2016 Monarch Butterfly Festival at St. Marks NWR

The Monarch Butterfly Festival is held every year on the 4th Saturday of October. The festival is always enjoyable with many exhibits, vendors, and educational activities for the whole family.

The mission of the St. Marks NWR Monarch butterfly festival is “Create awareness and action to conserve habitat for pollinators, especially the Monarch Butterfly”

One of the great joys of attending the festival is to see the excitement of children as they visit the Monarch tagging table.  At the tagging station  visitors of all ages can watch a  biologist demonstrate the tagging procedure. Visitors have the opportunity to touch a Monarch under the supervision of the biologist.

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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.