Category: Blog

So… most everyone knows about counting birds, but how about butterflies? Yes! And the butterfly counters are as dedicated at the bird counters.

Come Saturday to Black Bayou Lake NWR, 9 a.m., to learn about the North American Butterfly Association and its official butterfly counting system. Craig Marks, who authored the definitive field guide to butterflies in our part of the world, will be our expert instructor.

After an orientation in the Conservation Learning Center at BBL, we’ll get a taste of counting butterflies! Craig says if we identify more than 20 species of butterflies, we’ll turn it into an official NABA count. BTW, there is an expense involved in becoming an official NABA count, so if that happens, we will each chip in $3 to defray that expense.

After counting butterflies, we will gather back at the learning center to finalize the count and get our questions answered by Craig. He will also have a few copies of his book to sell, and if you already have it, I’m sure he’ll sign it for you.

Bring plenty of water. I’m sure it will be hot and butterflies mostly fly in the sun. All the usual outdoor gear you need for BBLNWR, including hat, highly recommended.

This event is the 2Q meeting of Louisiana Master Naturalists–Northeast. Our membership chair, Susan Hoover, distributed an invitation to this event that details the agenda for the day. The afternoon will end with our 2Q business meeting. Visitors are welcome to attend.

Rendezvous 2022 is on! After no meeting in 2020 and only a virtual meeting in 2021, the LMNA state board is excited and delighted to invite Louisiana Master Naturalists to Rendezvous in person, April 1-3, 2022.

Our headquarters will be the Country Inn & Suites in Pineville, La., and our workshops and meetings in the Pineville Convention Center connected to the hotel. A bloc of rooms has been reserved for us at the convention rate of $89 per night.

Our program is looking very good, with sessions on doing citizen science, the LDWF’s Wildlife Diversity program, the Native Plant Society’s Certified Habitat program, Louisiana’s whooping cranes, the wasting disease threat to our deer population, the Louisiana black bear conservation success story… and much, much more.

In addition to educational workshops, field trips are offered, with one lead by botanist Dr. Charles Allen and another by the state’s red-cockaded woodpecker expert. Our own Stephanie Herrmann is leading a “canoe and haiku” adventure. I will devote a future blog post to the program.

For now, LMNA Communications Officer Charles Paxton is constantly updating the Rendezvous 2022 website here. He us also running a Facebook group that serves as a communication hub for the event here and a Facebook photo contest here. Please be aware that you must be registered and paid for Rendezvous 2022 before you can join the Facebook groups.

Please give Rendezvous 2022 some serious consideration. I have gone to every Rendezvous since about 2015. My only regret/complaint is that it impossible to do and see everything on the program!

Need to complete your certification requirements? Need to begin accumulating continuing ed hours? LMN-NE has a lot to offer!

January 25, Basic Field Skills – Nova Clark, Amy Ouchley and Bette Kauffman will reprise their basic field skills workshop but with some important differences. Amy will present a draft of her certification project on observing, writing and sketching. Bette will demonstrate how photography and iNaturalist can enhance your knowledge. Nova will present on interpretation, which is what we all must do for our certification projects.

Although this workshop will contain some new material, if you used the first one we offered in early 2018 toward certification, this one will count as continuing ed credit.

March 14, Phenology – Dr. Joydeep Bhattacharjee has developed a new specialty and is anxious to present it to us! This is an entirely new topic, thus will count for certification credit even if you took one of Dr. Joydeep’s ecology workshops. If you are already certified, it will count as continuing ed.

As some of you recall, Dr. Joydeep is a big fan of citizen science. When I asked him to pick a date for this workshop, he picked early March because he wants to get us started collecting data ASAP.

April 11, Bugs – We are going to make this happen. Yay! When the Trammells were here to participate in our graduation, they gave me a new lead and I am happy to report that Stacy Blomquist eagerly accepted my invitation. She works for the National Forest Service, developed her workshop for the CENLA chapter, and–icing on the cake–has a relative living in our corner of the state. We win!

Judging by the photo she sent me, she’s going to fit right in with our chapter! 🙂

Again, this is a brand new one for us, so…. if you’re working toward certification, be there! And if you’re already certified, continuing ed, of course.

April 25, Mammals – Back by popular demand, Dr. Kim Tolson is looking forward to repeating her workshop with us, but she too is thinking about some new ways to create a learning experience for us. Whatever she comes up with, I’m sure it will be fun and informative.

Soooo….. there you have it, folks! Get these dates into your planner now. It’s going to be a great spring series, and I hope to continue it into May and June. A few general reminders:

1. Details will be forthcoming on all of these. Stay tuned!

2. Our workshops cost $25 each. They are for adults only. Although non-members can attend, members seeking certification will get priority.

3. Your 7th workshop is free, so if I forget to let you know that it’s your 7th, please remind me.