IBCM V - Lake Skinner and the Quino Checkerspot

Wednesday was the final day of the IBCM California workshop. The weather forecast had been marginal, however we woke to a gloriously sunny day as we headed out for the Lake Skinner unit of the Southwest Riverside County Multi-species Reserve. The reserve is home to numerous endangered species and we would learn about, and perhaps see, the Quino Checkerspot butterfly. The preserve is perhaps the most beautiful place that we visited on this particular workshop. There had been snow at the high elevations, so the views of the nearby San Bernadino Mountains were particularly impressive.


The meeting room at the reserve is in a charming old one-room schoolhouse. A pair of Great Horned Owls were nesting in a large eucalyptus tree right outside. Unfortunately, my photo of the cute, fuzzy owlet did not turn out well, however one of the adults posed nicely on the building. One of the talks was given by Ken Osborn, who also spoke to us on the first day of the workshop. Ken presented a fascinating account of how local geology affected the soil chemistry, which in turn affected the growth habit of the checkerspot's host plant. It turns out that the caterpillars feed on the type of leaves that the plant produces on one soil type but not the other, so geology combines with host plant presence to determine the distribution of the species.


The meeting room at the reserve is in a charming old one-room schoolhouse. Nearby, a pair of Great Horned Owls was nesting in a tall eucalyptus tree. Photos of the cute, fuzzy owlet did not turn out well, however one of the adults posed nicely on the building. Ken Osborn, who also spoke to us on the first morning of the conference, gave a fascinating talk about how the local geology influences the distribution of the Quino Checkerspot.




As interesting as Ken's talk was, it was such a beautiful day that we were all eager to venture outside, both to see the preserve and to try to find the butterfly. This part of California is quite charming in late March. I really enjoyed walking in the softly green landscape and looking at the spring wildflowers.




It wasn't long before we started finding Quino Checkerspots. There was some concern that our visit was too late and that the butterflies would already be done flying for the year. Not so- we saw dozens of them and there were lots of opportunities for photography.

Quino Checkerspots are endangered because so much of their habitat has been converted to the ever-growing urban and suburban sprawl of southern California. It has been the subject of extensive conservation efforts and a lot of research. I hope that these efforts pay off in the long run. It's a very beautiful species.

IBCM V - Irvine Ranch

Day 2 of the California IBCM workshop included a visit to the Irvine Ranch preserve. It's a huge parcel- over 50,000 acres of coastal sage scrub, chaparral, oak savanna and riparian habitats. As someone who has done land management for many years at Bluff Spring Fen, I was very impressed at the stewardship of a site roughly 500 times the size of the Fen. Although there no endangered butterfly species currently occupy the site, it does represent a spot with the potential for restoration of on or more species.

California Ringlet (Coenonympha tullia california)

Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus)

Sara Orangetip (anthocharis sara)

Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus)

Although we did not see endangered butterflies on this site, the weather was near-perfect, sunny and in the 70s. We saw lots of other butterfly species, and I even managed to photograph a few. The ringlet, orangetip, and blue are all species that I associate with springtime in coastal southern California. I wish I had been able to get a better shot of the orangetip. That species is very uncooperative as a photo subject.

The U-shaped structure is the entrance to a trapdoor spider burrow
We tried bating with a tiny katydid to entice the spider to show, but had no luck

Jerusalem Cricket (Stenopelmatus sp.)

Hide Beetle (Family Trogidae)

We saw a bunch of other arthropods, as well. I wish that we had been able to entice the trapdoor spider to pop out of it's burrow. I suspect that there were just too many of us, and it could sense the vibrations that we were producing as we milled about the area. At one point, I saw what I thought was an ironclad beetle (Family Zopheridae). When I posed it on my hand for a photo, someone pointed out that it was actually a hide beetle (Family Trogidae). I wish I had known that before I put it on my hand- the Trogidae feed on carrion. I wonder where it had been before I grabbed it.

The entire hike was about 4 miles. I spent that part of the day in warm sunshine surrounded by beautiful scenery and valued colleagues. What more can one ask for in a day's work?

IBCM V - Palos Verdes Blue

I'm in southern California attending the fifth installment of the Imperiled Butterfly Conservation and Management workshop. I'm having a great time, thought the weather has been touch and go. Yesterday we began by touring the sitr in Long Beach where the Palos Verdes Blue was re-discovered back in 1994 after having been thought extinct for 11 years.

