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National Wildlife Visitor Center 

Lots to see and enjoy including...

Kids Discovery Center
Monarch Magic
Wildlife Images Bookstore
Hollingsworth Art Gallery
Family Fun
Visitor Center Bird Blind
Pollinator Gardens

The Visitor Center, located on South Tract, is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. – closed on federal holidays.  

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Kids Discovery Center

Located in the Patuxent National Wildlife Visitor Center - 10901 Scarlet Tanager Loop, Laurel, MD 20708

Daily, Wednesday through Saturday: Sessions start at 10:00 am, 11:00 am, and 12:00 pm. 

Duration: 35 minutes, each. Larger group special arrangements are possible when scheduled 2 weeks in advance. Lots of exciting learning activities and crafts await you at the KIDS DISCOVERY CENTER! New themes are presented monthly to engage kids (ages 3-10) * and adults in nature-related fun. 

Registration Required. Call the National Wildlife Visitors Center front desk 301/497 5772 to reserve a 35-minute time slot for you and your child.

Children, with parent/guardian support, explore and learn about nature and the environment through engaging, age-appropriate activities, crafts and games. Older siblings are welcome to join with parents and work with younger siblings to help them understand and complete the activities.

NOTE: The Kids’ Discovery Center is neither baby-proofed nor appropriate for children younger than 3 due to small items featured in the exhibits and activities. Parents are required to work with their child at each of the parent-led activities.

If interested in volunteering to work with KDC and/or to help develop curriculum activities for children, please call the front desk 301/497 5772 and ask for Barrie! 

Program Themes:

March Theme: SNAILS, SLUGS, & WORMS. They're stretchy invertebrates, sometimes slippery or slimy, and often leave mucus trails in their paths! Visit the KDC this month to learn about these important additions to your garden!

April Theme: GRASSHOPPERS, PRAYING MANTISES, & WALKING STICKS. Come to the KDC this month to discover some insects that can hide in plain sight by easily blending in with their environment! And, did you know that one of these three invertebrates feasts on the other two ... but who?

May Theme: BEES and WASPS – Did you know that bees have five eyes and dance every day?Wasps come in many colors and live everywhere in the word except Antarctica. They even make their own paper!Visit us to do some great fun activities and learn more about these important pollinators.

Registration strongly urged: Call 301-497-5772. 
Large groups: michael_cangelosi@fws.gov.

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Monarch Magic

The monarch butterflies departed our area in the fall and made their way to Mexico for the winter. We look forward to their return north, generation by generation, this spring and summer. Meanwhile, you can come to the National Wildlife Visitor Center to visit our Monarch Magic Station, learn more about these incredible and beautiful migratory insects, and enjoy a full-color educational video about them. (The video runs continuously during Visitor Center public hours.)
Thank you for helping us release 948 monarchs in 2023.

Monarch Magic Opportunity: 
Explore volunteering with the Monarch Butterfly Team! Call 301-497-5772 to ask about & sign-up for the next “Monarch Butterfly Team Overview Presentation.” These presentations are for adults, and ages 16-17 with adult registration on file, to learn about what volunteer Monarch Magic docents and Butterfly-Care Providers do 

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Wildlife Images Bookstore

The Wildlife Images Bookstoreis operated by the Friends of Patuxent.  Proceeds from sales made at Wildlife Images are devoted to supporting the environmental education at the Patuxent Research Refuge and research missions at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.  The Bookstore is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 AM  to 3:30 PM;  closed on federal holidays.  

Wildlife Images has an extraordinary selection of:

• Wildlife books
• Wildlife art items, created by some of the world's best wildlife artists
• Wildlife-theme tee-shirts, Children & Adult sizes, and caps
• Songbird box kits
• Posters
• Educational, and one of a kind items
• Many other exciting wildlife-related items suitable for everyone who loves the outdoors and cares about the wildlife of the world.

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Hollingsworth Art Gallery

Each month the Hollingsworth Art Gallery exhibits wildlife-themed art by local and by nationally-known artists. 

