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Yes, it was cold and rainy, but…. what a blast! It would take much more than 37 degrees F and drizzle to ruin Rendezvous for me!

In fact, rain makes beauty, not only like that above, but in terms of what requires wet conditions to grow. This year’s Rendezvous was at Camp Hardtner near Pollock, La., a place I have been many times. But I have never seen sundews all over the place as we did this weekend.

Sundew is a tiny omnivorous plant of bogs and seeps. The red basal leaves are about the size of a quarter. They are hairy and at the tip of each hair is a drop of sticky liquid that catches ants and other small crawlers for the plant to eat. The plants had flower spikes this weekend, with tiny pink buds about to open.

Because of the weather, we did not spend as much time in the field as is typical for Rendezvous. The Board meeting Saturday afternoon also kept some of us in. However, Sunday dawned cool and beautiful, so the remaining diehards went out for about two hours. Kim Paxton and a person from another chapter are both working on species lists, which will ultimately be integrated and put on iNaturalist.

The speakers were excellent, but probably the highlight of the entire weekend for me was the return of the calico pennant dragonflies. I have only seen and photographed this species here at Camp Hardtner. They are a small dragonfly with wings that look like gold filigree in the sun. We saw two, both females. I was ecstatic!

I wouldn’t want you to go too long without hearing from me! And I want you to know what I’m working on so you can be thinking ahead and getting excited.

Certification Workshop #2 is scheduled: April 28, 9 – 3, with Dr. Charles Allen, “Plants of Northeast Louisiana.” Location: Kisatchie National Forest in the Georgetown vicinity. Registration is open on the Certification tab of this website and registrations are rolling in. Make sure you have a seat! Dr. Allen and I are working out details.

Certification Workshop #3: tentatively a Saturday in early June, 9 – 3, with Dr. John Carr, herpetologist. The classroom portion will be done in a lab on the ULM campus. The field site is yet to be decided.

Certification Workshop #4: tentatively a Saturday in late June, 9 – 3, aquatic life with Dr. Anna Hill. This one will involve field observing and collecting specimens at Black Bayou Lake, then going to a lab on the ULM campus to examine what we have and learn more.

Certification Workshop #5: tentatively a Saturday in July, 9 – 3, with Dr. Joydeep Bhattacharjee, plant and restoration ecologist. This one will begin at Kiroli Park in West Monroe, then caravan to Restoration Park in West Monroe for more field observation.

No certification workshop in August, but we will have our 3rd quarter meeting at the Union Parish Library in Sterlington. I plan to invite a couple of people who do wildlife rescues and rehabilitation.

Sept, Oct., Nov.: very tentative plans: Watershed Dynamics (hoping for Kelby Ouchley); Birds (Dr. Terri Maness, La Tech); Mammals (perhaps Dr. Kim Tolson, I hope at Tensas NWR); Bugs (????); wrap-up session.

December: Graduation for those who made it to at least 8 of these 10 workshops!!

I have identified the damselflies we saw at Black Bayou Lake NWR on the field hike for our first certification workshop. Of the several photos I took, only one is in sufficiently sharp focus to show anyone! Nevertheless, the others were good enough to know that all I photographed were the same species.

The key identifying feature of this damselfly is the division of the shoulder stripe into a line and dot “exclamation point,” which you can clearly see in the photo. If I hadn’t been at the right angle to get that in the photo, I would not be able to make a positive identification.

Fragile forktails look quite similar to citrine forktails, and that’s what I thought it was in the field. But the unmistakable exclamation point on the shoulder makes this a positive ID.

The species list for workshop one is now complete. I have uploaded a pdf here:

1. Basic Field Skills Species List

Don’t forget to register for workshop two, Plants of Northeast Louisiana with Dr. Charles Allen. The link is ready on the Certification tab of this website.

I haven’t generated an agenda yet. I have to go to Alexandria this coming Tuesday, and I will swing by the site on my way home. I need to check out several things that I want to put on the agenda, e.g., where we’ll meet, best directions to the field site, etc.

But you don’t need to wait to register! We do need to know how many as soon as possible, as Dr. Allen always provides handouts and I will need to get them photocopied.

And for this workshop, my task will be to put down the camera for a change, stay close to Dr. Allen and come home with an accurate list of the plant (and other) species we identify in the field. We did well at Black Bayou, but I’ve been in the field with Dr. Allen. I’ll bet we’ll have more!

Sorry for being MIA the past few days. I did have a great time in Chicago!

Certification Workshop #2 is scheduled Saturday, April 28, at a location near the Ouachita River Lock and Dam near Columbia. (More about that below.) Recall that we were going to do a BioBlitz on this date, but that had to be cancelled due to flooding of the ULM Biological Station site.

Dr. Charles Allen was going to be at the BioBlitz and was going to do a workshop with us either the day before or the day after. Happily, he is still available, and so we will go ahead with a Saturday workshop. I hope you still have the date reserved!

The Certification page of this website has been updated; please register as soon as possible. And I do apologize to the birders, as I know at least some of you will be at the Ornithological  Society meeting. Problem was, Dr. Allen was still available and none of the other workshop leaders I’m negotiating with are available that soon.

I will provide more info and a map in a future post. For the moment, Dr. Allen and I visited this site a couple of years ago, and that’s when I took these photos. I plan to speak with the McDonald’s Restaurant in Columbia about us meeting and having the “classroom” portion of Dr. Allen’s workshop there, but as is Dr. Allen’s standard practice, we will spend most of the day in the field.

More to come!! I’ll share an agenda as soon as I’ve cleared it with Dr. Allen. And, yes, pine straw is the pits, but sometime you just can’t move it out of the way!

You know the saying! Maybe you prefer “Life is what happens while you’re making plans!”

Either way, the ULM Biological Station, Charles Allen Nature Preserve has experienced serious flooding–both the low areas of the property and the access roads. Dr. Joydeep of the ULM biology faculty has informed me that the BioBlitz scheduled April 28 has been postponed until fall (no date yet), giving time for things to dry out, damage to be assessed, repairs to trails and bridges, etc.

Recall that we were going to participate in the BioBlitz as our 2nd Quarter educational activity and conduct our business meeting the last half hour of the day. Since that cannot happen, I am looking around and thinking about alternatives. We have many.

This also affects our certification workshop schedule, as Dr. Charles Allen will not be coming north for the BioBlitz, thus will not be readily available to us that weekend. Moreover, Dr. Joydeep is leaving for the Himalayas on a research trip with his graduate assistant at the end of the spring semester and has asked to move his workshop to July.

How about some lovely water oak catkins to soothe frayed nerves?

So…. keep your eye on this space as I take stock and reconnoiter! We will go forward with all possible haste. I will post an update as soon as possible, but since I am about to leave town for a few days, it might be next week.

Peace!