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Butterfly watching (also called butterflying) is a hobby concerned with the non-destructive observation and study of butterflies. There are clubs, handbooks, checklists, and even festivals devoted to the activity, just as there are for birding. The Fourth of July and Canada Day butterfly count, an annual census of species by butterfly watchers throughout North America, is an example of citizen science.

The United Kingdom has a large membership. The progressively earlier arrival of spring through the years in the UK was documented by the date of first sighting of some British butterflies.

Getting started

• Equipment is simple: low-power binoculars (7x35, for example), a wide brim hat, and perhaps a camera.
• A butterfly field guide. Not all butterflies are readily identifiable from color photographs. The skippers, for example, are best identified from set specimens. Most larger butterflies, to the experienced watcher, will give themselves away at some point. The watcher is permitted to take notes in order to make a more based species diagnosis. In addition to the guides by Jeffrey Glassberg listed below, there are literally hundreds of butterfly field guides for the United States, Canada, Great Briton, and continental Europe. No one guide can satisfy everyone.
• By all means, the butterfly watcher should practice in a well-known butterfly watching area before setting off for Costa Rica, the Amazon basin, or sub-Saharan Africa.
• The watcher should not slight the smaller butterfly species: these have details in colors, wing patterns, and behavior that well repay the patient butterfly watcher. Moreover, for observing small species in the field the butterfly watcher may want a light folding lawn chair since sitting will help to steady the binoculars.
• When butterflies are shy, the watcher can observe dragonflies, wasps, and other insects. Fabre demonstrated that patience is often rewarded.
• Two or three watchers are the most for an outing.
• Butterfly collections are best left to scientific and teaching institutions. The maintenance of a pinned butterfly collection in glass-topped drawers is demanding of time and money.

References

• Dunkle, S. W. (2000). Dragonflies through binoculars: a field guide to dragonflies of North America. New York: Oxford University. ISBN 0195112687
• Glassberg, J. (1993). Butterflies through binoculars: a field guide to butterflies in the Boston, New York, Washington region. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195079825 ISBN 0195079833 (pbk)
• Glassberg, J. (1999). Butterflies through binoculars: the East. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195106687
• Glassberg, J. (2001). Butterflies through binoculars: the West : a field guide to the butterflies of western North America. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195106695
• Glassberg, J., Minno, M. C., & Calhoun, J. V. (2000). Butterflies through binoculars: Florida. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195112490

See also

• Butterfly gardening
• Butterfly field guides by region

See also

• Lepidopterist

External links

• North American Butterfly Association (NABA)
• Butterflying to Amazonia
• The Lepidopterists' Society
• Carolina Butterfly Society
• Butterflies of North Carolina
• Massachusetts Butterfly Club (chapter of NABA)
• Butterfly Watching Basics
• The Mulberry Wing - Field notes of the New York City and North Jersey Butterfly Clubs.
• Butterfly Conservation - The main UK organisation.
• NABA South Texas, America's Butterfly Capital (chapter of NABA)
• Butterflying in South Texas, America's Butterfly Capital
• Butterflying in Mexico and Latin America

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 13 October 2008, at 22:11.

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