Rob was the first to notice that the sun was above the horizon Sabbath morning. We looked out of our tent and saw it rising out past the beach, lighting up the clouds. I got photos and from there we went for a long walk that included a side trip behind jungle bushes. While out walking we found evidence of a large lizard. There were foot prints with claws and a long tail trail marked between. Our friends told us that the big lizard here is a Mangrove Monitor Lizard (Varanus indicus). They have lived on Guam since before the first European contact with the island. Wikipedia says they are 3.5 - 4 feet long. Roger Krum told me that sometimes they come into the SDA school gym, and as he is the PE teacher, he has to catch them and take them out so the kids can play safely. They have claws on their toes, and sharp teeth, so you have to pick them up in their middle.
Go to this ebook about the Flora and Fauna of Guam, scroll to page 6 and you can see a really nice photo of a Monitor Lizard.
https://cnas-re.uog.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Flora_and_Fauna_EBook-3.pdf
The road we were on mostly through the jungle. We came to a place where we could see another lovely white sand beach. Just before we turned around we saw a small pig go running up ahead of us.
Studying a map I learned that this is the area where some Chamorro went to hide during WWII and were never discovered by the Japanese. They were able to live safely here by the sea living off the land.
I noticed a dark colored butterfly. It mainly was found sitting on the same kind of bush. Sometimes a couple dozen of the same kind would be resting on the leaves of the bush. The outside of the wings are dark brown with some tiny bluish dots on the margins. But when they open their wings, you see a large, iridescent, blue circle on each forewing. I remembered these from our last visit when I chased them around quite a while trying to photograph them, but I couldn't remember their name. Sometimes they are on a live bush, and sometimes they are on a completely dead bush of the same kind.
We continued to walk and a found a butterfly wing on the ground, complete with the large blue circle.
Later on a found a few more. I wondered why I found so many butterflies, but found so few butterfly wings. This put me on high alert searching for the answer to my question. I also watched for caterpillars and eggs, but didn't find any. Almost back to our tent, I found a whole butterfly on the ground with all four wings mostly intact. Well, it was almost whole. A large squadron of ants were on duty eating out the thorax and abdomen. The head and antenna were already gone. This answered my main question about why I didn't see any more dead butterflies on the ground when there were so many in the air. God was providing food for the ants. If God knows when a sparrow falls, I think he must know when one of his beautiful butterflies drifts to the ground. The butterfly does not go to waste, it becomes food for the industrious ants.
Just making an estimated guess, I would say there were 75 - 100 butterflies resting on the bushes or fluttering upward throughout the Tarague Beach campground. Its common name is Blue-Banded King Crow (Euploea eunice). I didn't get a good photo of a live butterfly with their wings open, you will have to keep reading to the one I found later.
Genus Euploea all have a similar shape and coloring with variations in each species. You can browse the photos at iNaturalist and see some of them. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/88304-Euploea/browse_photos
Back at camp breakfast was about ready. There was dry cereal and oatmeal available with a fruit, nuts, bananas and berries available for toppings. Bread, peanut butter and jam was also on the table. I got myself a bowl of oatmeal and was thankful for the nice toppings.
Ulrich Mark is director of the Pathfinder club and has been for years. During the day he is an administrator in the Guam Public schools. He also is a graduate of Walla Walla College, and my husband knew him back when they were students. I found him after breakfast and told him I could give a small nature talk during Sabbath School if he would like.
I talked about my walk in earlier in the morning and how I found butterfly wings, and the questions that arose in my mind. I talked about how by observing, I found the answer to my main question and what it told me about God. I noticed that everyone was listening carefully while I talked, even the adults. We can learn so much when we observe nature, not only about nature, but about God.
Cindy is a teacher at Guam Adventist Academy. She teaches 3rd and 4th grade. She also graduated from Walla Walla College in the mid 90's with education. I didn't know her then, but we became friend's right away at the campout. She was teaching the class for the kids during the lesson time. She had one activity where the kids would look up verses in the Bible about nature, but didn't know if she could fill the whole time.
Because of the earlier talk I gave, the kids were right with me when I told them about their drawing project. I showed them some of the drawings in my nature journal and then I asked them to draw the environment of the camp, and to draw three things that they saw there in nature. If I had had more time, I would have had them asking questions about what they saw on their paper too. I hope that this experience might encourage a few to notice nature more, and to start drawing what they see.
Cindy told me that she didn't think that she could draw, but she had a new experience as she got into her simple drawing and found it very relaxing and enjoyable.
About this time I learned that the bathrooms were clean and in working order again. I was told that during the night a man from maintenance had been there for hours and even had to go back to his office and get more tools up at the base three times. It took him a long time to get the clog between the girls and boy's bathroom cleaned out. Because it was slightly on the girl's side, the boys still worked. Then in the morning a cleaning crew came and cleaned and sanitized the bathroom. We were sure thankful for what they did. I was comfortable in the jungle, but it would have been a problem making proper jungle facilities for all of us, plus the other people in the campground and those that came for the day.
Church service featured more singing, and then a sermon by an enthusiastic Navy Chaplain. He had graduated from Oakwood college. Everyone seemed to really appreciate him but were sad because he is transfering to another base at the end of the month.
Lunch was a nice meal of haystacks. Everyone sat around in their camp chairs under the shade of a carport style tarp setup. The temperature was very comfortable and conversation pleasant.
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