Past Issue December 2005
In This Edition:
1) Upcoming Events NABA's MISSION STATEMENT: 1. UPCOMING EVENTS – JANUARY 2006 Sunday, January 22, 2005 – 1:30 to approx. 4:00 p.m.NABA-St. Louis's holiday potluck party, Powerpoint presentation and Silent Auction will be held at Washington University's Tyson Research Center. See article below for more information and directions. 2. BUTTERFLY SIGHTINGS FOR OCT. and NOV. 2005 by Yvonne Homeyer Additional October Sightings: Jeannie Moe reported the following butterflies in October. On 10/13 at Marais Temps Clair Conservation Area in St. Charles County, which contains wetlands habitat, she observed 1 Checkered White, 16 Cabbage Whites, Cloudless Sulphurs, 22 Orange Sulphurs, 5 Clouded Sulphurs, 4 Little Yellows, 12 Pearl Crescents, 23 Variegated Fritillaries, 1 Bronze Copper, and 38 Common Checkered-Skippers. (Variegated Fritillary has been scarce at other locations this year.) At Fountain Lakes on 10/18, Jeannie counted 6 Checkered Whites, 2 Little Yellows, 1 Cloudless Sulphur, 12 Orange Sulphurs, 10 Buckeyes, 8 Pearl Crescents, 1 Gray Hairstreak, 5 Sachems, and 1 Peck’s Skipper. The following day, 10/19, she found 2 Bronze Coppers at the same location. Painted Ladies were still flying at Busch Wildlife on 10/30 (Jim Ziebol). November Sightings: As expected, butterfly sightings tapered off as November progressed. On 11/2, Jim Ziebol visited Busch Wildlife and found 4 Clouded Sulphurs, 1 Cloudless Sulphur, 2 Little Yellows, 1 Question Mark, 1 Gray Comma, 4 Common Checkered-Skippers, 1 Fiery Skipper and 5 Sachems. On 11/4 at Young Conservation Area, Jim counted 1 female Black Swallowtail and 4 Orange Sulphurs, and at Tyson he observed 1 female Checkered White and 1 Sleepy Orange. Sherry McCowan observed a Buckeye and 2 Cloudless Sulphurs in Forest Park on 11/5. In his Crestwood garden, Tom “Terrific” saw 2 Painted Ladies, 2 Buckeyes, Cloudless Sulphur, Clouded Sulphur and several skipper species on 11/8. At Horseshoe Lake on 11/9, Jim Ziebol reported 2 Checkered Whites, 1 Clouded and 1 Cloudless Sulphur, 2 Southern Dogface, 2 Sleepy Oranges, and 11 Buckeyes. On 11/11, at Young Conservation Area, Jim counted 6 Orange Sulphurs, 1 Gray Comma, and 7 Buckeyes. Jeannie Moe observed Checkered White, Orange Sulphur, an Anglewing species, and Common Checkered-Skipper on the Lindenwood campus on 11/13. On 11/19, Jim Ziebol found 1 Gray Comma at Mark Peters’ prairie. Contributors: Tom “Terrific” Krauska, Sherry McCowan, Jeannie Moe, Mary-Eileen Rufkahr, Jim Ziebol. 3. NABA HOLIDAY PARTY - SUNDAY JANUARY 22nd From 1:30 to approximately 4:00 p.m. on Sun. Jan. 22, 20065,NABA-St. Louis's holiday party will be held at Washington University's Tyson Research Center. This event will be a potluck affair, so please bring your favorite food dish. A silent auction, a "Powerpoint" slideshow of our members' best butterfly/outing photos, and attendance prizes will be features of the day. Tyson Research Center Directions:From the junction of I-44 and I-270, go west on I-44 about 7 miles to the Antire Rd/ Beaumont exit (exit #269). The entrance gate to Tyson is about 100 yards past the exit ramp stop sign on the right (north side of I-44). At the entry gate or Gatehouse please sign in or check in with the Gate Attendant, and then proceed down the road to the Tyson Headquarters Office for our party. See you there! 4. REQUEST FOR BUTTERFLY PHOTOS AND AUCTION ITEMS If you wish to have your favorite butterfly and/or NABA outing photos, slides or digital images taken in the last year included in the Holiday Party Powerpoint presentation, please send them, along with identifying details, to Kate Boden at the address below. Original photo prints or slides will be returned after scanning. Additionally, our Chapter is gathering silent auction items for our Holiday Party fundraising effort. If you have any items you are willing to donate, please contact Kate: Kate Boden The deadline for submitting photos or auction items is Wed., Jan. 18th, 2006. 