Broward County Butterfly Chapter
BCBC February 2014 Newsletter
browardbutterflies.org
Next Meeting: Tuesday, February 11, 2014
6:30 p.m. Plant Table Preview and Social Time
7:00 p.m. Hank Poor:
“BioImaging: Beauty and Wonder - Butterflies, Insects, and Plants”
Location: Fountain Room at Plantation Heritage Park
1100 S. Fig Tree Lane, Plantation, FL. 33317 [email protected]
Direction:
From I-95 and Davie Blvd:
Head west on Davie Blvd, which turns into Peters Road. Turn right, north, on
South Fig Tree Lane. Entrance is on the right, east. Come through the park's
gate, drive to the east on the park's single lane road to where it makes a bend
to the left. Go past the building and then make a left turn into the parking lot.
The Fountain Room is opposite the park's office.
Dear BCBC Members and Friends:
Please join us on Tuesday, February 11th at Plantation Heritage Park for our next meeting when Hank
Poor will be presenting “BioImaging: Beauty and Wonder - Butterflies, Insects, and Plants”. Hank
has been a member of NABA and the Miami Blue Chapter since the spring of 2004. To make a long
story short, after much experimentation, Hank designed and created his own set up for cameras
and lenses to photograph various images of the life stages of butterflies, their body parts, and
other amazing images blown up thousands of times. Hank’s new photographs will be sure to impress
and amaze you.
Hank shared the following:
“When the Fall 2004 edition of American Butterflies came out, there was an article, “Ooing Over
Ova” by Patti Murray, with pictures of butterfly eggs and I said, “I can do that!” That’s when this
started. When the Science Village at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden opened last December, I
was offered some space in the Microscopy and Imaging Lab. That’s where I go, usually on Thursday
mornings, doing macro-imaging - mainly of butterflies and their parts. Since the Butterfly
Conservatory is next door, there is a large supply of specimens. But also I have worked with ferns,
Locustberry, and Mangifera specimens. Because this is the 100th anniversary of David Fairchild’s
Book of Monsters, I have also been photographing insects, especially the heads.”
At our last meeting, we all enjoyed and learned some interesting facts about finding butterflies in
uncommon places shared by Steve Woodmansee, President, Florida Native Plant Society, during his
presentation, “That's a Butterfly Garden? Surprising Places for finding Uncommon Butterflies”.
Please read Art’s contribution below describing a local place in central Broward that he has found
for sighting butterflies which models Steve’s topic.
Emerald Awards:
There were two rounds of final judging to select the winners for Broward County’s NatureScape
Emerald Awards. Special Congratulations to our very own BCBC members who were the first and
second place winners and to Ana Maria Agrusa who will receive a Certificate of Achievements for
her outstanding butterfly garden.
2013 NatureScape Emerald Award Winners:
Homeowner
Lori Parrish and Geoff Cohen, and Granddaughter Kaylee Brown, Davie
Missy Belsito and Jeffrey Trotta, Ft. Lauderdale
Adrienne and Aaron Wolfson, Plantation
Business
PNC Bank, S. Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale
Govt/School/Municipality
Lakeside Sand Pine Preserve, Oakland Park
Special Achievement
Lisa Sigelbaum and Vicki Mills,
The Secret Garden at Century Village, Pembroke Pines
Gloria Shirley, Margate
Winners will be recognized March 8 during the opening ceremony (9:00 a.m.) at Water
Matters Day.
These residents also had great butterfly gardens:
Annette Cotter
Gail Blount
Bonny Lalky-Seibert
Mark your calendar now to join us for our Spring Butterfly Counts:
South Circle April 6th
North Circle May 3rd
Welcome to our newest member, Robert Knoop. Thank you to the following folks who recently
renewed:
Nancy Johns, Heather Payne and Family, Mariana and Eddie Yi, and Rory Nolan. An
individual membership is $30 and includes NABA’s quarterly publications to American Butterflies
and Butterfly Gardener. The BCBC receives $5.00 per membership or renewal.
12th Annual Water Matters Day, Saturday March 8, 2014 at Tree Tops Park in Davie from 9:00
a.m. till 3:00 p.m. We still need volunteers for the 10:15-12:30 and 12:15 till the 2:30 shifts; 2
free trees/plants per volunteer. If you are not able to volunteer, this is an excellent way to
further establish your garden with native plants by visiting booths and getting your “passport”
stamped. The event is free and only requires park admission, $1.00 per adult.
Yard Sale: March 15th at Peggy’s home: 2640 McKinley Street, Hollywood, FL 954-920-8741;
bring donations to meetings or contact Peggy to drop things off. Also let Peggy know if you are
able to volunteer on Friday for set up/pricing and also what shift you prefer on Saturday.
Members and Friends Photo Night: keep in mind to select 5 caterpillar/butterfly photos to
submit for the April meeting; details for submission will be forthcoming
NABA Biennial Meeting: June 12 - 15, 2014. It will be at the Chattanooga Marriott in Chattanooga,
TN. The meeting brochures will be sent out to all members in the next few weeks with the
registration info.
Volunteer Interest Forms will be distributed in the near future for completion by members and
interested guests so that we can involve others in our chapter’s activities. We need to have some
new faces taking on some of our group’s responsibilities to lessen the burden on the Board Members
and other committee chairs.
Refreshments: The BCBC will no longer be providing edibles at our meetings and it was voted on by
the membership at the January meeting that we will only be providing water and ice tea as
beverages from now on. Folks bringing in a snack will get one plant ticket. Any food brought in
must be in its own serving container and leftovers must be taken home by the donor.
Coontie propagation/division: A very informative document created by Art with an introduction by
Sandy will be posted on our web site soon to assist with growing more coonties.
