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CROOKED GARDEN VISITOR: Noted lepidopterist and
prolific writer, Robert M. Pyle, Ph.D.
On Wednesday March 12th, 2008, the Crooked Garden at Pelican Preserve was extremely
fortunate to have the noted lepidopterist (butterfly
expert), and writer Robert M. Pyle,
as it's guest. Crooked Garden curator, James Price and Pelican
Preserve Horticulturist, Robert Cranor, hosted Dr. Robert Pyle's visit as they
spent the afternoon observing and discussing the plants and butterflies of The
Crooked Garden.
Dr. Pyle was very impressed with our 12,000+ sq. ft. [in 2009 it was expanded to
17, 345 sq, ft.] community butterfly garden,
and told the curator that the Crooked Garden had the most volume of nectar plants,
including an abundance of host plants, that he has ever seen, and "It [the
Crooked Garden] is one of finest and loveliest butterfly gardens that I have
ever visited."
This
most fortunate visit to the Crooked Garden will undoubtedly be posted in
Dr.
Pyle's BLOG as he travels throughout the year of 2008 undertaking a historic
journey to find, experience, and identify as many of the approximately 800
species of butterflies as possible in the United States and Canada.
The literary fruits of this project will be published by the
Houghton Mifflin Company as a book entitled Swallowtail Seasons: The First
Butterfly Big Year. Robert Pyle will be seeking as many species as he can
find of the nearly 800 butterfly species recorded in North America north of
Mexico, although the numbers will be secondary to his in-depth encounters with
the butterfly fauna. To update Butterfly-A-Thon participants on his progress,
Robert Pyle will be sending regular updates from the road, which will be posted
on a Butterfly-A-Thon blog.
And the kind dentist, Dr Alan Rembos [of Naples, Florida], tipped me
off to the Crooked Garden in Pelican Preserve, Fort Myers -- one of the best
[butterfly gardens] I've ever seen.
Amid oceans of nectar and a flurry of butterflies, I saw 12 species, including
queens, zebras, and orange-barred sulphurs
the size of small birds."
Noted Butterfly
expert Robert Michael Pyle, Ph.D., reporting "from the road" to Orion Magazine
Please click the
Butterfly-A-Thon blog link, and read (at the bottom of the page) the 1st
typed entry dated Dec.20, 2007, to get a glimpse of the immensity of this
undertaking, along with an appreciation of the talent of this fine man.
Robert
Pyle founded The Xerces Society in 1971. He has published some fifteen books,
including such butterfly classics as the Audubon Society Field Guide to
North American Butterflies, the Handbook for Butterfly Watchers,
and The Butterflies of Cascadia, as well as several award-winning
literary works such as Wintergreen, The Thunder Tree,
Where Bigfoot Walks, Walking the High Ridge, and Sky Time in
Gray's River.
The contributors to the Crooked Garden will be excited to learn that they
will be a part of this historic endeavor, because The Crooked Garden will be
sponsoring the Butterfly-A-Thon by pledging to give $0.10 per butterfly
species identified during Robert Pyle encounters, as part of the 2008
Butterfly-A-Thon, with the understanding that all proceeds from this
Butterfly-A-Thon will benefit Xerces Society's
projects in rare butterfly conservation.
Page visits since March 17, 2008