5. RIO GRANDEVALLEY BUTTERFLIES by Yvonne Homeyer It is always a treat to visit the Rio Grande Valley of Texas just as our local butterfly season in St. Louis is coming to an end. October and November are the peak times for butterflies in the Valley (and northern Mexico). This year, my travel dates (Nov. 18–22) were the latest I’ve ever been in the Valley but the Eupatorium bushes were bursting with fresh blossoms. Eupatorium is the best butterfly attractor, followed by White Plumbago, Heliotrope, and Lantana, and if the Eupatorium is in bloom, butterflies are guaranteed to be fluttering around the Valley butterfly gardens in good numbers. Within 30 minutes of getting off my Southwest Airlines flight in Harlingen, I found myself in the Valley Baptist Medical Center. Not for any medical emergency, thank goodness, but on a quest for the Blomfild’s Beauty that had been reported there the previous day. My friend Ellie Thompson (a Valley resident) and I quickly located this rare butterfly perched with wings closed and protruding out from a shady brick wall in a recess of the garden. We only got photos of the underside because we did not want to get too close and make it fly. We felt very conspicuous walking through the hospital corridors with binoculars and cameras! Cool, rainy weather kept the butterflies hidden for the first two days but warm sunny weather greeted us when we visited the NABA Butterfly Park and World Birding Center near Mission in the western part of the Valley. Hundreds of Queens and Snouts fluttered around the Eupatorium bushes within inches of our faces. Think of your best day butterflying in the St. Louis area and multiply that by 20 and you would start to come close to the abundance of butterflies you can see in the Valley in one spot at one time. We tallied over 60 species between NABA and the World Birding Center in a single day. Highlights of the trip included Great Southern White, many Dainty Sulphurs (no wonder we didn’t see any in the St. Louis area – they were all in Texas), the magnificently bright Large Orange Sulphur, Lyside Sulphur, Julia Heliconian, Dusky-blue Groundstreak, Silver-banded Hairstreak (a lime-green butterfly), Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak, Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak, Western Pygmy-Blue, Red-bordered Pixie (stunning with red, black and yellow hues), Great Purple Hairstreak, Gulf Fritillary, Mexican Fritillary, Empress Leilia, Bordered Patch, Texan Crescent, Theona Checkerspot, Tropical Buckeye, Band-celled Sister, White Peacock, Common Mestra, Mexican Bluewing, Tropical Leafwing, White-striped Longtail, Brown-banded Skipper, White-patched Skipper, Southern Skipperling (even smaller than our Least Skipper), Common Mellana, Fawn-spotted Skipper, Julia Skipper, Eufala, Ocola Skipper, Whirlabout, and the ever-present Clouded Skipper. We missed by an hour a Green-backed Ruby-eye (a skipper) at the NABA Butterfly Park, which would have been a lifer for me. And just days before I arrived, two rare hairstreaks, Aquamarine and Gold-bordered, a Yellow-tipped Flasher, and a Common Spurwing (2nd U.S. continental record) had been seen and photographed in the western end of the Valley. Ann Vacek, the restoration ecologist for the NABA Butterfly Park, and Javier, a biology student intern from Pan-American University in Edinburgh, treated Ellie and me to a private tour of NABA’s land along the Rio Grande River, behind the levee. This 72-acre area is now open fields containing a number of invasive non-native plants that will eventually be replaced by native trees, shrubs, and flowers. Ann and Javier showed us a rare native species of Butterfly Bush that they found on NABA’s land and which they are trying to propagate. The NABA Butterfly Park is an ambitious botanical restoration project which will unfold over a number of years. The butterfly gardens, now in their second year, are the main attractions right now. Unlike the situation in the St. Louis area where habitat disappears, in the Valley local governments and nonprofit nature organizations are collaborating to create habitat. The latest project is the Hugh Ramsey Nature Park in the middle of Harlingen which consists of several walking paths, some planted gardens, and access to the arroyo (water). I was astounded at the diversity and number of butterflies we found in this urban habitat. In addition, the World Birding Center project is expanding into more and more cities in the Valley, each one with butterfly gardens. Eco-tourism has become recognized for its large economic potential for Valley businesses. You can butterfly from the eastern end of the Valley (Laguna Atascosa NWR, Sabal Palm, Los Ebanos) to the center of the Valley (Hugh Ramsey in Harlingen, Frontera Audubon Park in Weslaco, Santa Ana NWR near Alamo) to the western end of the Valley (NABA and World Birding Center/Bentsen State Park near Mission) and places even further west near towns like Roma, Salineno, and Zapata. Although last year’s trip yielded more of the rarities like Red Rim, Crimson Patch, Red-crescent and Lacey’s Scrub-Hairstreaks, Blue-eyed Sailor, Banded Peacock, Gray Cracker, and Two-barred Flasher, the diversity and sheer numbers of the “regular” butterflies is astounding enough to make any trip to the Valley an enjoyable and memorable experience. And you never know when a rare butterfly or even a U.S. continental record will drop down from the sky to land on a flower right in front of where you are standing. 