Louisiana Master Naturalist Association’s Northeast Chapter – Louisiana Master Naturalists

Butterflies Workshop & NABA Butterfly Count

Butterfly Counter volunteers group photo at Black Bayou Lake NWR Visitors' Center — Butterfly Counter volunteers group photo at Black Bayou Lake NWR Visitors’ Center prior to the 2026 NABA Count!

A big thank you to Craig Marks and all the good folk who participated in our Butterflies workshop and NABA Count. Their keen eyes in different locations made this year’s count better than preceding ones, with more species and far more individual butterflies counted!

Craig is Louisiana’s State Lepidopterist, and author of Butterflies of Louisiana, an excellent book about our State’s rich butterfly biodiversity that tell us about our various butterflies and where they have been sighted.

The lecture portion was very comprehensive and included some information about other insects that we might, and in some cases did encounter, with useful comparisons of distinguishing characteristics to help rapid identification. I was impressed by the clarity with which Craig explained the Batesian mimicry among the swallowtail butterflies! When I saw the Pipevine Swallowtails flitting over the Prairie trail, I felt I knew a good deal more about their business thanks to his lecture!

Intermittent Internet prevented the lecture portion to be broadcast by zoom concurrently, but we hastily filmed it for people who were unable to attend in person and shared that privately later. See the event flyer below for an overview of the program.

Butterflies Workshop 5 Flyer Download

The count began auspiciously with observation of a large Monarch butterfly nectaring on some Brazilian Vervain just in front of the Visitors’ Center’s pond!

That made my day! Then our group’s exploration of the Prairie Trail area turned up a lot of butterflies! The Gulf Fritillaries seemed perfectly happy in the blazing sunshine.

I was also impressed by the quick turn-around of the results. We now have a preliminary count from Craig, NB This is yet to be finalized for submission:

“Here are the results I have so far, So 34 identified species which is both 5 more species than recorded before and pleasantly surprising to me. Thanks for everyone’s help on such a hot, humid day. My rough numbers indicate about 300 individual b/fs which is also higher than any previous year.

2 Pipevine ST
3 Giant ST
2 Spicebush ST
1 E. Tiger ST (+2 more Observed by Nathan)
10 Cloudless Suls
1 Large Orange Sulphur (new species for this count)
3 Sleepy Orange
10 Little Yellows
1 Gray HS
1 Unknown HS
1 Monarch
95 Gulf Frits (with one cat and one egg)
1 Variegated Frits
31 Pearl Cres
2 Phaon Cres
2 Buckeye
5 Question Marks
1 Painted Ladies
2 Tawny Emp

18 Red-spotted Purples
7 Viceroy
14 Goatweed Leafwing
2 Hackberry Emps
14 Caro. Satyrs
1 Gemmed Satyrs
3 unknown satyrs
1 Silver-spotted Sks
1 Horace’s DWs
8 Least Sks
14 Clouded Sk
4 Fiery Sks
1 Little Glassywing (new count record)
10 Broad-winged Sks (in 2 new areas, one at the boat ramp, the other along boardwalk that leads to the lake)
1 Dun Sks
17 Duke’s Sks (found along virtually the entire length of the boardwalk)
1 Ocola Sk
5 unknown Sks

Close-up of Monarch Butterfly nectaring on Brazilian Vervain before the visitors center at Black Bayou Lake NWR.

I played with the color picker on my Affinity Photo program and some reddish brown on the wing was 98, 65, 46. On the fungus some was 85, 61, 43. Pretty good camouflage, isn’t it?

Quarterly Meeting Programs

Talking Timberdoodles & Walking with Woodcocks

Bird-dog Quill with American Woodcock in woodland scene — Brittany Bird-dog Quill “pointing” at an American Woodcock *Scolopax minor* in woodland scene created by Suzanne Laird Dartez on Chat GPT

While the title sounds a bit like something from BBC Wildlife programming, it was what we were doing after our First Quarter Members’ Meeting February 7th, 2026, thanks to Certified Louisiana Master Naturalist and LMN-NE Board Secretary Suzanne Laird Dartez!

Her program included an excellent illustrated talk on the American Woodcock (Louisiana Sightings of Scolopax minor on iNaturalist), at which our newest LMN-NE Board Director-at-large, Nathan Green showed us an excellent video of one of several Woodcocks that he had encountered that morning, see his iNat observation!

Following her informative talk, we drove to the trail-head and followed her eager Brittany bird-dog Quill on a brisk and exhilarating walk during which our party saw 8 Woodcocks! There were vernal pools, so the salamanders will be happy, and we were glad of our boots.

Kimmie recorded a video clip of a pointed Woodcock starting, that captures the atmosphere of expectation and excitement very nicely! https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1FgmFvSb1t/

A big thank you to Suzanne for her excellent program, to Jim Kolinski for his excellent support and Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge for their essential provision of venue and awesome wildlife!