Discussing the Palos Verde Blue in the Rain

The day began inauspiciously with rain, hard enough that I was briefly reminded of the underwater bioblitz in Indiana from a couple of years ago. Our hosts were gracious in the cold rain. That's Ken with the clipboard and Travis Longicore at the far right. Travis is an ecologist whose work I have admiredfor a while. I was pleasantly surprised when he approached me as we walked to one of the field sites and asked if I was Doug, adding that he was a fan of my blog. I was very complimented, and decided that it was high time to begin posting again. Hi Travis!

Palos Verdes Blue Release Site

After lunch the weather began improving and the decision was made to release a couple dozen adult blues that had been reared in the laboratory. Things (including the workshop participants) were still a bit soggy, but we had a successful field release. I managed to get some decent photos.

Palos Verdes Blue (Glaucophyche lygdamus palosverdesensis)

Underside View

We had lunch and some lectures at Friendship Park, another nearby butterfly release site. After lunch, we took a walk to the top of a hill in the park. The view to the east shows just how urbanized the immediate vicinity of this butterfly's habitat has become. Is it any wonder that this is now an endangered species? As we crested the hill, a lovely vista of the Pacific Ocean and Channel Islands came into view. It was a lovely opening day for the conference, and a good reminder of the importance of dry socks.

Urban Scene Looking East from Friendship Park

IBCM IV - Oregon Zoo

Racks of Oregon Silverspot Caterpillars at the Oregon Zoo

It's hard to believe that it has been a full year since the series of Imperiled Butterfly Conservation and Management workshops began in Toledo. I've just returned a couple of weeks ago from the fourth installment at the Oregon Zoo in Portland.

Feeding Larvae

We're already pretty familiar with the butterfly conservation lab at the Oregon Zoo. Vincent and I visited a couple of years ago for some really great training from these folks. Since then our butterfly rearing has been far more successful. These scenes are very familiar to us. The first day of the conference involved lectures and a tour of the zoo. Sadly, I was not able to reconnect with my best penguin friend in the world.

Taylor's Checkerspot Habitat

Days two and three of the conference involved field trips. (Yay!! always the best part!) We visited one of the few remaining sites for Taylor's Checkerspot. After hearing about how awful the spring weather has been in the Pacific Northwest, we were thrilled to have a beautiful sunny day for our visit. I was a bit surprised at the site. In Illinois, very rare butterfly species are almost invariably found on sites with high-quality native vegetation communities. This site was dominated by an invasive grass and ox-eye daisy, a Eurasian plant.

Salt-spray Meadow Right on the Coast Just South of Newport

In the afternoon, conference organizers put us to work. We visited a salt-spray meadow, home to the federally endangered Oregon Silverspot. Conference participants helped release silverspot larvae and planted both host plants (violets) and a variety of nectar-producing plants to support the butterfly.

Nathan and I Release Oregon Silverspot Caterpillars

We spent the second night of the conference in Newport, a beach town on the Oregon coast. We had some free time late in the afternoon. I was excited to go down to the dunes to try to photograph the Pacific Coast Tiger Beetle. Unfortunately, the weather got cool and foggy. I was pleasantly surprised to find and photograph a single Oregon Tiger Beetle. Tony found a freshly-dead Pacific Coast Tiger Beetle, but , unfortunately, that was the only one that we saw.

Oregon Tiger Beetle (Cicindela oregona)

Dinner was at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. It was a nice surprise. I had not heard of it, and it's a delightful aquarium. I recommend it. I especially enjoyed the numerous tanks of jellies that they displayed. The evening's lecture as by Scott Hoffman Black, CEO of the Xerces Society.

Display of Jellies at the Oregon Coast Aquarium

Thursday involved a visit to NRCS, the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Eugene. This is a totally cool place. They grow all kinds of plants for conservation and restoration purposes, and they do it on an agricultural scale. They had all kinds of really cool farm equipment that had been modified to harvest seed from plants that are not agricultural crops. I was especially impressed with their arrangement for large-scale cultivation of violets for seed production. We could really use something like that here in Illinois.

Agricultural-scale Cultivation of Viola adunca

After lunch, we proceeded to a site where Fender's Blue, another endangered species, is being managed. Here again, I was surprised at the dominance of non-native plant species like tall oat grass, ox-eye daisy, and cow vetch.

Kincaid's Lupine, host plant of Fender's Blue

By this time, the participants were getting a bit giddy. Brian did an imitation of the Green Man. Tony, from the Henry Doerly Zoo in Omaha, did his usual death-defying number by handling a velvet ant. Velvet ants are wingless wasps with a potent sting that gives them the nickname "cow killers."

