Message from the President...

Happy Autumn, Friends!

I don’t know about y'all, but this is my favorite time of year! While Lowcountry weather might not cool off for a bit, there’s still something we can feel shifting in the world around us. We can see it in our migrating birds passing through from above, our marsh grass slowly shifting to a less brilliant green from below and the air in between everything gets a *hint* of that fall crisp. With our natural world preparing for the slower winter season, it’s a good time for us to reflect on the year so far.

As always, we’ve been busy naturalists over the summer! We welcomed Ben Clock, a documentarian who shared his film “Scarlet Sky and Blue Blood” with us in June at the Sewee Center. The film explored the plight of Red Knots and Horseshoe Crabs, whose stories highlight the imminent need for conservation action. His film should soon be available online, and we highly recommend watching once it is!

Ben Clock presenting his documentary Scarlet Sky and Blue Blood

Our Vice President, Colin Hocking, took CMNA and Charleston County Park’s Alligator Ambassador Program for a road trip to Huger, SC, where he educated community residents all about alligators and how to best respect them.

Our Events Chair, Nicki Turano, lined up some great Think and Drink events over the summer, including learning more about The Hope Summit, “The Alien Worlds Around Us” (aka the microscopic world we don’t always see!), a deep dive into paleontology in the Lowcountry and a look into how we can advance science as citizen scientists.

A microscopic “alien” from our Walk and Talk with Dave Eslinger about the microscopic world we don’t always get to see.

After these events, our members were able to see some “aliens” at Caw Caw using their microscopes, search for fossils on the beach, took a nature ramble to log observations from Roxbury Park and a bonus Walk and Talk where members helped beach visitors learn to respect the space dolphins need while strand feeding with the Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network. We hope our members were able to attend The Hope Summit this year to learn more about our relationship to water and how we as a community are working to protect our waterways.

Looking ahead, stay on the lookout for our continued Think and Drink/Walk and Talk Series, upcoming photography programs, “The Big Sit” event—which is a nationwide accessible birding event that will occur locally with Charleston County Parks— and so much more. Be sure to check out our website’s calendar and your inbox for more information. If you attend an event, be sure to write a short article about your experience for us to share on the website!

Thank you all for everything you do and I’m looking forward to a great fall season as a naturalist!