1) Upcoming Events
2) Spring Butterfly Classes
3) Thanks for a Great Winter Party!
4) What's Happening at Little Creve Couer Marsh?
5) Request for Butterfly Articles, Poems, Photos
6) Butterfly Counts at Busch Wildlife
7) Report the Butterflies You've Seen
8) NABA Garden Workday
9) Monarch Populations at its Lowest
10) And more (seeds available, online store…)
11) 2005 Calendar of Events - click here

NABA's MISSION STATEMENT:
To promote nonconsumptive, recreational butterflying and to increase
the public's enjoyment, knowledge and conservation of butterflies.

1. UPCOMING EVENTS - March and April, 2005

Sat. March 5 - 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. - Rich Sammon digital photography seminar, at Parkway Central High School (on 141/Woods Mill Rd. just south of Olive). Call 314-351-6015 for more information, or visit: www.monep.org

Sun. March 6 - 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon - NABA Garden Workday at the Jim Ziebol Butterfly Garden at Busch Conservation Area. See story below.

Tues. March 15 - 7:30 p.m. - NABA-St. Louis and St. Louis Audubon Society are sponsoring a meeting at the Creve Coeur Community Center with a presentation by Chris Ludwig about Little Creve Coeur Marsh. See story below.

Wed. March 23 - 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. - "Butterfly Gardening" class at Florissant Valley. (St. Louis Community College, Florissant), Room 234, Florissant Valley Administration Building. The instructor is Dennis Bozzay.

Wed. March 23 - 7:00 p.m. - "Photographic Art" nature video of butterflies, birds, dragonflies and other wildlife, at Cliff Cave Branch Library, 5430 Telegraph Rd., St. Louis. Presented by Jim Ziebol and Yvonne Homeyer.

Sun. April 3 - 10:00 a.m. - Butterfly Walk at Hilda Young C.A. near Eureka. Meet at 10:00 at the parking lot. We will do a lot of walking but the terrain is easy. There are no facilities. We have a chance of seeing such early spring species as Falcate Orangetip, Henry's Elfin, Tiger and Zebra Swallowtails, Mourning Cloak, Red Admiral, Spring Azure, E. Comma, and Goatweed. The group will return to the parking lot by 2:00, but people can leave earlier if they wish. Bring lunch and water. Leader: Dennis Bozzay.

Thurs. April 7 - 7:30 p.m. - Joint NABA-St. Louis and WGNSS meeting at the St. Louis County Library Headquarters on Lindbergh, featuring our own Dennis Bozzay and his photography of flora and fauna of Ecuador, including butterflies.

Sun. April 10 - 10:00 a.m. - First MDC Butterfly Count at Busch Wildlife in St. Charles County. We will drive to each location and take short walks. Meet at 10:00 at the Butterfly Garden (bottom of parking lot at Visitor's Center). Henry's Elfin and Juniper Hairstreak are lovely spring possibilities. The count will end around 12:30. Leader: Jim Ziebol.

Tues. April 19 - 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. - "Spring Butterflies" class will be taught at Florissant Valley (St. Louis Community College, Florissant), sponsored by NABA-St. Louis.

Sat. April 23 - 10:00 a.m. - Butterfly Walk at Busch Wildlife in St. Charles County. We will drive to each location and take short walks. Meet at the Butterfly Garden (bottom of parking lot at Visitor's Center). Many butterflies should be flying by this time. The walk will end around 12:30. (This field trip is also part of the NABA butterfly class offered through Florissant Valley Community College). All NABA members are welcome to come on the field trip. Leader: Yvonne Homeyer.

Sat. April 30 - 10:00 a.m. - Butterfly Walk at Route 66 State Park (NEW). Meet at the parking lot by the Visitor's Center (before you cross the bridge). There are restrooms in the Visitor's Center. We will do a combination of driving and walking. This is the first time we have done a NABA walk at this location. Leaders: Jim Ziebol and Yvonne Homeyer.

DIRECTIONS:

Busch Wildlife: From St. Louis County, take I-64 (Hwy 40) across the Missouri River bridge and exit at Hwy. 94. Go left (south) on Hwy 94 approximately 1 mile to Hwy D. Turn right onto Hwy D and go about 1.5 miles to the entrance on your right. Turn right and at the T intersection, turn right again and proceed to the parking lot at the Visitor's Center. Meet at the Jim Ziebol Butterfly Garden at the bottom of the parking lot.

