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The 2024 Spring meeting of the MBC was held Saturday, April 13th at the Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center and Wildlife Sanctuary in Worcester.
Thirty-three members and friends gathered to chat, check out the book swap, purchase caps and tee-shirts, hear speakers, and provide each other with a feast. As always the food options were varied and delicious.
After the meal, our Zoom meeting began with 14 Zoom attendees. We had a brief business meeting. Elise presented the treasurer's report and mentioned the generosity of donors that helps to pay for journals, purchase goods (hats & t-shirts) to sell to generate more funds, and other expenses. Barbara presented the membership report. We are having issues with the membership list, and have not been learning when we have new and renewed members because NABA is having problems with their new membership software. We have not received new membership data from them since last December. Unfortunately, this means that new members may not get attention from us in a timely manner. If you are a new member and have not gotten introductory material from us, please contact Barbara Volkle.
Danielle Desmarais gave a report on her Hessel’s Hairstreak project, and is looking for continued participation for the coming season. Don Adams spoke about the harsh environment in which the Baltimore Checkerspot caterpillars in his yard are able to survive when overwintering. He has been raising them in his yard for over two decades. Helen Blazis spoke about her involvements in natural history and recent authorship of two newspaper columns about butterflies, and about her new pollinator garden.
The feature presentation was by Garry Kessler and Michael Newton about their efforts, using club data, to update the information about the "state of Massachusetts butterflies". Michael ran a program he created that displayed some impressive charts for several butterflies that showed the frequency of butterflies by town over several recent years. At some point, they will have data available to show which towns are lacking surveillance data. Their hope is to increase both frequency and completeness of reporting, and the areas covered, to get our butterfly population data to more accurately reflect its current state, lending usefulness to its comparison to historical data.
To see the recording of the presentation,
click on https://youtu.be/SVmfMGHEdpA.
Many thanks to all who brought food and helped with set-up and clean up.
Special thanks to Dave Small. Without his technical support, the presentation and Zoom would not be possible.
Below are a few photographs taken at the meeting. Photos were taken by Tom Tyning and Karl Barry.
Mouse over photo to see captions. Click on photo to see larger image.
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