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St. Marks NWR Lighthouse Relighting Ceremony.

The relighting of the Historic St. Marks Lighthouse with its newly installed lantern was celebrated on October 31, 2019,coinciding with the 88th anniversary of the creation of the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.

While volunteers interpreted the Lighthouse Keepers’ Quarters for visitors, the Refuge staff, volunteers, and Friends of St. Marks Wildlife Refuge prepared for the ceremony with an eye on the radar. A narrow squall line approaching from the west delivered a quick drenching rain and then colorful clouds as the sky cleared and the festivities continued on schedule.
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Planning for Milky Way photography

Capturing good pictures of the Milky Way in Florida can be quite a challenge. Rain, clouds, fog, insects, and bright moonlight are a part of life here. Did I mention snakes? Alligators? Lighthouse ghosts? “Area X”?

This year I had made several attempts to frame good shots with the bright galactic core near terrestrial objects, without much success. As the season progresses the Milky Way gradually moves to the west and the galactic core moves to the south. With the passing of the autumnal equinox in September, it looked like I would not get good images this year.
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Beautiful Marsh Grasses

This year for National Public Lands day I did a photo shoot along St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge road 129 which is the levee separating Stoney Bayou 1 from Mounds pool 1. The view from the levee toward Lighthouse Road can be quite beautiful and I was very pleased with the day’s photos.

The marsh grasses at the refuge are particularly attractive this time of year, and a few clouds appeared to add a bit of drama to the scene.

The marshes were so beautiful I went back a few days later with my mountain bike to ride out to East Stoney Bayou pool which has some really great vistas. It is so remote, the lighthouse appears as a white dot in the distance. I think of this area as “the outback.”

Getting there is a bit of a challenge since some levee washouts from Hurricane Michael still remain, and a fallen tree blocks the alternate access from the primitive walking trail. Access is still possible on foot, horse, or with a sturdy bicycle.

If you can get there, it is well worth the journey!

These are my favorite images from the two visits:

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The lighthouse and Milky Way at moonrise.

When I photograph the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge lighthouse and the Milky Way I try to avoid using electronic flash or “light painting” with a flashlight to make the lighthouse and trees more visible.

I used a flashlight in my early Milky Way photos but once during post-processing I noticed there was an owl atop of the lighthouse and decided to quit using artificial lights at night. The last thing I want to do is blind or disturb the wildlife.

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The hurricane, mountain bike, and flamingo

I was fortunate enough to be the first person to see and photograph a wild American Flamingo at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge on October 31, 2018. This was the first verified sighting of a flamingo at the St. Marks Refuge since 1995.

It was by serendipity, that a hurricane, a mountain bike, and a flamingo combined to enable this sighting. By happy coincidence, it was on the anniversary of the establishment of the Refuge (Halloween 1931)!
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Grand reveal of the renovated St. Marks Lighthouse

St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge celebrated Florida Lighthouse day on Saturday April 6, 2019, at the historic St. Marks Lighthouse.

Refuge staff and volunteers provided guided tours and interpretive displays, while the Friends of St. Marks Wildlife Refuge treated visitors to information, lemonade, and cookies.

Despite overcast and foggy conditions, there was a great turnout of over 300 visitors! These included a 4H youth group who capped a day of refuge activities with their own tour of the Lighthouse.
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The Galápagos Tapes

My new YouTube channel features 8mm video tapes recorded by Jim Young during the years we lived at the Charles Darwin Research Station on the Galápagos Islands in the early 1990s.

This turbulent period saw the rise of an unregulated sea cucumber (pepino de mar) fishery with illegal encampments in Galápagos National Park.

Ecuadorian and international response to these events spurred the Galápagos Marine Reserve declaration of 1998, which expanded the protected area and intensified management therein.

This historic footage was used in the BBC videos
“Galapagos: Paradise in Peril” and
“Lonesome George and the battle for Galapagos”

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