Butterflies through Binoculars - Softcover

Glassberg, Jeffrey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195079833 ISBN 13: 9780195079838

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1993

Synopsis

For decades, bird watchers have delighted in the freedom and joy of nature armed only with binoculars and a good field guide. In more recent years, amateur naturalists have also turned their lenses to the world of butterflies, whose myriad species and fantastic shapes and colors offer an intriguing challenge to even the most seasoned birder. But while bird enthusiasts have always had the help of accurate and accessible handbooks, those observing butterflies have had no such advantage. Until now, that is.
In this unique field guide, Jeffrey Glassberg has made butterfly watching a less frustrating and far more rewarding pastime, showing us how to find, identify, and enjoy the nearly 160 species that inhabit the Northeast. Butterflies Through Binoculars is the first butterfly guide to combine the immediacy and vividness of actual photographs of living butterflies with the traditional field guide format. While older guides cater to the collector, offering drawings that show the captured and mounted insect, this book shows butterflies in their natural poses and in the correct size relationship to related species. With Butterflies Through Binoculars in hand, the brilliant Tiger Swallowtail, the more dour Mourning Cloak, even the Rare Skipper itself will not elude identification by the beginning--or, for that matter, the more seasoned--observer. By focussing the guide on the Boston to Washington corridor, Glassberg has excluded the species from unrelated areas that have made older field guides so cumbersome. In addition, he provides entirely new field marks for butterfly identification, demonstrates how to identify subjects by way of the key characteristics butterflies are likely to display in their natural settings, shows how species can be recognized both from above and below, and explains how to differentiate between males and females.
Besides being a handy guide to identification, Butterflies Through Binoculars also tells readers where to find particular species, giving a complete account of flight times, ranges, and seasonal patterns. Nine major locations for butterflying are described in great detail, and readers are directed to forty specific locations where uncommon--even rare--species can be found. And throughout the book, the basic natural history of each species is considered in a lively, readable fashion.
For butterfly enthusiasts, for bird watchers who want to add a new dimension to their hobby, for anyone who is simply interested in exploring the wilds of their own back yard, Butterflies Through Binoculars will offer hours of delightful help and instruction.

About this title

About the Author:

Dr. Jeffrey Glassberg is President of the North American Butterfly Association and editor of American Butterflies magazine.

Review:

"Butterflies Through Binoculars helped establish the hobby, giving it the type of text long available to birdwatchers."--New Age Journal

"A must for butterfly fans....[A] terrific new field guide.... It covers the Northeast, and indeed, it covers 80 percent of the species found east of the Mississippi....Offers 300 sharp color plates, field descriptions that identify the insects by their common (not Latin) names, new field
marks for identification and offers checklists for a number of likely sites in the Boston-Washington corridor where many species may be found....A valuable book for anyone who wonders what that butterfly he just spotted might be called....Altogether a welcome addition to the carry-along library most
nature lovers seem to accumulate."--Michael Levy, The Buffalo News

"The first of its kind. Never before has a butterfly field guide concentrated on field marks that can be seen on free-living butterflies....There is much to be appreciated about this book. It is well made and will stand up against the torturous conditions required of an often-used field
guide. The photographs are clear and large enough to extract the information needed at a glance....If you judge the value of a field guide by how well it works in the field, then Butterflies through Binoculars is a clear winner....Whatever your interest is in butterflies, there is room in your
backpack for this field guide. For those that have not yet explored the world of 'the wild flowers that fly' I earnestly recommend this book."--Richard L. Orr, The Audubon Naturalist

"An almost perfect butterfly identification guide....The photographs are mostly first-rate...and portray the butterflies in natural positions in the field. Believe it or not, this is a practically revolutionary idea in regional field guides....A book of this nature was long overdue. I hope
that current generations of butterfly enthusiasts will get it and carry it into the field at every opportunity."--Brian Cassie, North American Butterfly Association Newsletter

"A user-friendly guide that focuses on the most accessible localities, narrows the species list to a likely few, tells you how to identify them with the kind of key characters living butterflies are most likely to display, and offers the basic natural history of each species in turn....[A]
welcome new field guide."--E.O. Wilson, from the Foreword

"There is much to be learned and enjoyed, and this book and a pair of binoculars are the keys that unlock the world of butterflies."--Robert Robbins, from the Preface

"Will stimulate increased interest in butterfly watching and conservation. There also are 40 color plates containing 300 close-up color photographs of the species -- essential field references. Field naturalists, including birders, in the Boston-to-Washington section of the East Coast, will
welcome this guide. Highly recommended." --Wildlife Activist

"Truly unique. . . . lives up to its billing with excellent photographs and a new system of marks. . . . deserves to be on the shelf for all who have a true interest in eastern butterflies. Mr. Glassberg should be congratulated for a job well done." --David K. Parshall, The Ohio
Lepidopterist

"Go ahead and get Glassberg's new book for its fresh and clearly displayed close-ups of specimens, its uniquely presented and detailed biological information, and its ease in comprehension as a field guide for our eastern U.S. butterflies."--Audobon Naturalist News

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0195079833
• ISBN 13: 9780195079838
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256