Description
Come join us for a summer Butterfly and Nature Walk at Rising Fawn Gardens led by butterfly expert and enthusiast Mike O’Brien. Mike will lead us on his 6th biannual butterfly walk to learn more about butterfly habitat, life cycles, along with so much more as you help him with his seasonal count and data collection at Rising Fawn Gardens.
We will begin the tour at the cabin and follow Mike around the grounds to spot species of butterflies along the way. You can expect to stop and take time to identify and photograph these fluttering beauties!
Guests are encouraged to bring your sun hats, water bottles, binoculars, books, and a handy notebook for any information you want to take away with you. Make sure to bring all your questions and curiosities about our flying friends!
This event does require fair weather, so if it does rain we will reschedule and follow up with a new count date. This event is for ages 15+ and is limited to 10 guests, so please register in advance.
Itinerary
9:00 AM - Nature Walk Starts
11:00 AM - Nature Walk Ends
Tickets
A $10 donation is requested. All the proceeds will be donated to Wild Ones TN Valley Chapter, learn more about the work they do HERE!
Event Facilitator
Michael (Mike) O’Brien is retired from the Medical Field in which he worked as a surgical pathologist for 35 years. After his retirement in 2005 in Pensacola, Florida, he relocated to Northeast Alabama near Fort Payne for its abundance of biodiversity. He and his wife, Marion, have spent the last 14 years actively converting their home’s 21 acre rural location to a Natural wildlife habitat, by adding many Native plantings, habitat modifications, bird houses, and doing so without the use of pesticides or other chemicals.
They now have an abundance of butterflies, birds, bees, mammals and other wildlife with fifty-seven butterfly species in 2018 and at least 20 species of nesting birds. Mike is a lifelong amateur photographer and contributes his Nature photos monthly to several newsletters. He is also a Native flowers photo contributor to the new and forthcoming Wildflowers of Alabama book.
Mike is a member of the North American Butterfly Association, and for the last 10 years has been an active, yearly participant in their local area butterfly counts for the National organization. He is also a member of Wild Ones Tennessee Valley Chapter, The Audubon Society, The Xerces Society, The Cornell Lab for Birds and is a yearly contributor to Mass Audubon’s National Firefly Watch. He is an avid handtool woodworker outside of his many Nature pursuits.