Reminders:
Members: please remember to wear your new name tag badge and get a plant ticket for
doing so. Thank you so very much to Peggy for learning how and then making each member’s name
badge. Please initial next to your name in the Members Sign in Roster Notebook and also sign in on
the Extension’s Attendance Form for documentation so that we continue to use the Heritage Room
for free.
Coontie: red plant tickets will be $2.00 each or 3 for $5.00 to help cover their expense
Announcements:
Friends Of Long Key Nature Center (FOLK): next meeting Feb. 9th 2:00
Plant Table: At our last Board meeting, there was a lengthy discussion regarding the issue of nonappropriate plants that folks continue to bring in for our plant table. It is imperative that donors
follow the following guidelines to help us make things run more smoothly. Native and non-invasive
plants are welcome as donations and donors will receive one ticket if the plants have the
following requirements:
~All plants must either be a host/larval butterfly garden plant or a nectar butterfly garden
plant and labeled as such.
~All plants being donated must have the common name labeled on the plant, and, if possible,
the scientific name. If you do not know what it is, please do not bring it in.
~No invasive plants can be accepted; please use the link below to help with this identification.
http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/assessment/conclusions.html
~If you donate plants, please be sure to take any of your left over plants home so as not to
burden others with that responsibility.
More Announcements:
A. Flamingo Gardens is looking for a Part Time Tour Guide – Pays $8.50/hour, 2 weeks
paid training. M-F taking 10-20 children on tours.
B. Native Plant Sale at Anne Kolb Nature Center on February 8th 9:00 am – 12 noon
C. Fort Lauderdale Garden Tours $25/ticket on February 22
D. Wilton Manors Tropical Plant Fair, Saturday March 15 8-4:30 and Sunday March 16
10:30-3:30 pm 2040 N. Dixie Hwy. Contact Richard 954-257-2317
E. Plantation Garden Fest at Volunteer Park, Free admission- March 22 & 23 9-5 and 9-4
12050 W. Sunrise Blvd. For Info call 954-530-0076
Sandy Koi shared the following:
http://www.newsdaily.com/article/21ff38e6db5f1793a55055e16fffa50d/monarch-butterfliesdrop-migration-may-disappear
They are not, we hope, going to disappear, and there are monarchs in other countries, but it is not
looking good for them in the Americas. A Mexican student in one of my classes went back to Mexico
for the winter break and told us that the monarchs were huddled on only two trees and she recalls
them on scores of trees by the millions as a child. This article describes their territory as under an
acre of land now....that is the size of four standard home lots side by side. The biggest problems
are pesticides, genetically altered crops, herbicides and habitat loss (here and in Mexico).....we need
to plant thousands of acres of wild milkweed, in addition to thousands of home gardens containing it
and protection of what's left of the oyamel forests.
Future Meetings:
Mar 11th,
2013
Monthly
Meeting
Kelli Whitney, 'Keys to Identifying Sulphur Butterflies'
Apr 15th,
2013
Monthly
Meeting
Bonnie O'Leary, 'Members + Friends Photo Night'
May 13th,
2013
Monthly
Meeting
Pat Rossi + Mona Johnston, 'Members' Butterfly Garden
Presentations'
From Art:
I mentioned this “wild” vacant lot location Tuesday night at the January BCBC meeting. I named it
Art's Bog many years ago. Its' a little strip of land probably no more than 20-25 feet across by
about 100 yards long. It borders on a railroad track to the East and SW 21st Ave to the West.
Keep in mind I live about a half mile from downtown Fort Lauderdale. My property is between David
Blvd. and Broward Blvd., just West of I-95. This is not the woods, but it is a fully developed very
busy urban residential/industrial area. The history; Prior to 1995 I had several varieties of citrus
fruit trees growing in my yard. On many occasions at
dusk, I would see a pair of foxes come into my yard through a space between two different wall
sections on my East border. The foxes would come in, walk around my pool and walk out to the
North section of my back yard where I had three citrus trees. They would eat the fruit which had
dropped off the citrus trees. Occasionally when they were on the side of the trees viewable from
my kitchen, I would see them up on hind legs eating fruit right off the branches of these citrus
trees. The street bordering my property on the East side is zoned industrial. I often would drive
into these industrial properties to see which had enough cover where a pair of foxes could live.
None did! One day I went all the way to the end of the street and discovered this strip of land I
call “Art’s Bog”. This piece of land had to be the place where these foxes lived. Over the years I
have made, often with other BCBC members, visits to this site to gather native plants. Map to Art's
Bog. I inserted a Google picture map of the location from the Davie Blvd. side. Below are driving
directions. Keep in mind if it has rained a few days before you visit, the center of this “drainage”
bog will be wet. This site has many “wild” varieties of native and non native plants, and it’s not
mowed. You can usually spot several varieties of birds, butterflies and assorted crawling and walking
animals too.On Davie Blvd heading West, just after you cross over I-95 there is an exit for
Frontage Rd. Take that exit. At the stop sign take a right on Frontage Rd. Go straight to the stop
sign and make a left. You are now next to Art's Bog on your right. Careful when you park on the side
of the road as there is usually broken glass and other junk, just off the road on the shoulder.If
going East on Davie Blvd. Take a right at SW 25th Avenue and make a quick left on Frontage Rd. Go
to the end of the street and make a left under Davie Blvd. At the stop sign, directly ahead on the
right is Art's Bog.Footnote; The summer of “95” we had to remove our citrus trees due to the
Citrus Canker fiasco. I am now growing new citrus trees, but they are still too small to bear fruit.
(Art is too cheap to buy bigger trees and the state still has not paid him for the original trees
which had to be removed).
Art's google map would not copy, sorry.
Hope to see you all on Tuesday, February 11th.
Regards.
Janice