What a spring! This Dogwood Winter has killed back many plants, some of them important host or nectaring plants. In my garden, the swamp and orange milkweeds were about 4-6 inches high. I counted about 50 Monarch eggs on them before the freezes. The plants have wilted, the Monarch eggs probably will not make it. I suppose these early Monarch egg-layers will not be selected for in the upcoming generations. They gambled and lost the genetic game this time.

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Upcoming field trips and counts:

* May 5, Sat., Butterfly/Wildflower Walk at Warner Park in Nashville. 10:00 – 12:00. Register with Rita Venable or Jane Norris.
* May 19, Sat., Butterfly Day at Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary. Call or contact Nancy Garden about this event.
* June 2, Sat., Butterfly/Wildflower Walk at Barfield-Crescent Park in Murfreesboro. 10:00 – 12:00. Register with Rita Venable or Jane Norris.
* June 9, Sat., Butterfly Walk at Shelby Bottoms. Register with Carter and Kelly Harkins.
* June 10, Sun., Parsons (Decatur Co.) Count, Register with Bart Jones.
* June 16, Sat., Soddy-Daisy Count. Register with Bill Haley.
* June 16, Sat., Reelfoot Lake Count. Register with Rita Venable.
* June 23, Sat., Sewanee Count. Register with David Haskell at dhaskell@sewanee.edu.
* June 30, Sat., Land Between The Lakes Count, first year count. Register with Rita Venable.
* July 7, Sat., Nashville/Owl’s Hill Count. Register with Nancy Garden.
* July 8, Sun., Meeman-Shelby Count. Register with Bart Jones.

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First NABA Regional Meeting – March 2007, Gainesville, FL
by Mary Hays

As Florida Flutterbys skip and lep to their natural rhythms some very organized bug heads are planning for the Butterfly’s future.

The Florida Regional NABA Meeting was my first adventure to a regional meeting. As a beginning butterflier and butterfly gardener, I am excited about the programs that are being developed to study and to save the existing colonies of butterflies such as the Miami Blue.

There is so much that we can teach others about butterfly conservation. If the acre(s) of habitat that provides the food, water, and shelter is destroyed, the colony of butterflies in that habitat is also destroyed. Lets let everyone know about that!

The butterflies were cooperative. The field trip leaders were enthusiastic teachers. I learned to identify the Whirlabout Skipper, observed the dark-colored Florida Viceroy, its caterpillar and chrysalis, and observed the black female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail enjoying nectar from thistle.

Through out the weekend, our Florida hosts continued to teach about conservation of habitat in addition to identification of the winged jewels.

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If you would like to receive weekly notices of butterfly sightings across the state, send in your name and email to rita@godtheartist.com.

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Look for our NABA Middle Tennessee chapter story in the next issue of Butterfly Gardener.

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Tanya Jordon of Chattanooga sent in this photo of an Eastern Tailed-blue laying an egg on white clover. Great photo, Tanya!

Bart Jones sent in this photo of a Pipevine Swallowtail nectaring on phlox at Riverwoods in Memphis. Beautiful shot, Bart!

The chapter participated in the Nashville Lawn & Garden Show by having a booth in the non-profit area. The drawing board was a hit! We gave out many brochures about gardening for butterflies, talked with folks about the best field guides to buy and instructed them on how to stay away from invasive plants. We also gave out lots of candy and good will. Many thanks to all who participated!

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Dear Tennessee Butterfly/Moth person,

The 2007 flight season is well underway. Hope you have already seen a few butterflies or moths; also hope you see many more during the remainder of the year.

Please remember that butterfly and moth lists for many Tennessee counties, as reflected at the Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) website, remain spotty; finding a first county record for many species of butterflies and moths is still easy in most counties, though considerable data have been added to the BAMONA website for TN since October 2006, mostly as a result of great effort on the part of Rita Venable. Thanks to Rita and to all who have shared butterfly data with me during the past five and half months.

This year please try to validate as many of your sightings as possible with photographs. For a list of species now documented as occurring in Tennessee, check out the BAMONA website:

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/

For an overview of how to validate butterfly sightings in Tennessee, please consult this page of my website:

http://iweb.tntech.edu/sstedman/TNButterflyDocumentation.htm

I hope to be able to process all new butterfly records for Tennessee within one month of receipt of the data from the observer, but I would be glad to have so much data arrive that this plan becomes difficult to achieve; please overwhelm me with your data!

I am still wrestling with the best way to go about validating county record moth sightings in Tennessee, given my own limited expertise with these critters, but if you have records of Tennessee moths, send them along, and I will find a way to get your records processed and into the database in no more than a few months from date of receipt.

Good lepping, Steve Stedman, Tennessee Coordinator, BAMONA

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Membership is UP! We now have 32 members, some local, some national.

In October, we will elect new officers. We need a president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer. Please thoughtfully consider your role in our chapter’s future.

Rita Venable, president
Middle Tennessee Chapter
North American Butterfly Association

Here is a link to the new Tennessee Butterfly Checklist, which uses the NABA  standard common names.

I’ve been working on a new project, and I thought I would use it to share a video I made last year. Click the button below to see the video.

We have had early reports of Monarchs this year, which is good news. Three locations have females laying multiple eggs on new shoots of milkweed. Here are some comments from our members:

April 12, 2006.

After a lovely day of talking bees and things that fly with kindergarten children, imagine my delight as I walked up the hill to the mailbox and was distracted by a female Monarch laying eggs on our very young Common Milkweed patch! I found eggs on many of the sprouts, and also on one sprout of Swamp Milkweed in the Butterfly Garden. (The other SwMkd sprouts are just breaking ground.) We seem to have Monarchs everywhere, some a little faded, but most in excellent condition! What a change from last year, when we saw very few Monarchs- 1 in mid-April and one in mid-May – during the spring season. No eggs or caterpillars during the spring. In fact, I think we have seen more Monarchs in the last three days than all of last summer. It will be interesting to see how things continue.

Nancy Garden, Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary, Brentwood, TN

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April 13, 2006.

On Thursday we watched a female Monarch unfold her wings. She stayed there through Friday. Only today did we

think to attempt to make a picture…Found her on the milkweed and did try to

photograph. The milkweed is about 3 inches tall….there are many white

dots…smaller than the head of a pin…maybe her eggs? (Failed to say the first 2

days she was on a white lilac) .

Pat & Gerald Martin, Bell Buckle, TN

*

I have also had Monarch eggs in my yard in Franklin, TN, a few miles from Owl’s Hill. After Nancy reported her sighting, I went out and found 37 eggs on the swamp milkweed in my garden. Below is a photo. Some of the eggs have now hatched out and I have tiny 1/4 inch caterpillars munching away on the milkweed. I have watered the milkweed, hoping it will grow faster to support this hungry brood, but I have my doubts! -Rita

Also, a word from another member, Jackie Herald:

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April 15, 2006

I just glanced out the window at the native azaleas that are blooming here at the Visitor Center at Montgomery Bell and saw both a male and female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. The park is very busy today with visitors, this warm weather not only brings out the birds, bees and butterflies, but people as well! Have a very safe and blessed Easter.

Jackie Herald, Montgomery Bell State Park near Dickson, TN

:::

Our next field trip is Saturday, May 20, to search for Baltimore Checkerspots with Steve Stedman. Until then, happy butterflying! Rita