Butterfly Workshop - last call!

A little wood satyr, Megisto cymela, perches in the gloom of a grassy woodland verge.This species is a shade lover; most butterflies are sun worshippers.

On Saturday, July 12, the Midwest Native Plant Society (the group that organizes the Midwest Native Plant Conference) is putting on a one-day butterfly workshop. The venue is the fabulous Army Corps of Engineers' Visitor Center at Caesar Creek Lake in southwestern Ohio's Warren County. All of the details are RIGHT HERE.

Always a special find, northern metalmarks, Calephelis borealis, seem to be having a banner season. I photographed this one a week ago in Adams County.

The workshop features a great slate of speakers: Jaret Daniels, author of Butterflies of Ohio, and Jeff Belth, author of Butterflies of Indiana, will both be giving talks. Cheryl Harner is speaking about Butterflies as Bioindicators, and Scott Hogsten is giving a program on butterfly photography. All this, and we even include lunch!


A pipevine swallowtail, Battus philenor, extracts nectar from one of the very best plants you can have in the garden, the aptly named butterfly-weed, Asclepias tuberosa.

Following the morning and early afternoon programs, the sun should be warming the earth rather nicely. That's when we'll head afield with our speakers and other knowledgeable butterfliers as guides, and track down some of these fluttery beasts.

The landscape around the visitor's center is loaded with great butterfly habitat. There is lots of prairie and the prairie plants should be looking sharp. Barring some sort of monsoon, we will definitely see scads of our target subjects.

If you're looking for a fun and educational way to enjoy a nice mid-July day, please join us. Again details are RIGHT HERE.