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• Sam Droege Exhibition

  • Start
    4 Dec 2024
  • End
    31 Dec 2024
  • Location
    National Wildlife Visitor Center, 10901 Scarlet Tanager Loop, Laurel, MD 20708

  Sam Droege

  Exhibit: December 4-31, 2024

  9:00am to 4:30pm (Wednesdays to Saturdays)

  Sam Droege is a Wildlife Biologist in the Eastern Ecological Science Center in Laurel, Maryland—a profession his parents could have predicted when Sam was seven! He writes he was always interested in nature, and by that age, his parents were convinced. As a teen they wouldn’t find him at the mall, but in the woods. In high school he connected with the Maryland Ornithological Society where he met some Patuxent biologists. At the refuge he helped band and count birds – which eventually led to a “real” job. 

  In 1980 at the University of Maryland, Sam earned a BA in General Biology; in 1985 at the State University of New York, Syracuse, a MS in wildlife management. Since then Droege has worked professionally for many organizations conducting wildlife research. Among these are Chesapeake Bay Center for Environmental Studies, SUNY Research Foundation, New York Department of Environmental Consevation and Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. The internet documents his service, publications, memberships, grants and stints as a guest reviewer. 

  He has developed and coordinated a number of monitoring programs including Breeding Bird Survey, North American Amphibian monitoring, the Bioblitz, Frogwatch USA, and is currently developing techniques for monitoring and identifying native bees. He writes that he’d been working on related topics and found a lack of information about floral components used and visited by bees a real problem. 

  His exhibit will consist of pollinated plants and amazing bee closeups made in the lab from 25-125 separate photographs!

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• Alexander Winch Exhibition

  • Start
    1 Jan 2025
  • End
    31 Jan 2025
  • Location
    National Wildlife Visitor Center, 10901 Scarlet Tanager Loop, Laurel, MD 20708

  Alexander Winch

  Exhibit: January 1-31, 2025

  9:00am to 4:00pm (Wednesdays to Saturdays)

  Reception: Saturday, January 11, 2025 from 2:00pm to 4:00pm

  Born and raised in Baltimore, MD to Canadian and Greek parents, Alexander Winch has made art depicting scenes of Nature since he was a child. A big fan of the dioramas and Wildlife art shows at Patuxent Wildlife Refuge, Alexander graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2017 with a BFA in Painting. Education did not stop there! Alex got his Masters of Science in Textile Design from Jefferson University in Philadelphia in 2023. For his Masters Thesis he created a series of four Jacquard sound-dampening tapestries depicting the natural scenes of the four seasons along the Susquehanna River from Upstate New York down to the Chesapeake Bay.

  
  

  
  

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• Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge Winter Film Series

  • When
    3 Jan 2025
  •  
    5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
  • Location
    National Wildlife Visitor Center, 10901 Scarlet Tanager Loop, Laurel, MD 20708

  
  

  Whooping Crane Recovery Efforts: What are Whooping Cranes? How have we helped?

  Friday, January 3, 2025
  5PM to 7PM
  

  We hope to answer these exact questions! Two volunteers from Patuxent Research Refuge’s former Whooping Crane program will join us to speak about the important research conducted at Patuxent. One of North America’s most unique birds, the Whooping Crane, nearly went extinct with only 50 birds alive in 1967. Patuxent Research Refuge, US Fish and Wildlife, and local volunteers, with national support started and operated a crane breeding program on the refuge. That program lasted until 2018, when adult Whooping Cranes finally were able to successfully raise chicks in the wild and teach them to migrate on their own. Today there is a population of well over 500 Whoopers in the wild. The Patuxent Research Refuge program inspired the creation of Cranes International, the non-profit that supports crane conservation efforts for all fifteen of the world's crane species.

  The First Fridays Winter Film Series is free and open to the public. No registration needed. Presentations are located at the National Wildlife Visitor Center, 10901 Scarlet Tanager Loop, Laurel, MD 20708.

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