The Green Man

Tony Courts Death (Again!) by Holding a Velvet Ant

Since the crew obviously needed a bit of calming down, we had dinner at the brew pub at the Grand Lodge Hotel. The dinner speaker was Robert Pyle, author of many books including the Audubon Field Guide to Butterflies of North America. He autographed his book The Butterflies of Cascadia.

The next, and final, installment of IBCM isn't until June 2011. We're hosting at The Nature Museum, and the bar has been set pretty high. I'm looking forward to it.

IBCM Part 3

Last week, I was part of the third installment of the Imperiled Butterfly Conservation and Management Workshop. This one was held at Fairchild Botanical Gardens in Miami (the previous two were held at the Todedo Zoo last July, and at the Florida Museum of Natural History in October).

It was fun going back to Fairchild after just a month. I saw more Atala butterflies this time than I did in February, however my February photo is better that what I managed to get this time around. On the other hand, I got a much better shot of the caterpillar this time, and managed to find a pupa to photograph.

Atala larva (Eumaeus atala)

Atala pupa (Eumaeus atala)

There were huge numbers of Needham's skimmers (Libellula needhami) in the gardens.

Needham's skimmers (Libellula needhami)

The focus of this session was originally to have been on propagating plants, and we had a couple of really wonderful hands-on sessions from some of Fairchild's very knowledgeable staff. In response to participant needs and some newly-emerging information, this session also highlighted disease and prevention issues. Last summer, a new paper described unanticipated implications for conservation efforts that can arise out of infection with a very strange bacterial pathogen called Wolbachia, and I was asked to give a presentation on it. I enjoyed that a lot, because it was a very challenging talk to put together, and it was well received.

We had a field trip day on Tuesday that included stops: Bahia Honda and Big Pine Key. I had visited both of these spots a month earlier. It was fun to see them a bit further into the spring season.

Vincent and I on Bahia Honda

The weather was much nicer this time around than it had been in February, however the earlier cold weather had taken a toll. We were looking for two endangered species, the Miami blue and Bartram's hairstreak, and saw neither of them. At Bahia Honda, I did get a photo of Martial's hairstreak, which is an uncommon species. The cassius blue is not uncommon, but I was happy with the quality of my picture.

Martial's Hairstreak (Strymon martialis)

Cassius Blue

At Big Pine Key, the group met with one of the site managers and then spit up for some exploration to look for Bartram's hairstreak. As we were splitting into smaller groups, Jaret suggested that some people tag along with me as I know Big Pine Key (somewhat true) and could help with plant identification (Yikes- so NOT true. I only know about a dozen species from that ecosystem). Still, it wasn't a disaster. We got to have fun and I got to see the imperiled Florida duskywing.

Butterfly Conservationists at Big Pine Key

Florida Duskywing (Erynnis brunnea)

I really enjoyed the conference a lot. At the same time I'm happy for a bit of a pause in my travels. My next trip will not happen until June, when Part 4 of the conference will take place at the Oregon Zoo in Portland.

IBCM

Caution: If you are UrSpo, you may want to exercise caution when scrolling through this post. Other arachnophobes may also wish to exercise caution.

IBCM Participants at the University of Florida Natural Area

Greetings from the departure lounge at JFL International Airport. I'm awaiting my flight to Hong Kong and on to Malaysia. I have no idea what Internet access will be like from my Hotel in Penang. I plan to take lots of photos, and look forward to blogging about my trip.

I'm just back from the second installment of IBCM, the Imperiled Butterfly Conservation and Management Workshop. The first installment was last July at the Toledo Zoo. This week we were in Gainesville, Florida at The McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity. In addition to lots of lectures and demonstrations, we were treated to a tour of the Center and some visits to local natural areas.

Compactor Shelving at the McGuire Center
Each tray is full of pinned butterflies and moths


A tray full of pinned Arctiid moths


Dr. Tom Emmel shows the group a mounted series of Xerces Blues (Glaucopsyche xerces) This speces has been extinct since about 1940

We had several opportunities to visit the McGuire Center's Butterfly Rainforest.

Anartia sp.


The Clipper (Parthenos sylvia)
I hope to see this species in the wild in Malaysia

The workshop included visits to the University of Florida's natural area, and Morningside Nature Center in Gainesville. Both of these are restored Longleaf Pne habitats. I felt a bit like cedrorum as I visited the siets. Neither is home to Red-cockeaded Woodpeckers, but they were both lovely natural areas.

UF Natural Area
The wooded section in the background has not been burned.


Our host Jaret at the Morningside Nature Center

I got a few invertebrate photos at Morningside