Category: Field Trips
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Lake Cushman Post-Fire Butterfly Survey, Field Trip Report
May 4, 2026 On May 4th, nine WBA members enjoyed a memorable survey in the Cushman area of Olympic National Forest: Tanna Knouse, Karen Holtrop, Jeannette Barreca, Travis Thurber, Cathy Clark, Dan Dunphy, Melanie Weiss, Paulette Murphy, and Liz Kuehn. Despite some initial uncertainty around wildfire-burned areas, the day proved to be a rewarding one,…
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Cowiche Canyon, Yakima, Field Trip and Outreach Report
April 25, 2026 By David James The Cowiche Canyon Conservancy in Yakima has held an Annual Earth Day celebration of nature in the canyon for many years. For at least 15 of those years, I have had the pleasure of hosting a butterfly station in the canyon where I would have books and pictures of…
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Juniper Dunes, Field Trip Report
April 29, 2026 By David James Following on from our WBA field trip in April 2025 seeking proof of life for the Columbia Basin segregate of the Juniper Hairstreak, we again made a trip on April 29, 2026 to the surreal landscape of Juniper Dunes, just north of Pasco, WA. Both years, we failed to…
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2026 WBA Field Trips
Field Trip Descriptions: Note: A date range is given for some of the trips. The precise date will be determined by the leader based on weather and the season’s progression. Contact the trip leader to sign up and be notified of the specific trip date.“TBD” is used for those dates to be determined. We have…
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2025 WBA Field Trips
2025 Field Trip Descriptions: Note: A date range is given for some of the trips. The precise date will be determined by the leader based on weather and the season’s progression. Contact the trip leader to sign up and be notified of the specific trip date. We have a bounty of trip offerings this year…
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WBA-WDFW Butterfly Conservation Project
David James Twenty-one of Washingtons ~150 species of butterflies are on the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) list. In common with most of our butterfly species, we know very little about the biology and ecology and threats to these 21 species. This project is aimed at supporting…
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Crystal Mountain Subalpine Field Trip Report
August 26, 2024 This season’s challenging weather unfortunately resulted in the cancellation or postponement of WBA’s late summer field trips. The Crystal Mountain trip was postponed until Aug. 26, and fortunately the day was spectacular. A gondola carried our group up 2,500 ft. to an elevation of 6,800 ft. and an in-your-face view of Mt.…
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Lower Crab Creek Showy Milkweed Field Trip
Every summer during 2012 to 2017, monarchs established a large breeding population at Lower Crab Creek near Vantage. In some years, literally hundreds occupied a small milkweed-rich area. We even had WBA tagging field trips on a couple of occasions to tag the monarchs we could find. One year we tagged almost 100 butterflies. Sadly,…
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2024 WBA Field Trips
Because non-consumptive appreciation of butterflies is central to our purpose, collecting is not permitted on our field trips or at our conferences. The only exception is when a voucher specimen is needed and its taking is approved by a majority of the board members present. Limited collecting of eggs, larvae and pupae for rearing is…
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Tour of Monarch Overwintering Sites November 2023
WBA Royal Tour of Monarch Overwintering Sites, November 18-22 2023 Hosted by David James If you have never seen tens of thousands of monarch butterflies huddled together in a fewEucalyptus trees in California, this might be the November butterfly excursion for you!This will be a tour of 15-20 monarch overwintering sites over a 4- or…
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2023 WBA Field Trips
The butterfly season has begun! A lone Milbert’s Tortoiseshell was sighted in Walla Walla County on Jan. 20, the first butterfly of 2023. Carl Barrentine reported 4 moth species in his yard during the first half of January. It will only get better from this time forward. WBA’s 2023 Field Trip Schedule is in the…
