{"id":7082,"date":"2026-08-08T21:57:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T02:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/?p=7082"},"modified":"2026-08-08T21:57:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T02:57:24","slug":"the-last-fields-of-joy-for-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/the-last-fields-of-joy-for-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Fields of Joy for the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s wander slowly through the fields<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Slowly slowly through the fields<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I touch the leaves that touch the sky<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Just WEL through fields of turtles<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With the summer coming to an end, it is sad to say that we just finished our last field experience for the year. We were able to revisit four of the sites we went to in May. While we didn\u2019t find as many turtles this week, it was wonderful to see how comfortable and proficient our volunteers had become from their first experiences. At this point it felt like they could have taken over and begun teaching a new batch of people themselves!<\/span><\/p>\n

In the instance of finding a turtle, it was awesome to hear volunteers pipe up knowing exactly what the next ID number would be. They were readily identifying turtles as male or female, exclaiming whether they had been previously captured based on the presence of carapace notches, and assisting in the physical examination and sample collection with confidence. The objective data and technical skills seemed easy to them at this point. So this week we asked them to subjectively determine their theoretical name for us, curious with what their wonderful minds would come up with. It was more based on vibes than science, but maybe you can look at the turtles below and agree that their name is befitting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meet \u201cMeredith\u201d, our first turtle f<\/span>ound on one of the field days by the wonderful Dr. Adamovicz. Dr. Adamovicz is one of the co-directors of the lab and has been navigating nature with us, expertly examining turtles, and objectively capturing the most crisp photos of our reptile friends.\u00a0\"Dr.<\/p>\n

Meet \u201cDuncan\u201d and \u201cBradley\u201d , found by Chris, who is about to start his second year of vet school. This was Chris\u2019s second week in the field with us. It was a bit of a bummer for Chris to not stumble upon turtles his first couple of outings, but he persisted and was able to find both of these little ones in the same day! No big deal, just Chris making being an amazing turtle detector look easy (written by someone who didn’t find a single turtle that day).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Maddie, another amazing soon to be second year, decided this polite little lady was a \u201cCharlotte\u201d. Maddie was thrilled to meet her goal of finding a turtle. From venipuncture to hemacytometer counts, she was tremendously helpful and ready to tackle it all.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Maddie<\/p>\n

Grace, one of the instrumental Box Turtle Team Leads who is going into her third year of vet school, might have had the find of the summer. With people sometimes being fairly spread out, it isn\u2019t uncommon to hear \u201cTURTLE\u201d yelled multiple times to gather those needed. However, in Grace\u2019s instance she found two turtles at once! She thought the pair looked like a \u201cTom\u201d and a \u201cJerry\u201d. Classic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Grace<\/p>\n

This shy little guy looked like a \u201cCharlie\u201d to the wonderful Jill, who is also about to start her second year of vet school. Jill didn’t hesitate to explore a little further on the parameters to try and find a turtle and was able to perform a perfect blood draw on one of the last turtles found.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Jill<\/p>\n

Without hesitation this turtle was dubbed \u201cFox\u201d by Abby, another vet student going into their second year. The second turtle she found during the week was undeniably \u201cRock Lee\u201d to Abby. Other than her important finds, Abby had a lot of notable moments over the summer. Her willingness to rescue a friend’s fallen water bottle, as she climbed up one of the steepest ravines of the week, was a lovely and funny moment to witness. Tossing something uphill rarely goes as far as you need it to, but she was ultimately successful in her efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Abby \"Abby<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We were incredibly lucky to have many more volunteers than those mentioned\/pictured here, so a huge shout out to them! It was wonderful to help them learn and watch them grow their skills. Being surrounded by so many brilliant people eager to learn and do what they can to contribute to saving turtles is a special opportunity with the Wildlife Epidemiology Lab. Thank you for being willing to work long days in the heat\/humidity, face the innumerable spiderwebs, and deal with a few days of wet socks for the sake of turtles! Despite conditions not always being easy, we hope you experienced fields of joy when spotting box turtles and are able to join again!\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s wander slowly through the fields Slowly slowly through the fields I touch the leaves that touch the sky Just WEL through fields of turtles   With the summer coming to an end, it is sad to say that we just finished our last field experience for the year. We were able to revisit four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1589,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7090,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7082\/revisions\/7090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}