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Wildlife Wednesdays are back.  All programs are Wednesday evenings at 7:00pm at Kettle Pond Visitor’s Center (click for Google Maps).  Admission is free but a donation to the Friends will be gratefully accepted.

June 17th: “Seals of Narragansett Bay,” with Dr. Bob Kenney, a marine mammal biologist from the URI Graduate School of Oceanography. He will be talking about the harbor seals that are resident in Narragansett Bay from September to May and where to see them, about the other three species of seals that might be encountered, and about how to observe seals without disturbing them.

June 24th: “Around the World Single-Handed: The Cruise of the Islander,” with Bill Wright. Bill is the nephew of Harry Pidgeon, the first person to sail alone around the world twice. Bill will be showing pictures from his uncle’s voyages in the 1920s and 1930s.

July 1st: “Restoring Maritime Habitats for Wildlife,” with Suzanne Paton, a biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. She will be telling us about efforts to restore salt marsh and shrub habitats in our National Wildlife Refuges to benefit species like the salt marsh sharp-tailed sparrow and New England cottontail.

July 8th: “Bats,” with Dr. Peter August, the director of the Coastal Institute on Narragansett Bay and a professor in the URI Dept. of Natural Resources Science. He will tell us everything we ever wanted to know about these mysterious creatures of the night.

July 15th: “Rhode Island Seashores,” with George Klein, a marine biologist and marine educator with a special talent for talking with kids. His hands-on presentation will introduce us to some of the creatures we can find along our shorelines.

July 22nd: “North Atlantic Sea Turtles, with Dr. Malia Schwartz, a sea turtle specialist with the URI Dept. of Fisheries, Animal, and Veterinary Science and Rhode Island Sea Grant. She will introduce us to the species of sea turtles that are found in the North Atlantic and their fascinating biology. She will also talk about local efforts to rescue sea turtles entangled in fishing gear.

July 29th: “Snakes of Rhode Island,” with Dr. Bob Kenney, a volunteer naturalist with the Audubon Society of Rhode Island’s Kimball Wildlife Refuge for more than 20 years. Only a dozen species of snakes live in Rhode Island; he will be showing pictures of all of them and talking about aspects of their biology.

August 5th: “Bizarre Creatures in Narragansett Bay,” with David Beutel, a fisheries specialist with the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council and a former commercial fisherman. He has probably caught just about every kind of fish that you could possibly find in Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound, and has the pictures and stories to prove it.

August 12th: “Sharks Off Southern New England,” with Dr. Kathy Duffy, who works with the Apex Predators Program at the National Marine Fisheries Service laboratory in Narragansett. She will introduce us to some of the different kinds of sharks that can be found right off our own coastline.

August 19th: “Rhode Island’s Butterflies,” with Eugenia Marks from the Audubon Society of Rhode Island and local coordinator of the Rhode Island Butterfly Survey. Butterflies are like living, flying jewels with their brilliantly colored wings. She will be introducing us to the diversity of butterflies we might see in our state.

August 26th: “Basking With Humpbacks: Tracking Threatened Marine Life in New England Waters,” with Todd McLeish, a nature writer and public affairs officer with the URI Communications and News Bureau. His second book about threatened animals is due to be published in August—focusing on marine species like the basking shark, humpback whale, horseshoe crab, harbor porpoise, and leatherback turtle. He will also be signing copies of his new book.

All Wildlife Wednesdays presentations will take place at 7:00 PM at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Kettle Pond Visitor Center, 50 Bend Road, Charlestown, Rhode Island. There is no admission charge, however donations to the Friends will be gratefully accepted. For additional information contact either Bob Kenney (401-783-4369, 401-874-6664, or drbobk@verizon.net) or Janis Nepshinsky (401-364-9124 ext. 28, Janis_Nepshinsky@fws.gov).

Refuge Programs

     Summer’s Advent Walk - Sunday, June 14th from 1:00PM to 3:00PM at Trustom Pond NWR (click for Google Maps), South Kingstown

     Photographer’s Show and Tell - Saturday, June 27th from 10AM to 12:00PM at Sachuest Point NWR (click for Google Maps) in Middletown and Saturday, June 20th from 10:00AM to 12:00PM at Kettle Pond Visitors Center in Charlestown