Living in Flagstaff,
Celebrating Festival of Science 2025
As I update this blog I am struck by how rich it is in photos, including one posted in my Butterflies gallery! (Clicking on links here takes you to a request to provide your email. Do so if you like, or click "Skip!"
I live in a fantastic place! Among other virtues, Flagstaff is a very rich place for sciences of all sorts, and for all ages. That explains the 36 years in a row of holding one of the largest all-free festivals of science in the world!
It all got started when Percival Lowell founded a pioneering center of science in Flagstaff--: the Lowell Observatory.
Here is Lowell himself in 1914 at the Clark Telescope in Flagstaff Arizona!
What follows below…
The Festival of Science
September 19-28, 2025.
With 115 events, 10 of which I jointed, it's hard to pick a favorite event. But if pressed, I would say the bird walk in the beautiful landscape of Kachina Wetlands 9/21/25 (photos on the left and below).
Kachina Wetlands Preserve is a project of Northern Arizona Audubon Society. Christina Vojta is Steward of Kachina Wetlands.
TAGLINE!
A landscape-view of Kachina Wetlands Preserve
The Bird Walk
Walking through the marvelous landscape shown above, I photographed two of my favorite birds-- a Sharp-shinned hawk and Pied-billed grebe.
Sharp-shinned hawk, Kachina Wetlands
Festival Day FIVE!
On 9./24/25 we drove 90 minutes from home to join a nature walk at Red Rock State Park. This photo (on the left) and the one below it give you a sense of the amazing beauty of the Sedona area, with its world-renowned Red Rocks!
The nature walk with Red Rocks State Park volunteer Barry was fabulous! Maybe all such volunteers know so much about so many sciences relevant to the Park, but Barry CERTAINLY IS!
Left-- Red Rocks State Park at another time of year
Later on Day 5 (9/24/25) I joined in a citizen science event, an attempt to tag monarch butterflies. The search was at Bubbling Ponds in Cornville Arizona.
No surprise for the concerned among us, we saw only a couple of monarchs and they eluded capture and tagging. What I DID see is the beautiful butterfly below, a skipper (below)
This skipper was the nearest thing to a monarch I saw-- Bubbling Ponds