Until further notice all Washington Butterfly Association meetings will be held online using Zoom. They will require pre-registration. See the meeting description below for a link to the invite.
After registering you will receive an email confirmation containing information about joining the meeting. A reminder will be sent to you on the day of the meeting usually a couple hours before it starts.
Most meetings will be recorded so that others can view at a more convenient time.
Wednesday – May 3 at 6 pm – “How iNaturalist is Revolutionizing Butterfly Watching” by Neil Bjorklund
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEkdu6vqDwpGdTurNrbkcyKItzeKOcVVMpQ
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
iNaturalist.org has become one of the world’s largest collections of citizen science and photo-documented sightings of wild, living organisms. It has grown rapidly in recent years, and with over 22,000 butterfly sightings now recorded in Oregon, it holds a treasure trove of information you can use to enhance your nature passions! Neil will demonstrate how to use iNat with a live presentation. And of course you’ll be seeing many of Neil’s fabulous butterfly photos and hearing his stories from the field!
We’ll also look forward to participation from our friends from NABA Oregon!
Neil Björklund is a native Oregonian who has been watching Oregon’s butterflies for more than 40 years and photographing them for nearly as long. He created the comprehensive website on Oregon butterflies www.butterfliesoforegon.com, which features several hundred of his photos of live butterflies. His photographs have also appeared in newspapers, galleries, and magazines, and many are featured in the the Pocket Guide to Butterflies of Lane County. Recently, his photo of Oregon’s State Butterfly, the Oregon Swallowtail, was featured in the new edition of the Oregon Bluebook, the official booklet of information on the State of Oregon.
Wednesday – April 5 at 6 pm – “Western Monarchs: A Holistic View of Recent History, Ecology, Resilience and Adaptation to a Changing Climate” with David James.
Video of this meeting is available at:
This will be a slightly reworked version of the keynote presentation I gave in January at the Western Monarch Advocates Summit in Pismo Beach, California. It will focus on a ‘big picture’ analysis of the history, ecology and remarkable adaptation of monarchs to changing environments. Too often, monarch scientists tend to overstate the impact and importance of the particular piece of monarch biology they are studying. The holistic view, encompassing all aspects of monarch natural history, rarely gets reported. I will conclude with consideration of how harmful, restriction of us, the people, from interacting with monarchs is. Not only for survival of the monarch but for insects generally.
DAVID G JAMES
Associate Professor in Entomology
Washington State University, Prosser, WA
David began his entomological career as an eight-year-old in England by rearing caterpillars at home. A university degree in Zoology was followed by a PhD on Monarch Butterfly Biology in Sydney, Australia where he worked for 23 years as an agricultural entomologist for the New South Wales government. In 1999, he moved to Washington State University, developing biological control systems for grapes and hops, but he never forgot his butterfly roots. In 2011, he co-authored with Dave Nunnallee, Life Histories of Cascadia butterflies and has conducted Monarch tagging studies in the PNW since 2012 which have defined Monarch migration in this region. His deep experience in many aspects of Monarch biology provide him with a much more optimistic view of Monarch population persistence than many of his contemporaries.
Wednesday – March 1 at 6 pm – David Droppers – Blues Identification
Speaker update:
Pelham’s computer went ker-plooie! So David is here to refresh our skills in identifying blue butterflies in Washington State. They’re beautiful, they’re diverse, they’re everywhere, and they’re fascinating! Don’t get distracted by those big, showy swallowtails! Beauty also comes in 1-inch wide wingspans!
Video of this meeting is available at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZElfuGrrzguHN1H-30zh7Zxu4iZe58rN1UF
Spring is almost here! The buds are growing, the willows are blooming, and our resident birds are singing spring songs! Butterflies are beginning to fly in our dreams. Trips are beginning to be planned. We’re excited! But before we get too excited – let’s dust off our field guides and polish up on some ID skills – what better way to spend the long wind-up that is March?
David Droppers has been teaching courses on topics from birds to butterflies to trees to microorganisms for a variety of groups, including college biology courses and non-profit environmental groups. He has put his expertise to work for the many educational and public groups, and many of you may recall the presentation that he and Phyllis Reed gave us in December about how David has helped the US Forest Service with his work in the North Cascades. We are so happy to have David back to share his enthusiasm for the natural world, and especially for some of the tiniest butterflies.
Wednesday – February 1 at 6 pm – “Current Status of the Endangered Island Marble Butterfly” with Sarah Hanson and Walt Andrews
Video of this meeting is available at:
https://youtu.be/-uieD4eU4wg
Join Sarah Hanson, Executive Director of On Sacred Ground, to learn about the history of Island Marble Butterfly as well as recent changes for its recovery plan due to its listing as an endangered species in 2020. Walt Andrews, Island Marble Butterfly Volunteer Program Coordinator, will share how volunteers will play a key role in supporting unique and specific habitat needs of Island Marble, as well as where the volunteer program is headed.
Sarah has been working as a conscious land steward for 25 years. She directed trail and wilderness restoration crews in varied ecosystems from 2003-2012 for Student Conservation Association, Pacific Crest Trail Association and Washington Trails Association in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah, South Carolina and Georgia. She has been a WWOOFer in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Italy and Senegal, learning organic gardening techniques, and is a certified permaculture designer. Sarah was the first program director for the San Juan Island Conservation Corps for 5 seasons from 2012-2016, working with public lands agencies, local non-profits and Coast Salish tribes. She helped pave the way for a Coast Salish Youth Conservation Corps, and served on the San Juan County Agricultural Resources Committee from 2020-2022. She has a B.S. in Geology/Geophysics from Western Washington University, moonlights as a healer, writer, sailor, DIY tinkerer, and has studied indigenous healing with the Q’ero tribe in the high Andes of Peru. Sarah has called San Juan Island home since 2001.
Walt is an ecologist who has worked in research, conservation, agricultural science, outreach, and education. He has experience working with a wide variety of federal, state, and local land managers and with these imperiled species: Hawksbill Sea Turtle, Bull Trout and the Marbled Murrelet. Walt is excited about the possibilities in front of us, for islanders to rally for our endemic Island Marble Butterfly by creating and maintaining habitat with the volunteer program. Walt also works at WSU San Juan County Extension as a Research Assistant, balancing field work with data analysis, presentations and writing, most recently working on wireworms and pasture trials. He enjoys exploring the mountains and islands offer and thoroughly appreciates the scientific process.
Previous meetings are listed below:
Wednesday – December 7 at 6 pm – David Droppers and Phyllis Reed
Mountain Loop Highway: How a Project on the National Forest Evolved
Video of this meeting is available at:
https://youtu.be/joc2EMrcgEc
Wednesday – November 2 at 6 pm – Dave Nunnallee –
“Buckwheats and the Butterflies that use them”
Video of this meeting is available at:
https://youtu.be/SwNeGUF6F14
Wednesday – October 5 at 6 pm – John Acorn –
“The Ways in which Butterflies Fly”
Video of this meeting is available at:
https://youtu.be/g65_v5w4dhY