Past Meeting and Event Information

Mon Jan 26 - Club Meeting: Wasp Evolution, Biodiversity and Behavior. Presentation by Alan Hook, Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm.

Dr. Allan Hook, Professor of Biology at St. Edward’s University, will speak about the evolution of Hymenoptera, the group that includes wasps, ants and bees. The talk will include subjects such as why there is so much diversity within this large group, and how and why various behaviors developed. Dr. Hook will also show films and explain the behavioral ecology of solitary wasps from Pedernales State Park.

For more information, see Dr. Hook’s website: http://www.stedwards.edu/science/biology/people/hook.html.

Mon Feb 23 - Club Meeting: The Chemistry of Love and Rejection: Tales from Butterflies and Moths. Catalina Estrada, Ph.D candidate at UT Austin, will speak about similarities and differences in sexual communication of butterflies and moths using scents, and about how food, natural enemies or climate can affect the chemical language of love in unexpected ways! She will also talk about what we have learned and how we have deciphered this way of communication in Heliconius butterflies, a well known group of colorful and distasteful butterflies. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm.

Sat and Sun, Mar 21 - 22, Art and Artisans Festival, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Mon Mar 23 - Club Meeting: Painting Butterfly Life Cycles. Nan Wilson. Nan is an artist who specializes in painting butterfly life cycles. Visit her website: Thistledown Studio. Nan will tell us how she selects a creature, raises it, and paints it. She will have art for sale at the meeting. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm.

Sat and Sun, Mar 28 - 29 Zilker Garden Festival, Zilker Botanical Garden.

CANCELLED (Mike may re-schedule later in Sprint) Sun Apr 5 - Field Trip to Palmetto State Park led by Mike Quinn. Details to be announced.

Mon April 27 - Club Meeting: Blacklights and Bananas: What comes out when the sun goes down. Mark McClelland will give a presentation and demonstration on using blacklights and banana baits to attract moths, beetles, bugs, butterflies, and other insects. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm.

Saturday, May 2 Butterfly Workshop at Zilker Botanical Garden. This is a yearly workshop organized by the Austin Butterfly Forum. More information and fee to be announced.

Mon May 25 - Club Meeting: Dung Beetles: Nature's Ultimate Recyclers. Peg Wallace will present information on dung beetle evolution, life cycles and ecology. She will also talk about her research on dung beetles in the Austin area, and give information on how to find and recognize dung beetles. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm.

Mon Jun 22 - Club Meeting: Tips for Identifying Butterflies. Dan Hardy, Zilker Botanical Garden Center 7 pm. Dan Hardy. Do you want to learn how to identify those pesky small brown skippers and look-alike sulphurs? Dan Hardy will show side-by-side photos comparing the common and uncommon butterflies of Austin. This is the traditional warm-up program for the upcoming butterfly count.

Sat June 27 - Annual 4th of July Butterfly Count. Meet in the Zilker Botanical Garden parking lot at 8:00 am. If it is pouring rain we will postpone till the next day. For more information (and if there is to be a rain delay) contact Dan Hardy, [email protected]. Everyone is welcome, including all skill levels. We count butterfly adults and caterpillars within a 15 mile diameter circle centered at Mount Bonnell. In addition to the Botanical Garden, we visit many of the best butterfly spots around town, including the Barton Creek Greenbelt and St. Edward's Park in NW Austin. We usually work as a single group, although if we have enough participants, we may be able to cover multiple areas in parallel.

This is the butterfly equivalent of the Christmas Bird counts. The results are submitted to NABA (North American Butterfly Association). In 2007 we had a record number of species (63) and observers (25) for Austin. See http://www.austinbutterflies.org/counts for reports from prior years.

Be prepared for walking through brush and wet areas. Wear long pants, hat, sunscreen, and insect repellent. Bring water, snacks, close focusing binoculars, and (optional) butterfly nets. The count typically lasts until late afternoon, although you may leave at any time. We have lunch at Triumph Cafe on 3808 Spicewood Springs.

Mon July 27 - Club Meeting: Beetles. Mike Quinn, Beetles are one of the most diverse groups of animals on earth with over 7,500 species reported for Texas and amazingly, over 3,500 species recorded from a single county in Oklahoma! Beetles are found in virtually every habitat and feed on nearly all forms of organic matter, dead or alive. ABF President Mike Quinn will give an overview of this great diversity, methods of finding various species and will discuss ways to identify one's beetles in the age of Google. Quinn earned a master's degree in entomology from Texas A&M University. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm.

