Canaan Valley Master Naturalists and Friends of the 500th National Wildlife Refuge celebrate the release of a beautiful new fully-illustrated book covering all the butterflies in our area. On Saturday, Sept. 12, at 10 a.m., Tucker County author and naturalist Casey Rucker will lead a butterfly walk. At noon, he’ll present a short indoor program on butterfly ecology and photography. After the program, he will stay to sign copies of the brand new book he co-authored with Susan Olcott, Butterflies of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians. The book will be available in the Refuge Bookstore.
The program is scheduled in conjunction with a citizen science event called Butterfly Big Day, which will take place with the help of camera phones in the hands of nature lovers all over the world. To participate, add your photos of the butterflies you see on Saturday, Sept. 12.
Learn how to take a photograph and upload it to a website called iNaturalist, which saves information about plants, animals, insects, and fungi that people all over the world photograph and send to the site. This very large and fast-growing database is creating an evolving record of which species are present where, and whether they are abundant or scarce. This is an example of Citizen Science; like a scientific study except it is done by regular people who just like to learn about the natural world.
If you want to check out the new book and learn about butterflies and the Butterfly Big Day, come to the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge this Saturday at 10 a.m.. It is located at 6232 Appalachian Highway, just south of the BFS station in Canaan Valley. All ages are welcome, and the program is free.
