Thanks to perfect weather and the tireless work of our faithful Organizer Joyce Bergen, WBA’s Annual Conference in Mazama was a resounding success. We identified 42 butterfly species of which an Arctic Blue, an Arctic Fritillary, and a Chryxus Arctic were the favorites. We enjoyed two evening ‘chock-filled’ talks by John Pelham and Crispin Guppy, the co-author of Butterflies of British Columbia. It was hot in parts of the Methow Valley and cold on Slate Peak but that meant that each area presented different challenging butterflies to search for and to study.

On Sunday morning, we had what less hardly folks might have called ‘an adventure’ when our nine-vehicle caravan, rumbling through dark Okanogan woods, found itself suddenly blocked by a large, recently-fallen tree. Were we daunted? Not we! We had a hero with us!! Bill Yake quickly pulled out a small but very sharp axe, which he wisely carries with him, and commenced to chop vigorously away at the sizeable trunk. With the vocal admiration of many fair damsels, loud cheers of support from us less robust guys, and some relief chopping by Dave Nunnalee, the huge trunk was soon cut in two. Then a larger group of us, led by intrepid Marjorie Kittle, rushed into action to lift and push the top half of the tree off the road, permitting one-way traffic (led of course by wildly cheering WBAers) to proceed through the deep Okanogan forest.

Butterfliers are softies? Smile when you say that, Pardner.

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