January 25 – Winter Party

Twenty people met January 25 for our annual winter party at the home of Bill and Heidi Weber (Jonathan Pelham’s sister) in Mountlake Terrace, with great food and camaraderie and the traditional “white elephant” gift exchange. Gifts included some much coveted items that, under the rules, changed hands multiple times. These included two gorgeous scarves and a protective bug net. (Under the rules, each person, in turn, chose a wrapped gift from the pile, or, a gift someone else had already opened, with the now-giftless person choosing another unopened gift or someone else’s gift, and so on.) A great evening!

March

David James gave a two-part program, first, in “Beauty with Benefits,” showing how native vegetation between the rows in vineyards supports both pollinators and predatory insects and substantially reduces insect problems on the vines. Then, with “Incarcerated Citizen Scientists: Understanding migration of the Monarch butterfly in the Pacific Northwest,” he showed how inmates at Walla Walla are rearing and tagging thousands of Monarchs from our region for a better understanding of their migration patterns. In April, five intrepid travelers to Ecuador-Shirley Sekarajasingham, Maureen Traxler, Robin Lewis, Carolyn Heberlein, and Bob Hardwick–showed photos from their trip.

April 2nd:

Butterflying Adventures in Ecuador! Several WBA members recently spent time traveling in northwest Ecuador and have agreed to share their photos and butterfly adventures with us. Speakers will include Shirley Sekarajasingham, Robin Lewis, Maureen Traxler, Carolyn Heberlein, and Bob Hardwick.

May 7

Sarah Hamman, Ecologist with the Center for Natural Lands Management, presented “Burning for Butterflies.” She showed that maintaining not only butterflies but other threatened species in the South Sound prairies is usually best accomplished with controlled fire, which has become an enormously sophisticated science and art.

May

Paralleling these programs, Dave Nunnallee has continued to provide a “species profile” at nearly every meeting: the Hedgerow Hairstreak in February, Indra Swallowtail in March, and Vidler’s Alpine in May. Friday evening at our conference he showed us the species we might be seeing on our field trips.

September 3

“Share the Wealth” Dave Nunnallee led off with the Clodius Parnassian as the species of the month. Three ladies (now all using identical cameras) showed some gorgeous images: Marty Witt showed butterflies from southern Florida. Cathy Clark showed not only butterflies but some spectacular, vividly-colored larvae including a large hornworm and an anise swallowtail larva. Melanie Weiss showed close-ups of monarchs from Lower Crab Creek, including an unusually light morph, which led to a discussion of the white monarchs in Hawaii and elsewhere.

Gary Bernard showed striking video of an eastern swallowtail flashing from black to iridescent blues as the wings flapped. Al Wagar showed bits of two work-in-progress DVDs, a butterfly ID video we might review each spring, and a stand-alone outreach video “The Lives and Times of Butterflies.”

Oct. 1:

The Flight, Nectaring and Roosting Behavior of Leona’s Little Blue Butterfly (Philotiella leona)

Jasmine James will talk about her observations on Leona’s Little Blue Butterfly that she made in the Antelope Desert in southern Oregon during 2011-13. She studied and will present information on adult behavior including flight activity, roosting, nectaring, and courtship. The sole known metapopulation of Leona’s Little Blue, Philotiella leona, in the Antelope Desert of Klamath County, Oregon was surveyed and studied during 2011-2013. Observations were made on adult behavior. The flight period extended from mid-June to mid-late July or early August (35-47 days). Flight activity was meandering and low to the ground and mostly occurred after midday, as did mating and oviposition. Nectaring was observed on 9 plant species with Eriogonum umbellatum most favored. Philotiella leona spent much time roosting particularly before 1100 h despite sunshine and ambient temperatures of 10-20 ºC. Most roosting occurred on the ground or on bare twigs of low-growing shrubs like E. umbellatum and Purshia tridentata (Pursh) (Bitterbrush). Ground roosters usually chose warm stones or small rocks in direct sunlight. David James will give us an update on his Monarch project.

November 5: Wildfire and Habitat Recovery. Jim Cronan is a Research Scientist for the Fire and Environmental Research Team at the US Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station in Seattle and a PhD Candidate at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington. He has been studying fires and their effects on natural communities for 12 years. He is interested in how vegetation recovers from this unique disturbance, specifically how characteristics of fire can produce a range of ecological outcomes. This type of research is important because it increases our ability manage fire in ways that produce higher quality habitat for rare species and increase biological diversity. Join us and learn more about fire, and its dynamic relationship with plants.

December 3: Digital Insect Collecting by Richard Palmer, member of Scarabs: The Bug Society.

Richard Palmer is interested in collecting insects, but doesn’t want to bother with storing delicate specimens and/or keeping them from being eaten up by other insects. He has a system for documenting the insects he sees with the camera, while at the same time keeping full scientific data about each one. All of this ultimately results in additions to the vast online database that is BugGuide.net. Come see how Richard does it.