April 2025
Artist of the Month -  Matthew Westbrook

Matthew Westbrook began taking photographs as a 16-year-old, using his father’s 1950s-era Voigtländer camera to capture images of the Potomac River and the environmental challenges it faced. A decade later, he spent nearly half a year traveling through the U.S. national park system, documenting its myriad landscapes on slide film, which he continued shooting for 20 years before switching to digital. In 2016 he began focusing on insect photography, creating a book titled Floating Figures to celebrate and call attention to insects found on the surface of a suburban swimming pool. Perhaps inevitably—once he had added a 100–400 mm telephoto lens to his kit—he became fascinated with birds and other wildlife and spent much of the pandemic walking Baltimore-Washington area trails, including those in the Patuxent Research Refuge.

Many of the photographs in this exhibit are the result of those wanderings.

In the past three years, he has produced three additional fine-art photo books: Double Visions (2022), Leavings (2023), and Out There (2024).

Westbrook attended the University of Maryland, College Park, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor’s degree in English, leading to a 40-year career as a writer and editor. A widely published poet, his literary honors include nomination for a Pushcart Prize and two Individual Artist awards from the Maryland State Arts Council.

Please join Matthew Westbrook to celebrate spring at the refuge with a reception in the John Hollingsworth Gallery from 1:30 to 3:30 pm on Saturday, April 5, 2025. All are welcome to attend and enjoy his art. Light refreshments will be provided.

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Family Fun

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The Family Fun section offers self-paced hands-on activities and crafts for all ages, typically volunteer-staffed two days per month (dates, below), and available all month long for independent exploration. Test your knowledge with the Quiz Board or the Match Game. Make-and-take a fun craft project. Learn about nature, the plants and animals at Patuxent Refuge, and what you can do to help wildlife and the environment. There is something for everyone! 

This is a drop-in program: come when you wish and leave when you're ready.   Look for the Family Fun section in the hallway to the right as you face the reception desk.

Themes

Staffed explorations: 10 am-1 pm on March 14/15 and April 18/19;  
Theme: Birds! Learn more about our feathered friends and what makes them special.  

Come explore your questions with us on our volunteer-staffed dates, or come on your own to explore all month long!

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Visitor Center Bird Blind

Wish there was a convenient way to view birds at South Tract without intruding into their lives?

Try our bird blind located near the Visitor Center trail door. The slanted viewing port design allows people of all heights to view without revealing their presence. .The blind overlooks an open field with ground modification to mimic a forest floor. A variety of bird feeders have been added to attract a variety of species.  Being located on a paved trail allows individuals with limited mobility to use the blind.

Birds seen in the blind’s first month include downy woodpecker, goldfinch, house finch, red-bellied woodpecker, white-breasted nuthatch, northern mocking bird, chipping sparrow, doves, red-winged blackbird and humming bird.

Funds for construction were provided by the Friends of Patuxent.

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Pollinator Gardens

The Patuxent Research Refuge has large pollinator gardens of native plants at the South Tract Visitor Center and at the North Tract Visitor Contact Station. Other small pockets of pollinator plantings are near the Fishing Pier at the north end of Cash Lake and at the Wildlife Viewing Area near Merganser Pond at North Tract. Volunteers help design and maintain these gardens, which provide food and shelter to butterflies, native bees and other insects that pollinate native plants and thus support the local wildlife populations. The gardens are beautiful and bring joy to their many visitors, and are especially appreciated by children and photographers.

Since the seeds choose where they like to grow, the gardens are an ever-changing landscape. As one of the gardeners noted, part of the fun of native plant gardening is enjoying the evolving display that changes with both the seasons and the successional stages of plant species as the landscape matures.

The gardens give visitors a chance to see pollinators in action in their natural habitat. They create an awareness of the beauty of native plants in home landscaping, and demonstrate the vital role they play in attracting beneficial insects as well as birds and other wildlife. The gardens are essentially an outdoor classroom, promoting good environmental stewardship by showing visitors what they can do in their own gardens.  

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