The 2017-2018 SSCC season opens on September 7 with guest speaker Irene Hinke-Sacilotto presenting “A Visual Journey into Brazil’s Pantanal”.
Irene Hinke-Sacilotto
The Pantanal is the world’s largest seasonally flooded inland tropical wetland. Ten times the size of the Everglades, the Pantanal is a mosaic of habitats with distinctive wet and dry seasons. During the wet season, November through March, 80 percent is submerged under 40 to 55 inches of rainfall. 
Deposited sediments bring life to a dazzling spectrum of plants and animals, including some of the rarest on earth: the jaguar, marsh deer, giant river otter, hyacinth macaw, great curassow, maned wolf, giant anteater, South American tapir, and yacare caiman. They share this ecosystem with howler monkeys, capybara, toucans, parrots, iguanas, armadillos, and thousands of others.
Irene has visited the Pantanal twice at the start of the dry season when the waters recede causing streams and lagoons to shrink, and animals become more concentrated as they compete for food. Her presentation will be a visual journey into this extraordinary
eco-system, focusing on its wildlife, photographic opportunities, and challenges encountered along the way.
Irene shares her photographic experiences and love of nature through photo classes, workshops, lectures, and tours in the U.S. and abroad. Sponsors have included zoos, nature centers, camera clubs, and conservation organizations like National Wildlife Federation. She has taught photography at Johns Hopkins University and has written “how to” articles for national publications such as Outdoor Photographer and Birding. Her images have appeared in magazines, calendars, and books published by Natural History Society, National Geographic, Audubon, and Sierra Club. Her book, “Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, an Ecological Treasure,” is sold in bookstores nationwide.
Website: http://loreleistudios.com
Irene’s Osprey Photo Workshops and Tours website
Bosque Wildlife, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
Irene is co-leading a trip to see wildlife at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge between November 27 – December 1, 2017. Along the Rio Grande River, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge covers more than 57,000 acres and is a major wintering ground for cranes and waterfowl.
In late November and early December, large flocks of snow geese and sandhill cranes will be present on the refuge. (read more)