Massachusetts Butterfly Club - Home

Massachusetts Butterfly Club

A Chapter of the
North American Butterfly Association



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                        * * * * 34 Years!!!! * * * *
The Massachusetts Butterfly Club is celebrating our 34th year! To see a brief history of the club and how it began, click here.

                   ***   2024 Fall Meeting   ***
      Saturday, October 12th, 4:30 P.M. - 7:00 P.M.
The 2024 Fall meeting of the Massachusetts Butterfly Club will be held on Saturday, October 12th at Mass Audubon's Broad Meadow Brook in Worcester. You can attend either live or by Zoom.
To register for the Zoom meeting, visit https://bit.ly/4gF2WgW.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. The Zoom meeting will begin at 5:15 P.M..

Schedule:
4:00 P.M. - Doors open
4:30 P.M. - Pot Luck Dinner (bring a dish to share) To help us reduce waste, please bring your own dishes and silverware.
5:15 P.M. - Business meeting, Elections
6:00 P.M. - Guest Speaker
6:45 P.M. - Member photos (to share your photos, please contact Dave Small at dave@atholbirdclub.org, 15 photos max, powerpoint or send a link to Dave and he can put it together for you. If in doubt on how to do any of this please contact Dave.)

A ballot for the election of the officers can be downloaded and printed at
      2024 Election Ballot
You can either mail it to the address on the ballot or bring it to the meeting.

Our guest speaker will be Jake McCumber, Natural Resources & Training Lands Manager, Massachusetts Army National Guard, who will present "Butterflies of the Barrens: Lepidoptera Conservation at Camp Edwards". Jake McCumber is the Natural Resources & Training Lands Manager for the Massachusetts Army National Guard (MAARNG). He specializes in conservation planning,
Jake McCumber endangered species management, pine barrens ecology, and landscape scale restoration. Jake and his MAARNG conservation team restore and manage healthy pine barrens and sandplain habitats at Camp Edwards and support the unique species communities within them, including some excellent butterflies.
Wildlife of particular interest for him include moths, butterflies, birds, and tiger beetles and he is an avid hiker and naturalist. He lives in Falmouth with his family where he is active in scouting and the outdoors.

Hats and T-shirts - Our new tees and hats will be for sale at the meeting! Hats are $20, tees are $25. Cash or check only please.

                    * * * Help with butterfly sightings * * *
The following towns have no reported sightings from 1990 to 2023: Avon, Hanover, Holbrook, Lawrence, Middlefield, Millville, Plympton, Rockland, Scituate, Tewksbury, West Stockbridge, Whitman.
    To see information on how to report your sightings

It should be noted that our Records Compiler, Mark Fairbrother, has reported that he has entered over 200,000 sighting records. We thank Mark for his work in entering all the data from several sources and ensuring the accuracy of that data. Great job Mark!!
                * * * NABA Butterfly Garden Contest * * *
NABA is pleased to introduce the inaugural Lana Edwards Garden of the Year Contest, named in honor of a long-time NABA member and supporter who passed away on November 2, 2023. Lana was one of the founders of the NABA-Atala chapter in Palm Beach County, FL, and a passionate butterfly gardener. The contest will highlight spectacular butterfly gardens from throughout North America.
    Click here for more information.
                       * * * Hessel's Hairstreak Project * * *
The statewide Hessel's Hairstreak search is gearing up! Do you want to hike through cool swamps, shake trees and get outside? Are you willing to submit hike logs to help Natural Heritage with their database? Email Danielle Desmarais to get on the master email list! Flight season is April-May.

                       * * * 2024 Spring Meeting * * *
The 2024 Spring meeting of the Massachusetts Butterfly Club was held at Mass Audubon's Broad Meadow Brook in Worcester on Saturday, April 13th.
Here is a link to a brief description of the meeting with some pictures. 2024 Spring Meeting
See watch a Youtube video of the feature presentation, click on https://youtu.be/SVmfMGHEdpA.

                       * * * Hats and T-shirts * * *
We have new official Massachusetts Butterfly Club T-shirts and Hats available for purchase.
Please click on the Club Merchandise link on the left menu.

              * * * Rare butterfly seen after restoration * * *
MassWildlife staff recently discovered a frosted elfin caterpillar at Montague Plains Wildlife Management Area after 2 decades of habitat restoration at the site. This exciting find is evidence that these efforts are paying off. See this link https://www.mass.gov/news/rare-caterpillar-found-after-decades-of-habitat-restoration for more information.

On December 3 we hosted Robert Gallardo speaking on Butterflies of Honduras. Robert is building a nature reserve and working on a complete guide to Honduran butterflies, and has made several discoveries of new species in the process. A link to the recording of this talk is here: https://youtu.be/jZHgYwnwuCc.

If you wish to receive news about the soon to be published Guide to the Butterflies of Honduras, sign up at this link: https://faunaventures.com.

                        **** Please Donate ****

The Massachusetts Butterfly Club sponsors state-wide butterfly activities to promote education, conservation, interpretation, and fun! We invite people of all ages and levels of expertise to attend our meetings, programs, field trips, and butterfly counts and to become members of our club.

If you care about our butterflies and the club's efforts to support them, please consider making a donation to our club.
Click on this link to see how you can donate.

                  *****  Butterflying Code of Ethics  *****
The Massachusetts Butterfly Club has adopted a Butterflying Code of Ethics. You can find the document under Club Information on the left menu.

Sign up to get e-mail from Massachusetts butterfly enthusiasts!

If you wish to receive periodic e-mail messages about butterflies in Massachusetts and to report your own butterfly sightings, consider joining the MassLep list server. Butterfly watchers from around the state send messages listing the butterflies they see, describing butterfly behavior, posing questions, and answering them. Joining the list server is a great way to find out what's flying and to get to know others who share your interests!

Subscribe to MassLep
Email:
Browse Archives at groups.google.com

If you have questions about MassLep or its operations, send an email to moderator Mark Faherty, msfaherty@yahoo.com. MassLep is independently operated in coordination with the Massachusetts Butterfly Club.

    *****  Report your sightings to our Records Compiler   *****

If you do not report your sightings on MassLep or Facebook and would like to report your sightings to our records compiler directly, you can download the spreadsheet below and email to Mark Fairbrother at mark@massbutterflies.org.

            Sightings Report spreadsheet

Note: Please DO NOT use this form if you report your sightings on MassLep or Facebook.

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