6. "KID'S CORNER" UPDATE by Mary-Eileen Rufkahr Hey kids – beat the winter doldrums and avoid boredom by creating your own butterfly mobile! Check out the newest link at the Kid’s Corner: http://www.kid-at-art.com/htdoc/lesson23.html When clicking onto the site, you’ll find directions for creating the mobile, plus a mini-lesson on American artist Alexander Calder. You can also link to information on the rainforests and learn how to help conserve butterfly populations around the world. Check out this link, plus all the other links and activities located in the Kid’s Corner. 7. NABA PARTICIPATES IN CONSERVATION FORUM by Ann Earley Our chapter had a display table at the Conservation Forum at the St. Louis Zoo's Living World on Wednesday, November 9. The theme of this year's forum was "Floodplains: Conservation and Development." Many Forum attendees stopped to enjoy the colorful and informative items in our chapter display and to learn more about NABA and our activities. Many thanks to Mary-Eileen Rufkahr for assisting with the display for this event. Watch for the NABA display table at an event near you in 2006! 8. LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT? Consider giving a membership in NABA! With this gift, there are no worries over size, color, etc., no hassles with shopping mall parking lots or lines of shoppers, and the recipient will receive great information from NABA and our local chapter throughout the whole year ahead. Membership information is found on our "online" application form. Happy Holidays from St. Louis NABA! 9. ST. LOUIS IN THE NATIONAL NABA “SPOTLIGHT” by Ann Earley NABA's national publication, the American Butterflies quarterly, once again features St. Louis in the Fall 2005 edition! All NABA members receive this publication as one of their membership benefits. Chapter Webmaster and Newsletter Editor Dave Larson has a digital camera review, along with some great local butterfly photos (featuring gray hairstreak and Southern cloudywing:) on page 31. Page 44 features "Hot Seens" and mentions Chapter founders and Board members Yvonne Homeyer and Jim Ziebol sighting 500 Eastern Tailed-Blues on September 17 at Horseshoe Lake. Thanks for putting St. Louis and our chapter in the national spotlight! 10. REMEMBER ST. LOUIS NABA IN YEAR-END PLANNING As members consider their year-end tax planning, we would like to remind you that since NABA is considered a non-profit organization by the IRS, any contributions to St. Louis NABA are tax-deductible in full. Our chapter receives only a small portion of members' dues and renewals, and relies heavily on this meager income to support our programs and activities during the year. Any additional contributions from chapter members are greatly appreciated. For further information, please contact Ann Earley (contact information below.) Thank you in advance for your support of NABA - St. Louis! 11. MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION… YOUR OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS, AS OF APRIL 2005: (AT = @ in Email address)
NEWSLETTER ARTICLES WELCOME: If you have questions or suggestions, e-mail Ann Earley (aee623ATprodigy.net). MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION: If you would like to join NABA, please fill out this application. You will become a member of both NABA and the local St. Louis Chapter, if you live within the St. Louis metropolitan area or nearby Illinois area: Name ____________________________________________ Dues are $30 (regular) and $40 (family) per year. Please make check payable to NORTH AMERICAN BUTTERFLY ASSOCIATION. Please mail this form with your check to: Scott Marshall, Membership, 609 West Lockwood, St. Louis, MO 63119. |
Editor: Dave Larson, Email: larsrblATearthlink.net ("AT" = @)
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