Mon Aug 24 - Club Meeting: Moths - the Mysterious Majority. Val Bugh, The 170 species or so of butterflies that occur in the Austin area are fairly well documented. However, the order Lepidoptera also includes moths. The count for these mostly nocturnal species stands around 1700, and there is still much research to be done on them. From creatures as tiny as leafhoppers to those that can be mistaken for birds, the diversity of moths is astounding as well as confusing. This introduction will cover both caterpillars and adults, identifying the major families as well as some oddities, and a look at the beauty of these often overlooked insects. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm.

Mon Sep 28 - Club Meeting: Darwin, Wallace, and Butterflies. Dan Hardy, Talk by Dan Hardy. This year is the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth. I will present the history behind Charles Darwin’s and Alfred Russel Wallace’s discovery of evolution and natural selection, their explorations of the globe and their view of the natural world, a view that is in so many ways still with us.

What about butterflies? For Wallace, butterflies were more than objects of beauty and study; they were a way to make money! He financed his travels by collecting the butterflies that buyers in England wanted. Darwin would use the surprising phenomenon of mimicry in butterflies as evidence for evolution and natural selection. But mimics also posed challenges to the theory, and Darwin and Wallace parted ways in how they would answer those puzzles. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm.

Sat Oct 17 - Garden Tour - A tour for Forum members only (join the club!) that will include several member's gardens and end at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. More details to be announced.

Mon Oct 26 - Club Meeting: Andrea DeLong-Amaya, Director of Horticulture, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Topic to be announced later. . Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm.

Austin Insect Class
Insects are, by far, the most diverse group of animals on earth with some 30,000 species known from Texas alone. They come in a myriad of shapes and sizes with a remarkable diversity of life histories to boot! Valerie Bugh and Mike Quinn will take class participants on a fascinating and informal journey of exploration and understanding into the world of Central Texas insects.
Cost: $65 for ABF members, $70 for non-ABF members.
Meetings:
Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009; 9AM – 12:30 PM
Wednesday, September 30, 2009; 8:00 PM – 10:30 PM
Saturday, October 3, 2009; 9AM – 12:30 PM
A single day class, running from 9AM to 5 PM on Sept. 26 has been added. For more information see http://www.texasento.net/InsectClass.html.

Mon Nov 23 - Club Meeting: Member Show and Tell. Members can show slides of butterflies, ranging from those in the backyard to distant travels, or you can talk about your best butterfly experience of the year. We will have an LCD projector available so you only have to bring a CD or thumb drive. We also have a slide projector. You have 10 minutes. It's a fun way to wrap up the year, as the butterflies dwindle. If you want to participate, please contact Dan Hardy dhh787@yahoo.com. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm.

Mon Nov 30 - Holiday dinner 7 pm at the Zilker Botanical Center. The club provides the ham and members are asked to bring a dish. This date is rather early but the crowded holiday schedule at the garden and their early holiday closure forced it upon us. This is a relaxed meeting and we always enjoy the time to talk and eat.

Mon Jan 28 - Club Meeting: The 2007 El Cielo Butterfly Festival trip. Presentation by Dan Hardy and other club members. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm. Eight club members went on this trip and will share stories and photographs.

Mon Feb 25 - Club Meeting: The Marvelous Maderas del Carmens. Presentation by Ro Wauer, a retired Chief Park Naturalist from Big Bend State Park who has written many butterfly and birding books. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm. If you have visited Big Bend National Park, these are the mountains you see when you look across the Rio Grande River. They are the Mexican counterparts of the Chisos Mountains. Ro and others have been visiting these isolated mountains for the last few years. Ro will tell us about the successful efforts to protect and restore this area. Naturally Curious will have El Cielo maps and a selection of books by Ro and other nature writers for purchase at the meeting. Don't forget: Austin Butterfly Forum members receive a 10% discount.

Sat Mar 15 - Zilker Butterfly Garden Work Day & Butterfly Walk: 9 am - noon

Mon Mar 24 - Club Meeting: Passion Vines of Texas. Presentation by Katie Hansen, who teaches the Native Plants of Central Texas course at the University of Texas at Austin. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm. Katie will tell us about our native Passionflowers, the beautiful genus Passiflora, host plants for the Heliconius family (Zebras and Julias). Topics will cover which Passionflowers to grow, which to avoid, and the complex co-evolution that has been taking place between these butterflies and their host plants.

