Category: Book Reviews & Announcements
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Book Review: Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest
by Robert Michael Pyle and Caitlin C. LaBar a preliminary review Timber Press has just released Bob Pyle’s and Caitlin LaBar’s Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest. It is hoped that a future contributor to our magazine will share a more detailed review of this fine publication for our readers, however, I am happy to put…
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Support your local caterpillars!
David G James is lead author of The Book of Caterpillars published by University of Chicago Press and available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Book-Caterpillars-Life-Size-Hundred-Species/dp/022628736X Sixties pop icon Donovan once sang ‘caterpillar sheds its skin to find a butterfly within’. Now I don’t know whether Donovan knew, for the sake of poetry, that he was being biologically inaccurate…
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A Brief History of Washington Butterfly Books
Watching Washington Butterflies with Bob Pyle: Number Twenty Seven Nowadays, when most people reach first for a mouse or a touch-screen to seek information about anything, when apps substitute for paper pages and a Google search for a bookshelf search, we run the risk of forgetting about the rich legacy of written works that have…
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Butterflies of the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area by Caitlin LaBar
Caitlin LaBar, a semi-professional Lepidopterist in Washington and an expert on the butterflies of the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area north of Omak, has created a quick-reference field guide to the 123 butterfly species recorded in Okanogan County. This 20-page guide contains numerous photos, keys to difficult species groups, and a checklist of Sinlahekin butterfly species. For…
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Bob Pyle Big Year
Dr. Robert Michael Pyle’s Butterfly Big Year Throughout 2008, noted lepidopterist and writer Robert Michael Pyle undertook an historic journey to find, experience, and identify as many species of butterflies as possible in the United States and Canada. The literary fruits of this project were published September 7, 2010 as the book Mariposa Road: The First Butterfly Big Year. The…
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Book Report: Real Gardens Grow Natives
Real Gardens Grow Natives: Design, Plant, and Enjoy a Healthy Northwest Garden By Eileen M. Stark Is it possible to appreciate butterflies without appreciating native plants? Well, no. If you start out strictly chasing fauna, you’ll quickly see that the story’s incomplete without flora. If you want to find Behr’s Hairstreaks, you’ll do well to…
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Book Review: Butterfly People by William Leach
Reviewed by Larry Lund William Leach, a highly regarded historian, has written an engaging and brilliant book about America’s nineteenth century infatuation with butterflies. His 2013 book, Butterfly People: An American Encounter with the Beauty of the World, is not only compelling prose but is beautifully illustrated. According to Leach, earlier enthusiasts described butterflies as…
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Book Review: Life Histories of Cascadia Butterflies
Entomologist David G. James and long-time butterfly observer David Nunnallee have given twenty years of combined effort to produce a remarkable new book, Life Histories of Cascadia Butterflies. Covering all of Washington and spilling into bordering states and Canada, they present the life histories of all 158 butterfly species of our state in astonishing detail.…
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Butterflies of Washington
After more than 5 years of work, Bob Hardwick has completed his 4-part book The Butterflies of Washington. This comprehensive book covers all families of Washington State butterflies. In addition to photos, it contains descriptions of each of the species and subspecies of butterflies, flight times, and common places to see the butterflies. Photos are…
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Book Review: Butterflies & Butterfly Gardening
Mary Kate Woodward of British Columbia has written a 104 page guide to gardening for butterflies. In the first third of the book, Woodward explains the life cycle of a butterfly and stresses the importance of plants for eggs and larva as well as nectar-producing plants for adults. She makes suggestions for garden designs especially…
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Book Review: The Street-Smart Naturalist
The Street-Smart Naturalist: Field Notes from Seattle By David B. Williams WestWinds Press 224 pages $14.95 Back to the city, or back to nature? In his newest book, author and WBA member David Williams shows us how we can get the best of both. Botany and bugs, geology and geese, creeks and crows; living in…
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Book Review: The Butterflies of Cascadia
WBA butterfliers now have two fine new field guides to use in the field as we try to identify our butterflies. In addition to the recently-published Butterflies Through Binoculars: The West, we now have Bob Pyle’s The Butterflies of Cascadia. The Cascadia book has several unique advantages over any other guide. First, it treats only…
