Sorry for the delay - I originally scheduled this on an incorrect date.

Hoping that everyone reading this message is doing well and getting outside to enjoy the weather, at least when possible. Earlier this month, on my way to Daytona, I took a few extra days to take my time traveling plus visit some new locations. Rarely do we share both images from the same location but that is what we are doing this month, both are from St.Marks National Wildlife Refuge in St.Marks Florida, it's one of the oldest in the National Wildlife Refuge system. Honestly I had some ideas in mind but those did not work out, so I took advantage of what was provided. The St.Marks NWR was created in 1931 with the intent of providing winter habitat for migratory birds. My desire was to find large numbers of Sandhill Cranes and possibly another Whooping Crane and if I was lucky, more than one.The other photo subject I was looking for, a lighthouse on the Gulf of Mexico for sunset. Read on to learn what we found.

We have heard from numerous people that the past few newsletters have not been received, we are working with our hosting company to try and resolve what appears to related to spam being sent from a server by the hosting company - it has created a blacklist for the company and they are attempting to clear this. Sorry if this has created any problems for you.

The town of St.Marks was considered an important sea port in the early 1800's, but after it became common for ships to run aground or stuck in shallow muddy waters, there was a push by the state to get a lighthouse built by the Federal Government. Based on the need to have a port in the gulf to support the panhandle and southern Georgia, this was finally approved. While I liked the historic lighthouse, I was not thrilled with the images available, mostly due to the number of people walking around and vehicles in the angle I liked. I could use Photoshop to fix but that's always a last resort for me. While I was hoping the people would move on, they did not, appears they were waiting for sunset. I decided to focus on a different area. The area I decided on, a section of a former boat dock, with wonderful color of a setting sun and small section of clouds.  Camera Data: 24mm 3.2 sec F13 ISO100

While I was hoping to find different species of birds, more of the cranes I photographed a few months ago. While stopping at the visitor center to learn more about the refuge and where species could be located, I learned of an abundance of a reptile that was enjoying the nice weather - the American Alligator. Apparantley a woman and her kids were out riding their bikes on trails and encountered numerous alligators on the trails. If you know me, you can guess what my first question was - 'what trail were you on'? Yes I wanted to photograph the alligators but from a safe distance, I really did not wish to have a close encounter while I was hiking. Expecting to see a couple of alligators along the hike, whilst hoping for a dozen would have been a good day for a Midwestern resident. Actually I lost count of the number of alligators spotted, my guess is around 75 over my 6 mile hike. This image includes a couple of alligators, probably around 6-7 feet long each.  Camera Data: 300mm 1/1600 sec F8 ISO800

Here's a link to download the appropriate version of this month's image for your desktop, one for standard screens and one for wide-screens, along with a Mobile Phone Image. For desktop computers or tablets, open the required version for your device, right-click on the image or right-click on the text for the format you need and select Save As, save to a location on your device and change the background as needed for your OS.

For Mobile devices, most mobile phones require a long press and a menu pop-up will be displayed. Click save then follow the steps for your operating system to set it as your background image.

If anyone has problems or questions with their mobile device, let me know and I will try to assist.

http://www.timlesterimages.com/calendar/april.html

Enjoy the images this month and let me know if you have any questions and comments!

Tim Lester

TIM LESTER IMAGES
Email: tim@PROTECTED
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