October 2015 – James Leon Young

October 28, 2015January 25, 2016

2015 Monarch Butterfly Festival at St. Marks NWR

This year’s Monarch Butterfly Festival was a great success!

The Monarchs showed up just in time and there was good food, great exhibits, and the popular monarch tagging table.

We’ll start with some images of the monarch tagging and as time permits I will add more images to this post.

Monarch Butterfly Tagging:

Exhibits, Tours, and other events:

I’ll be posting more images soon!

Jim

October 22, 2015October 26, 2015

Photo Journal St. Marks NWR 10/21/2015. Monarchs and Flowers

It is only a few days until the 27th annual St. Marks NWR Monarch Butterfly Festival and the Monarchs are showing up according to schedule.

This journal entry features mating Monarchs on the Lighthouse Levee Trail and a photo of White Peacock butterflies mating.

Also included is is a photo of the head and wing from a Coot I found next to the lighthouse. Coot body parts are rather common this time of year since the bald eagles love coots and often eat them while sitting on top of the lighthouse.

Some children actually use the head as a finger puppet….. OK, you really didn’t want to hear that part.

In any case, I hope you enjoy these photographs and that you can come down to the St. Marks for the Monarch Butterfly Festival this Saturday October 24th, 2015.

October 15, 2015October 15, 2015

Photo Journal St. Marks NWR 10/11/2014

October 11 was a busy day at the St Marks National Wildlife Refuge. It was the first day of National Wildlife Refuge week and no admission fee was required.

The “Big Sit” bird count was taking place at the Lighthouse observation deck so there were quite a few birders and photographers around.

I started my day’s photo journal with a photo of two kayaks taken from Ranger John’s bench. Since the wildflowers were in bloom with pollinators everywhere I decided to spend much of my time on the levee trails. Continue reading “Photo Journal St. Marks NWR 10/11/2014”