Cecropia Moth eggs or early caterpillars will be available for those who want to raise them.

Artist Nan Wilson will show her prints of butterfly life cycles.

Mar 29 & 30 - Zilker Garden Festival 10 am - 5 pm. Support the Zilker Botanical Garden by purchasing butterfly larval and host plants and much more. Observe live caterpillars and adult butterflies in our booth. See Zilker Garden Festival for ticket information. Note: Admission and parking are free if you sign up at our March meeting to volunteer in our booth.

Sun Apr 6 - Field Trip: Field trip from 9 am to noon to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Val Bugh and Dan Hardy will be our leaders, looking for butterflies, insects, and spiders at this beautiful garden.

Sun Apr 27 - Field Trip - Rescheduled to Monday because of rain Led by David Wagner and Dan Hardy.

Mon Apr 28 - Club Meeting: Tales of Woe, Deception, and Wonder: The Myriad Defenses of Texan Caterpillars. Presentation by David L. Wagner, author of the recently published Caterpillars of Eastern North America. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm. One theme emphasized in the work is the array of fascinating adaptations that caterpillars employ to elude predators (especially birds). In a presentation suited to a wide age range of nature lovers, Dr. Wagner will show a splendid battery of macrophotographic images that showcase the wonderfully varied and deceitful ploys that caterpillars employ to dupe birds and other would-be predators. Along the way he will touch on silk, spices, and other stuff you'd never associate with a bunch of bugs. The talk features a menagerie of bizarre and beautiful creatures from his book, which has proven to be extremely useful for the Austin area. Dr. Wagner will be selling and autographing copies of his book at this presentation. See this New York Times preview of the fun that's in store.

Sat May 3 - Workshop: How To Know and Grow Austin Butterflies. Learning to identify common butterflies of our area is only one aspect of the Austin Butterfly Forum’s Third Annual Butterfly Workshop, held from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Zilker Botanical Garden Center. Topics will cover hostplants, how raise caterpillars and watch metamorphosis at home, strategies for caterpillar survival, as well as books and resources about this rapidly growing hobby. The workshop will also include a light lunch and a hands-on walk to identify butterflies at Zilker’s Doug Bachly Butterfly Trail. Participants will be given plants to take home to begin attracting butterflies to their own gardens.

To register, please call Jeff Taylor at 255-0368 or kscjtaylor@prodigy.net. The cost is $35.00.

Sun May 4 - Field Trip: Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. Austin Butterfly Forum field trip to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, Sunday, May 4, 2008, 9 am till early afternoon, led by Dan Hardy. Meet at 9:00 am near the restrooms at the circular turnaround. After entering the park and paying the entrance fee, turn left, then right, to cross Sandy Creek. Then turn right, park, and walk to the restrooms near the picnic area and gazebo at the beginning of the Summit Trail. The entrance fee is $6 per person unless you have Texas State Parks Pass. Bring a sack lunch to eat along the trail and water to carry with you. Be prepared for a long hike (3-4 miles) with some rocky areas; wear sturdy shoes, hat, and sunscreen.

We will be assisted by Lance Allred, an Austin-based photographer. Lance is involved in a book project on Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. The project covers the history, geology, weather, flora, fauna, and activities, with the goal of producing a comprehensive multi-disciplinary guide to the park. He will also give our September program. We may find Falcate Orangetip, California (now Arizona) Sister, and Viceroy. The wildflowers can be incredible at this time of year.

For more on Enchanted Rock (about 2 hours from Austin): Enchanted Rock web site

To register, contact Dan Hardy at dhh787@yahoo.com. $5 trip fee for non-ABF members.

Mon May 26 - Club Meeting: Gardening to Attract Butterflies: Questions and Answers. Presentation by Geyata Ajilvsgi. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm. Geyata is the well-known author of Butterfly Gardening for the South. This path-breaking book showed how to design a garden to attract butterflies not only for nectar, but also for caterpillar host plants. Author of Wildflowers of Texas and Wild Flowers of the Big Thicket, East Texas and Western Louisiana, she is a freelance plant field taxonomist working for various environmental consulting firms, an artist (she makes Plains shields), a writer, and a photographer. Two years ago she built a home just west of Wimberley, where she now lives and works. She is currently working on a book on the Butterflies of the Hill Country. Geyata will generously open the floor to questions and will let those questions guide her as she shares her extensive experience about butterflies, gardening and wildflowers.

