Bend, Oregon, July 18-21,2002: Ten of us WBA members got to enjoy tl1e NABA national conference in Oregon just three weeks after our own chapter conference. Ten representatives was by my count more than any other chapter could claim. Even the LANABAs (from the Los Angeles region) were less numerous than us WBAs.

Those folks from other places really seemed excited at seeing some of what seem to us to be ho-hum butterflies. One huge STAR was the Lorquin’s Admiral, for example. But the surprising find was the Mexican Cloudywing, a lifer for just about everybody, including Bob and Thea Pyle.

The national gathering, about five times the size of our own, was like ours in that people were wonderfully open and friendly. Most of them were like our members in being what might be called “generalist-naturalists,” follow with broad interests in all kinds of flora and fauna. In general, they are better butterfliers than we are. That’s to be expected; most of them have been butterfliers longer than most of us. It showed. I was particularly impressed by how many of the women, both young and older, charged into the field at every stop, confident that even far from home tl1ey could identify whatever they came upon (most of the time they could, too.) Both women and men also had more equipment around necks or in pockets or strapped on in some way or other: elaborate cameras, binocs, field guides, magnifying glasses and other devices that I couldn’t even guess about.

But no nets. No, indeed, not a net in sight. Most of our WBAs didn’t need nets because we knew most of the butterflies so close to home. Some of tlhe strangers, though, said that they could have used nets since most of the flitting beauties were new. Then again, they had ten new WBA friends to help them.

Even I helped out a couple of times.

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