Hilda Young Conservation Area: Take I-44 west to Hwy 109 & W exit. Turn left onto W. Go south on Hwy W for 2 miles. At the T intersection, turn right onto Hwy FF and go for 2.7 miles to a well-marked parking lot on the left. There is Mo. Dept. of Conservation sign at the parking lot. There are gasoline stations on Hwy W to stop for restrooms; these are the last public facilities.

Route 66 State Park: Take I-44 west to the Lewis Rd. exit (No. 266), and after exiting continue past the West Tyson County Park entrance to the Route 66 Visitor's Center on the left.

2. SPRING BUTTERFLY CLASSES

Want to create or improve your home butterfly garden? Sign up for the "Butterfly Gardening" class that Dennis Bozzay will teach at Florissant Valley Community College Wednesday, March 23 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Create a butterfly garden in your own back yard through proper design, plant selection and cultivation. You can attract many kinds of butterflies to your garden from early spring to fall if you have the right plantings - and native plants work wonderfully. You'll see lots of slides and take home lists of nectar and host food plants that will help plan your garden.

Want to brush up on your spring butterfly identification? Sign up for the "Spring Butterflies" class that Jim Ziebol and Yvonne Homeyer will teach at Florissant Valley Community College on Tuesday, April 19 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. A field trip will take place on Saturday, April 23, starting at 10:00 a.m., at Busch Wildlife. All NABA members are welcome to come on the field trip.

3. THANKS FOR A GREAT WINTER PARTY and POTLUCK by Ann Earley

Thanks to all those who participated in and attended our chapter's post-holiday or "winter" party on January 30th. It was a fun afternoon of eating, socializing, and enjoying wonderful photos of butterflies and dragonflies submitted by chapter members. About 30 members were in attendance. A multitude of delicious potluck items included: sausage, cheese cake, salmon, and exotic cheeses.

Special thanks go to Kate Boden and Dave Larson for making this event a success. Kate coordinated, prepared and presented the Powerpoint show of over 80 members' photos. Dave hosted the party at Washington University's Tyson Research Center and donated several items for the attendance prize drawings. Other attendance prizes were donated by Mike Flieg and Bob Siemer; thanks for those contributions. We look forward to another great year of butterfly walks and activities in 2005, offering many opportunities for photography and butterfly enjoyment.

4. WHAT'S HAPPENING AT LITTLE CREVE COEUR MARSH? by Torrey Berger

Program Sponsored Jointly by SLAS (St. Louis Audubon Society) and NABA-St Louis.
Mark your calendar for Tuesday, March 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Creve Coeur Community Center

Chris M. Ludwig, Project Manager, Saint Louis County Department of Parks and Recreation will be discussing the Master Plan, the impact of the Page Avenue Extension and future "passive use" developments related to this area.

Little Creve Coeur Marsh is probably the last sizable natural wetland left in Saint Louis County, having been formed as an oxbow of the Missouri River. One positive result of the Page Avenue Extension was the acquisition by County Parks of additional mitigation property which will permit the extension of these wetlands to a total area of 700 acres. In connection with the development of the Master Plan for this area, Saint Louis County Parks created a citizen advisory committee with representatives from many of the nature and environmental groups in the Saint Louis area. All those interested in wetlands conservation or ecology should attend this meeting and hear about the exciting plans for the area.

The meeting is open to the public.

5. REQUEST FOR BUTTERFLY ARTICLES, POEMS, PHOTOS from Karen Hillson

I would welcome any articles from your NABA-St. Louis chapter for the "Butterfly Gardener" publication -- anything for "Tips and Tidbits" or "Comments," or especially for "Chapter News." This could include suggestions for good butterfly plants that grow in your area, and I am also looking for butterfly-related poems and good photos of butterflies. A short article on your chapter activities, a few personal experiences (like how you became interested in butterfly gardening), and maybe some photos of chapter members. I would love to receive something about your butterfly garden.

[Note from Yvonne Homeyer: How about sending Karen an article about our butterfly garden at Busch - how it started, how it has grown, the bench/arbor addition, member participation, donations, no pesticides or herbicides, and photos, etc.]

Thank you,

Karen Hillson
Editor, Butterfly Gardener
kalohill@aol.com

6. MDC BUTTERFLY COUNTS AT BUSCH WILDLIFE by Yvonne Homeyer

The Mo. Dept. of Conservation sponsors four butterfly counts around the state every year. Jim Ziebol is coordinator of this count at Busch Wildlife. Any NABA member is welcome to attend. Meet at the NABA Butterfly Garden at the Visitor's Center (bottom of parking lot). These dates will also appear in the regular NABA-St. Louis calendar.

