Alonso Abugattas,
The Capital Naturalist
Alonso Abugattas is a well-known metropolitan DC naturalist, environmental educator, and storyteller while earning a real living as the Natural Resources Manager for Arlington County Parks, VA. He has been trained as a master gardener and was instrumental in helping to start and subsequently teach for two Virginia Master Naturalist chapters in Northern Virginia. He is a co-founder of the Washington Area Butterfly Club, held several offices, including president, for the Potowmack Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society, and authored a book on The Reptiles and Amphibians of the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area. Most outstanding is his personal blog and Facebook group, "Capital Naturalist," both of which contain an immense amount of natural history information. He has won many awards for his natural history knowledge and skills and is an all-around great guy!
His Zoom presentation will review our local reptiles and amphibians and some interesting facts about them. Such as
the Northern Rough Greensnake, a wonderful invertebrate predator which is active during the day and sleeps in trees and shrubs at night.
Or the quite common Eastern Ratsnake, which is probably seen more than any other Virginia snake, and among the most docile of our snakes but also probably eats more bird eggs than any other.
Or the wide variety of turtles we often see sunning themselves on logs in ponds.
Or the amazing Cope’s Gray Treefrog that elevates glucose production in its blood in winter which acts like antifreeze and allows it to survive at below freezing temperatures for up to a week.
There will be a Board meeting at 1:00 pm, a member General Meeting at 6:00 pm and the Public Zoom Program at 7:00 pm. All meetings are open to all members.
Free and open to the public
RSVP to nnmnpresident@gmail.com to receive zoom link information the day before the event.
Sunning Turtles, photo by Kevin Howe