Mon Jun 23 - Club Meeting: Those Hard-to-Identify Butterflies! Presentation by Dan Hardy, a club board member who enjoys butterfly identification (even skippers!). Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm.

A great warm-up for our June 28th Butterfly Count, this talk will be of interest to butterfly aficionados of all skill levels. Butterfly anatomy and the parts of the wing will be reviewed that provide keys to the field marks for the butterflies we’ll be seeing later this month.

Sat Jun 28 - Butterfly Count. Austin's annual “Fourth of July” Butterfly Count. Meet at the Zilker Botanical Garden Center (2220 Barton Springs Rd.) parking lot at 8:00 am. We count butterfly adults and caterpillars within a 15 mile diameter circle centered at Mount Bonnell. In addition to Zilker, we visit many of the best butterfly spots around town, including the Barton Creek Greenbelt and St. Edward's Park in NW Austin. We usually work as a single group, although if we have enough participants, we may be able to cover multiple areas in parallel.

This is the butterfly equivalent of the Audubon Christmas Bird count, with results turned into NABA (North American Butterfly Association). Last year we had a record number of species (63) and observers (25) for Austin. See http://www.austinbutterflies.org/counts for reports from prior years. All levels of interest and skills are welcome.

Be prepared for walking through brush and wet areas. Wear long pants, hat, sunscreen, and insect repellent. Bring water, snacks, close focusing binoculars, and (optionally) butterfly nets. The count typically lasts until late afternoon, although you may leave at any time. We have lunch at a restaurant between stops.

If it rains Saturday, we might re-schedule to Sunday, June 29th. For questions, contact Dan Hardy.

Mon Jul 28 - Club Meeting: A Trip to the Monarch Sanctuary, presented by Marguerite and Vince Hirsch, along with Mike Quinn. Marguerite and Vince are new members who recently visited the Monarch's mexican wintering grounds. They will share pictures and stories of their trip. Mike Quinn, the club's president, will discuss current issues in Monarch conservation. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm.

Mon Aug 25 - Club Meeting: True Bugs - Overlooked and Underrated. Presentation by Val Bugh, a club member who is a marvelous photographer with wide-ranging interests in the insect world. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm.

The true bugs constitute a large, conspicuous, and diverse insect group. Although frequently encountered, they are often misidentified or passed over as being too confusing. Their size ranges from the minuscule to some of our largest insects. Their appearance can be cryptic or gaudy. Besides basic identification of common species found in the Austin area, Val will provide captivating insights into unusual bug behaviors, survival strategies, and an intimate look at bug life history.

Live Critter Alert! Val will bring a number of live “true bugs” for display. If you have any in your garden that you need help identifying, feel free to bring them.

Mon Sep 22 - Club Meeting: Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. Zilker Botanical Garden Center, 7:00pm. Lance Allred, Austin-based photographer, will discuss his book project on one of Texas' favorite parks, Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. The project covers the history, geology, weather, flora, fauna, and activities, with the goal of producing a comprehensive multi-disciplinary guide to the park. Join him as he discusses some of the ongoing research on its origins, and shows some of his image portfolio, including 55 butterfly species, 90 moths, flowers, damselflies and dragonflies, spiders, insects, mammals, and birds. See the Enchanted Rock web site for more information.

Sun Sep 28 - Field Trip: Wild-Connections Butterfly Farm from 9 am to noon. Val Bugh and Dan Hardy will be our leaders. Their normal $4 entrance fee will be waived for our field trip although we will pass the hat for those who want to make a donation. We'll look for butterflies, other insects, and birds in the butterfly farm's gardens and wild areas with flowers. We may stop at Dromgoole's Natural Gardener Nursery in Oak Hill (8648 Old Bee Cave Road) afterwards.

Wild-Connections is located off Highway 290 West just 9 minutes past the Y in Oak Hill.

Directions: Take Hwy 290 west towards Dripping Springs, turn left at Nutty Brown Rd. (at the traffic light soon after McCoys). Take the next left on Kit Carson - when it turns to the right, go straight into driveway of Wild-Connections. See their map at: http://www.wild-connections.com/contact/