Sunday 4/10/05 10:00 a.m.
Sunday 5/22/05 10:00 a.m.
Sunday 6/26/05 10:00 a.m.
Sunday 9/18/05 10:00 a.m.

7. REPORT THE BUTTERFLIES YOU'VE SEEN! by Yvonne Homeyer

What butterflies did you see this month? If you tell us, we'll include it in our monthly Butterfly Report. By keeping track of your sightings, we can monitor our local butterflies so members know where and when certain butterfly species can be found. Your reported sightings help us keep track of our local butterflies so we can monitor abundance, population trends, locations, range, early date, and late date. You can submit your sightings to Yvonne Homeyer by email (homeyerATearthlink.net) or by phone (314.963.7750).

How do NABA members keep track of what they see? Some of us keep "day lists" of each field trip. Some of us keep cumulative "yard lists" or "garden lists" of all the butterfly visitors to our home. Some of us count (or estimate) the number of each species seen and others just write down the species. You can record your data in a notebook or on the computer.

For those of us who like to record our data permanently in a computer, NABA has the perfect solution - the giant NABA database called "Butterflies I've Seen". By contributing to this database, you not only create your life list (which can be sorted by location, date and species), but you also contribute to NABA's greater knowledge of how butterflies are faring in our area and across North America. NABA provides the software, so you don't have to go out and buy a software package. And you don't have to worry about your computer crashing and losing your data, because your sightings are permanently and securely stored off-site in NABA's computer. Just go to www.naba.org and click on "Butterflies I've Seen" on the left side of the home page. The instructions are simple and it doesn't take long to input an entire field trip. Good luck!

8. NABA GARDEN WORKDAY by Dennis Bozzay

The Jim Ziebol Butterfly Garden at Busch Conservation Area (at the headquarters building) is in need of a Spring cleanup in preparation for the new growing season. The main goal is removal of old plant stems as well as raking of the bark chip paths. We need as many hands as we can get. Weather permitting, we will work from 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon on Sunday March 6th. Please bring a pruner, hedge clippers or rake. Any time you can donate to this project will be greatly appreciated.

9. MONARCH POPULATION AT ITS LOWEST SINCE 1975 by Yvonne Homeyer

The overwintering population of Monarchs in Mexico is at its lowest since 1975, the year that American scientists discovered the winter location of the Monarchs, according to the Monarch Watch Update for 2/21/05 (www.monarchwatch.org/update/2005/0221.html. The colonies measure only 2.19 hectares, compared with a "good" winter measuring 8 or so hectares. According to Dr. Lincoln Brower, the causes for this population decline are: 1) winter storms last year, which reduced the population traveling to the breeding grounds in the U.S. this past summer; and 2) extensive illegal logging in the Monarch Reserve area, despite the legal protection granted to this land by the Mexican government. Similar low numbers occurred in the winter of 2000-2001 and 2001-2002.

Nobody can control the weather, but winter storms pose a more serious threat now than in the past because the protective closed canopy of the fir forest has been opened by the illegal logging. So logging not only decreases the amount of available habitat but it also jeopardizes the functionality of the remaining habitat.

We should be extremely concerned for the survival of the Monarch. A migration pattern that has existed for thousands (millions?) of years could be coming to an end.

Welcome the Monarchs traveling north this Spring with milkweed in your garden! Common, Swamp and Butterfly (orange) milkweed can be found at local nurseries and Missouri Wildflowers in Jefferson City will ship plants to you. Last spring, there were 2 nurseries selling native wildflowers at Kirkwood Farmer's Market on weekends in April and May, and the Missouri Botanical Garden has a native plant sale in May at Shaw Nature Reserve.

10. AND MORE...

FREE WILD SENNA SEEDS:
Dave Berry has lots of Wild Senna seeds for anyone that wants some. Please send a SASE to Dave and he will hook you up with some seeds for this Spring. If interested, Dave's address is: David Berry, 1818 Fairwood Forest Dr., St. Peters, MO 63376-4913. Or email: currentriverATpeoplepc.com

HAVE YOU VISITED THE NABA ONLINE STORE?
If not, visit the store at www.butterflybuzz.com and help to support NABA! Profits from merchandise sales benefit NABA programs, and NABA members can purchase any store item (including binoculars) at a 10% discount (be sure to enter NABA in the discount code box during checkout to receive discount). Happy shopping!

NEWSLETTER ARTICLES WELCOME:
Please send articles, stories, photos, or suggestions for this "Flutterby News" newsletter to: Dave Larson ( larsrblATearthlink.net ). Each Newsletter issue is also found online at: www.naba.org/chapters/nabasl/newsltr.htm