Kudos for the Paddling Project

The homepage of the website of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Refuge System features our Paddling Project. Our refuges are quite a place wonderful for kayaking. Check it out!

 We have another website dedicated just to paddling. Visit Paddle Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys Refuges here.

First Monday Nature Walk Coming Up!

Please join us for our next walk on Monday, March 5 at 10am. This time we will meet at the parking lot at Shell Mound. We will walk out to the boardwalk to look for shore birds, then walk the trail over the mound and into the woods. Please note this is a time change from our previous 8 am first Monday of the month walks. There is even a chance we may see a swallowtail kite on our walk. The last few years, they have been arriving at the refuge during the first week of March.

More Than 60 Participate in Butterfly Talk

 

Friends member Barbara Woodmansee wowed the audience on Saturday February 11 at the Cedar Key Public Library with her photos and her descriptions of the butterflies of the refuges. A standing-room only crowd learned about the families of butterflies and their host plants, and then had the chance to ask many questions and give many comments. We are grateful to Barbara for all the work she put into helping us appreciate the wonderful creatures. If you had to miss the talk, or just want a reminder, Babara has made the photos available here.

  

On Saturday, April 7th, you can join Barbara for a day of spring sunshine (we hope!) on the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge's Nature Drive. She has been surveying this part of the LSNWR monthly for the past 3 years, and has compiled a list of 64 species of butterflies recorded on the Nature Drive. A group from the Gainesville chapter of the North American Butterfly Association will meet at the south entrance for a 4-6 hour drive and walk of the areas where the most diverse butterfly species have been seen. Last year they saw 44 species of butterflies in one day in early April, including 21 Sweadner's Juniper Hairstreaks, Dion, Obscure and Aaron's skippers, Appalachian Brown and Gemmed satyrs. Check here for more information.