President's Letter, September 2022

It's an exciting time of the year – summer is ending and as fall approaches, kids are back in school and business people are back from vacation.

We have a lot to look forward with as we approach September! Our in-person meetings will alternate between the Tampa Garden Club on Bayshore Boulevard and the County's Extension Office in Seffner. We hope that this way, Tampa members who have been reluctant to travel to Seffner will join us at the Garden Club, AND members who have enjoyed meeting at the Extension Office will participate as well. We are hoping, in effect, to "have our cake and eat it too!"


Our first meeting – Thursday, September 1, will be at the Tampa Garden Club. The Photo Club will meet at 6 pm for an hour, followed by our meeting. We will start the Membership Meeting at 7 pm with short announcements. 


We have two speakers, Kelly Holland and Kim Tapley, who will share their topic, "Wetlands Protection in Hillsborough County – the role of the Environmental Protection Commission." We will learn why it is so important to protect our local wetlands, what the commission does regulatory-wise to accomplish this, and what we can do in our own neighborhoods.


We love our field trips. Mic McCarty, Mary Keith and the Board of Tampa Audubon have been working on a schedule for the whole fall-winter-spring season. You can see what's in the works so far at https://www.tampaaudubon.org/field-trips. Our field trip "team" will likely add trips as the year progresses!


In September, the trip to Lettuce Lake Nature Park is an easy walk for birders of all abilities. Then, we explore the Triple Creek Nature Preserve in Riverview. This property is nearly 1,000 acres of wildlife corridor with the creek, bottomland wetlands, longleaf pine restoration areas, and upland habitats. We'll also visit Saddle Creek Nature Preserve in Lakeland, well-known for migrating songbirds.


Tampa Audubon has a lot going on! Other groups are offering great opportunities too – check out the Florida Ornithological Society's Fall Meeting in Ft. Lauderdale https://www.fosbirds.org/meetings.html , Audubon Florida's Assembly in Ft. Myers https://fl.audubon.org/about-us/audubon-assembly , and the Florida Birding and Nature Festival https://www.floridabirdingandnaturefestival.org/. The festival is centered at Apollo Beach with field trips to all six counties in our region: our county, plus Polk, Pasco, Pinellas, Manatee, and Sarasota! What a celebration of birds and habitat for our part of the world!


Please join us! It's gonna be a great year! Ann Paul, President

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