[TN-Butterflies] Butterfly Foray issues

From: Avian Pursuits Nature Tours <naturetours@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: TN-Butterflies@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 2010 07:10:05 -0800 (PST)
Sorry I have not been active in the discussion of the upcoming Butterfly Foray, 
but deadlines at work have meant I have a less time than I would like to deal 
with this.
Here is a review of information concerning the event.

1) Date. This is set for June 18-20, Friday evening into Sunday.

2) Location. We are still working on this. My preference is a state park with 
lodging facilities - best in our areas seems to be Tims Ford State Park. 
Problem is that at that time of year they require week-long stays. Richard 
Connors is working on seeing if we can get around that.
My preference for a state park is due to the ability to:
     * We would be supporting our state park system.
     * set up of lighted sheets for moth attracting. (guess we should 
officially call this a Lepidopteran Foray). Would feel more comfortable setting 
them up at a park than outside a hotel.
     * we could offer the moth lighting as a state park activity.
     * Butterflying can be done right at the Park. We could interact with the 
public, educating them about butterflies.
Tims Ford, in Franklin County, is also close to Moore and Lincoln Counties.
note: Tims Ford Marina is not available that weekend

Another option is Lawrenceberg (Lawrence County), which is not too far from 
Wayne and Giles Counties. David Crockett State Park is near there (no lodging).

3) NABA Count Circle
* I think we should wait on deciding where to put one until we know where we 
will be staying.
* If anyone wants to include a NABA count during the weekend, it should
be close to our lodging site. I don't have any good knowledge of
potential butterfly sites in those counties so my only hope is that a circle is 
developed that includes more than one county.
* I think we should wait until we know how many people will take
part. It's possible there may only be enough people to make one or two
groups in the field. Right now, I know of about 6 people planning to
attend.
* We will need to decide on what day to make the Count...Saturday or Sunday. My 
preference would be Sunday, so we could have Saturday to wander about more 
freely, looking for good locations. But then...would we send people back to 
some of the same places for the Count?
Problem with Sunday is that this could be an ideal day for people to drive 
toward home, stopping along the way to survey, further increasing county 
records.

My original intent for this Foray was to increase the species totals for 
counties that were well under-represented in Tennessee. Getting people to visit 
as many counties as possible during the weekend would best allow for this. 
(including people stopping at additional counties on theor way to and from the 
Foray)
I don't plan to limit myself to a count circle, though of course any time I may 
be in it I would count species. I hope to try to cover more ground in search of 
diverse habitats.


4) Bioblitz?
I have no intent on making this a bioblitz in which we diligently survey for 
all kinds of life forms. The purpose is to find and document lepidopterans. I 
hope people will be aware of other things they see as well, recording and 
photographing what they can and want. I will provide lists of Odonates not 
recorded in the various counties so those who are familiar with dragonflies can 
see if one they find should be documented.

If we have a small group, we can all travel together during the Foray. 
Hopefully we can split into groups and send people to assigned 
territories/counties.

I welcome information from anyone with knowledge of the 
environments/parks/potentially good sites in these counties!!
Thanks much! Keep the discussion going.
 David Trently 
Avian Pursuits Nature Tours 
...come see the real world!
Knoxville, TN 
http://avianpursuits.com/
[TN-Butterflies] Butterfly Foray issues

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