2011-2012 Meetings

Meetings are conducted on the third Wednesday of the month at the Edgewater Library at the corner of US 1 and Indian River Boulevard. They start at 7:00 p.m. and are open to the general public. You do not have to be a member to attend.

Oct 19, 2011. Our Octobe speaker will be Charlie DuToit, , a recently retired biologist from Tomoka State Park. After retirement from the state, Charlie put together a PowerPoint program titled "The Seasons of the Tomoka Marsh" to share his experiences in this interesting and beautiful natural habitat. It is this program that he will present at our October meeting. Here is his bio.

Nov 16, 2011. Our November speaker will be Chad Druxall, Acting Managing Director and Director of Education at the Marine Discovery Center. Mr. Truxall entitles his talk Plethora of Plankton. Using the Indian River Lagoon as a study point and with slides of microscopic organisms, he will lead us through the fascinating world of marine plankton – the drifters of the sea. His presentation will cover the role of plankton in the marine food chain and will address the concepts of food webs, energy transfer, buoyancy, density and salinity. Here is his bio.

Dec 21, 2011. Our December speaker will be David Hartgrove, Conservation Chair and past President of the Halifax River AS. Mr. Hartgrove will present slides and discussion on Gull and Tern ID. This will provide another perspective and an excellent follow up to our beach field trip with Mike Brothers. Slides “hold still” much better than the birds on the beach. Here is his bio.

Jan 18 2012. Our January speaker will be Dr. Kirsten Work, Associate Professor at Stetson University. Dr. Work has been an aquatic biologist at Stetson University for the eleven years. She received her initial aquatic training on Wisconsin and Alaskan zooplankton and fish at the Universities of Wisconsin and Washington. Here is her bio.

Feb 15, 2012. Our February speaker will be Ms. Gina Holt, a raptor rehabilitator and environmental educator. She has been involved in bird rescue and rehabilitation for ten years and providing environmental education classes with live birds for five.

Gina will be bringing her birds with her. They are Katie, an American Kestrel, Mr. Frodo, an Eastern Screech Owl, and Tomahawk, a Red-shouldered Hawk. She will introduce them and tell their individual stories. She then will also discuss raptors in their natural environment. She says she has a very informal approach and hopes for a lot of questions and answers. This is a program designed for adults but because of the birds should be a treat for all ages.

To learn more about her and her company check out http://www.wildaboutbirds.org .

Come and bring your friends and their kids. Free cookies!

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2010-2011 Meetings

Oct 20, 2010. Our October speaker will be Lisa Roberts, Executive Director of the Florida Wildflower Foundation. Lisa moved to Florida when she was four years old and grew up in the Orlando area. She attended UCF and received her Bachelor Degree in Journalism from that school. She is a certified Florida Master Naturalist and enjoys kayaking, hiking, oil painting and gardening with native plants and wildflowers. For more information, click here.

Nov 17, 2010. Our November speaker will be Dr. Terence Farrell of Stetson University in Deland. Dr. Farrell was born in Morristown, New Jersey, and grew up there. Catching ringneck snakes and redback salamanders in his backyard obviously planted the seeds for his subsequent career choice. The title of his talk will be Herpetology for the Ornithologist. For more information, click here.

Dec 15, 2010. Our speaker for December will be Bob Montanaro. This will be Bob’s second presentation to our club. Three years ago Bob presented a photographic story of a pair of Osprey who nested at the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge. The pictures were beautiful and expressive and the story compelling, but, sadly, the nesting failed. This year’s presentation is of two nesting pair and has a much more satisfactory result. For more information, click here.

Jan 19, 2011. Our January speaker will be Dr. Kirsten Work, Associate Professor at Stetson University. Dr. Work has been an aquatic biologist at Stetson University for the ten years. She received her initial aquatic training on Wisconsin and Alaskan zooplankton and fish at the Universities of Wisconsin and Washington. Read more of her bio here.

Feb 16, 2011. Our February speaker will be Mr. Ed Garland, a Communications Specialist with the St. Johns River Water Management District. Ed will be speaking about the District’s role in planning for future water supply needs and how people can do their part to protect this precious resource. Read more here.

Mar 16, 2011. Our speaker for March will be Mr. Tad Fyock, a bird sculptor / photographer, who now makes his home on Bethune Beach. He has won numerous awards for his pieces at art shows throughout Florida and also exhibits in two of our local shows. His work is in collections throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Read more here.

Apr 20, 2011. The April 20 meeting will be our annual potluck dinner at 5:30 PM in the Maynard May Park. At that time, elections will be held. All officers currently serving have agreed to stay on. We are, however, in need of a vice president and a conservation chair. Anyone interested in serving in these capacities is urged to contact Don Picard or any other officer.

2009-2010 Meetings

Sep 16, 2009. Club president, Don Picard, will present a report on Birds and Climate Change developed by National Audubon after reviewing the results of 100 years’ of Christmas Bird Counts. Of 305 species studied, 177 of them shifted their southward migrations and stopped short of their traditional wintering grounds. In fact, 60 species stopped at least 100 miles north. Find out what is going on and what it means.

Oct 21, 2009. The state and nationally acclaimed environmental writer, Ms Dinah Pulver of the Daytona Beach News-Journal. She will give us a State of our Water report. Check out her bio.

Nov 18, 2009. Dr. Fred Mosher of Embry-Riddle University speaking on Global Warming, a subject important to all of us who live in the world but particularly us denizens of the lowlands of Central Florida.

Dec 16, 2009. Mr. Gary Knight, or one of his staff, from the Florida Natural Areas Inventory will give us a State of our Land Report. FNAI’s website is www.fnai.org should you wish to do a bit of homework before the meeting.

Jan 20, 2010. Mr. Michael Brothers, Director of the Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet, will discuss the Natural History of East Central Florida.

Feb 17, 2010. Dr. Michael Reiter, Associate Professor at Bethune-Cookman University, will finalize our State of our Area series with a discussion on Global Warming and What we Can Do About It.

Mar 17, 2010. Dr. Debra Woodall, Associate Professor at Daytona State College. Dr. Woodall will address The Effect of Global Warming on our Oceans and Ocean Systems.