future opportunities for all of us to meet up and adventure out together. All in all, and despite the rain, that bioblitz was a big success and one of the highlights of my tenure.

Some other memorable adventures that come to the top of my mind are our walk and talk at the Tibwin rice impoundments (where I learned an astonishing amount about how much knowledge it takes to manage a wetland properly), our stroll around the old church out in the Francis Marion, chatting with new folks at the Big Sit, and going out with Edsel Taylor, first to the Dorchester site he oversees, then to his property and checking out some of the wood duck boxes out there, the recent nurdle patrol (you can see some photomicrographs of some of the nurdles found here: https://www.coastalmasternaturalists.org/articles/136454-nurdles-up-close), and removing Legustrum sp. from Magnolia Gardens.

Native plants are probably my weakest area as a naturalist, so I particularly enjoyed our trip for springtime orchids back in 2021.  Not surprisingly, I have some pictures, but don't recall the exact names of the below orchid ...

...or which of the sundews this is. If you can provide an ID in the comments, I'd be grateful!

Serving as President also kept me motivated to explore on my own, where I had great discoveries even in my own yard.  I've been trying to find an Eastern Spadefoot Toad for years and finally found this happy fellow in my yard:

If that doesn't look like a happy toad to you, compare it to this Southern Toad, also found in my yard that day:

Definitely NOT a happy toad!

Another yard discovery I'll share is this poor geometrid caterpillar who has been parasitized by a wasp and is now providing piggyback rides to the eggs before thy hatch and consume it.  I think we all learned that nature isn't always kind to everything.

Well, I suppose I'd best wrap this up.  I've way too many fun photos and memories to share from my four years as CMNA President.  I do need to say, however, although the "naturalist" content was tremendous at all these events, it was the actual NATURALISTS with whom I was attending that made all these events special.  Thank you for letting me be your leader for a while and especially thank you for sharing your time and knowledge with me.  I look forward to continuing to do that, but under the capable leadership of our next group of officers.  I know they'll do great!

Gratefully,

Dave