The Butterflies of the World Foundation
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NEWS
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12 January 2012
The crew here at BOTWF hopes everyone had a great holiday season and your new year has started well. We’ve been busy here updating the website and getting ready for 2012. The 2012 calendar is now loaded and the 2011 calendar and 2011 News have been archived. We’ll maintain a link to all of our archived pages at the top of this page.
Well, we still have a bit of time before butterflies start flying here in the U.S. However, for planning your events for this year, now’s the time to contact us. Even during the winter, we can give our presentations indoors. The BOTWF has already been receiving emails and phone calls, and dates will start filling fast. Check out our Programs page to see what we offer.
Along with presentations, Bryan’s been planning photography trips. He also just finished his selections of his favorite butterfly photos for 2011. Click here to see them.
Work is still slowly progressing on completing the species treatments and Caitlin has finished several new range maps which have already been loaded to the site.
Many more exciting projects are in the works for 2012 and we’ll keep you up to date with regular updates.
22 February 2012
The weather is warming and butterflies have already been seen here in our home state of Oklahoma. So far all of them have been species that overwinter as adults, such as Mourning Cloaks. But new, freshly emerged, adults shouldn’t be too far behind. News from here includes Bryan finishing the species treatments. Also, while going through images for his photography business clients, he found several that he thought should be loaded on this website. A total of 52 species have new images added. Here’s the list, and hopefully, a few of your favorites are here. Check them out and let us know what you think.
Bryan is now in the process of getting a few species prepared to load that he photographed in tropical South America. Please keep checking right here for updates.
8 March 2012
Things have quickly warmed up here in central Oklahoma and fresh butterflies are flying. Spring break is just a couple weeks away and the BOTWF is scheduled to give a total of four presentations during that week for the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, here in Oklahoma. We’ll be giving the popular presentation, Butterflies...Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?, on the 17th and 24th of March at 1100 and 1400 both days. If you’re in the area, please plan to attend. All the presentations are free and open to the public and will be held in the theater room of the Visitor’s Center.
Have you been brushing up on your butterfly identifications and getting ready for the season? Here’s a test: Can you identify the four butterflies gathering nectar from the wild blue indigo in the photo to the right? The photo was taken on 7 May 2006 at the Lexington Wildlife Management Area, Cleveland County, in central Oklahoma. Here’s a hint, there are three different species and the top and bottom butterflies are the same species. Email us here with your guesses and stay tuned to the next update for the correct answers.
Also, several more presentations are being worked out for the year. In April we’ll
be at the 6th Annual Arbuckle-
23 March 2012
Spring is erupting here in central Oklahoma. The plums and redbuds are in full bloom and fresh butterflies are flying. We’ve also been getting some badly needed rain. Bryan gave two presentations to eager audiences at Bradford Village in Edmond, Oklahoma, on 12 March. Last Saturday he was at the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge for two presentations and he’ll be there again this weekend for two more.
Bryan added 25 new species from his past trips to Trinidad and Surname. Here are the links to the species pages:
4 April 2012
Since we’re based out of Oklahoma, many of the butterfly activities we do are in our home state. During our presentations, we encourage people to track or list the species they see if they wish and also to report new county records. We often get asked about a list of county records in Oklahoma and there is actually one available. Thanks to John Fisher and John Nelson, this list is found here. Thanks to these two gentlemen for compiling and maintaining this list.
Bryan gave two more presentations to the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge
on 24 March which were very well received. Another big event is planned for the
27th and 28th of this month; The 6th Annual Arbuckle-
Bryan’s
8 May 2012
There’s been a lot of activity here at the Butterflies of the World Foundation since
the last post. Bryan was at the The 6th Annual Arbuckle-
Redbud
Other butterfly activities that have been posted on our calendar are several butterfly counts. For those just starting out learning your local butterflies, we highly recommend participating in a butterfly count. What happens at a count is everyone is divided up into small groups with a ‘leader’ for each group. This person is usually a local expert on the local butterflies and typically these people are very eager to help others who are interested in learning the local butterfly fauna. You head out with your group to designated places at the count location, sometimes even to areas the public may not normally be allowed. Then you count every species, and how many of them there are. If you hang with your group leader, or other seasoned butterfliers, you’ll quickly learn the butterflies in that area.
Besides counting butterflies, photography of them is another rewarding endeavor.
Bryan was out to several locations in Oklahoma this spring chasing many species.
On 31 March, he was in Sulphur, Oklahoma, looking for adults of the Frosted Elfin.
You can read about the hunt in the 2011 News Archive. This was an exciting find
and not only did he get photos of them, but he also got them ovipositing. And to
make things even better, after the Frosted Elfins, he drove the ten minute drive
to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area and was able to find and photograph some
Yucca Giant-
Bryan has also been photographing larval food plants (associated butterflies in parenthesises) and this spring he was able to get wild plum (Coral Hairstreak), redbud (Henry’s Elfin), various violets (Great Spangled Fritillary and Variegated Fritillary) and fresh emerging post oak and blackjack oak leaves (Oak Hairstreak, Banded Hairstreak, Horace’s Duskywing, Juvenal’s Duskywing and Sleepy Duskywing).
Another subject Bryan’s been looking for are immature butterflies. He photographed a Question Mark caterpillar on elm and a Variegated Fritillary strangely on a cactus. Perhaps it was searching for a place to pupate?
This has been one of the best years to observe butterflies in our home state of Oklahoma in a long time. We hope you’ve been able to enjoy it and we’ll see you at the next update.
Wild Plum
Wild Plum
Arrowleaf Violet
Wild Pansy
Blackjack Oak
Post Oak
