Every spring, butterflies emerge and dazzle the world with their vibrant beauty. But where do butterflies come from? How are they born? What do they eat--and how?
With a simple, rhyming text and glorious color-drenched collage, Lois Ehlert provides clear answers to these and other questions as she follows the life cycle of four common butterflies, from their beginnings as tiny hidden eggs and hungry caterpillars to their transformation into full-grown butterflies. Complete with butterfly and flower facts and identification tips, as well as a guide to planting a butterfly garden, this butterfly book is like no other.
Softcover, 128 pages, Published 2004
Customer Reviews:
The Best Book on Attracting Wildlife.......2007-06-07
When you read this book you know you are receiving good, high quality and accurate advice. David Mizejewski, the author, has sound knowledge and experience which he shares with us. After reading this book and following it's instructions, I was able to have my backyard certified a Wildlife Habitat.
Unlike some other books, this one doesn't give outdated information. Invasive or harm plants are identified and cautioned against. If a plant is invasive, beneficial native alternatives are suggested.
The book is full projects that are actually do-able. And not ones that require several power tools. So, read this book and learn about attracting birds, butterflies, mammals, reptiles and amphibians to your garden. And go on safari by steeping out the back door.
Wow alot in a small book.......2007-05-08
This book is WONDERFUL!! I took this to the local nursery so I could buy the right flowers, I noticed folks were looking over my shoulder. It's a great book for ALL your birds, butterflies and just remodeling your yard.
Each topic is condensed on one page, just the facts and photos. Each topic has a photo of some sort to help you understand the reading. There were topics that I would not have even looked up, but now I am glad I know more about it!!! The book is in A-Z format and doesn't used alot of
"tech. terms" I don't understand, and that's great!!! It has receipes on making birds treats and some really great ideas on how to even tame a few wildlife birds and such! A MUST FOR ALL NATURE LOVERS!!! JT
Nice overview, but not helpful otherwise.......2005-09-22
This book outlines several topics, one or two pages per topic, such as birdbaths, artificial ponds, etc., various topics that are all relevant, interesting, and just what you want... but it doesn't treat any one topic thoroughly or well enough. Well before I bought this book, I already knew a bit about how to provide habitats to encourage bees (for example). This book only gave a very rough overview of how to create one type of bee environment (how to make tubes to attract mason bees) but didn't even indicate that there are other types of bees (such as bumble bees... honey bees... various other bee species, each of which need their own particular type of home built for them), let alone give guidelines how to attract them. The most important thing, choosing plants that are bird-friendly or bee-friendly or animal-friends, it handles in a very superficial manner. True, it may list a few species of plants, but it hardly gives a comprehensive list. It doesn't say anything about the plants, such as zones, light/shade preference, etc. In summary, if there's anything you want to do, such as choose plants carefully, you'll need to buy another book. Beehouses? Buy another book or scour the internet. Yes, this book will motivate you, will make you feel, how nice it will be to build a butterfly-friendly garden. But it doesn't really give you what you need to do it, besides make you feel good about it. Do you want to build a birdhouse? Scoure the internet or buy another book. The only thing this book is good for, is to tell you the few topics you should start to think about. And that, you can get just by reading the Table of Contents. Oddly, it spends many pages describing home recipes for making bird cakes and patties, out of animal fat and seeds, that you can hang up in your garden -- a sort of Martha Stewart section slipped in the middle of the book there, as though this was the only "specific" information the author had at hand. I would suggest that instead of this, you buy a book that is positively overloaded with info like Degraaf's "Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for Attracting Birds" which lists a page per specie various plants -- start there. Then look up bee boxes on the internet. Etc.
Lots of great projects you can do with your kids.............2005-04-25
So you want to turn your big back yard into a wildlife refuge? The place to begin is with the NWF `ATTRACTING BIRDS, BUTTERFLIES AND OTHER BACKYARD WILDLIFE.' This book, part of the `Creative Homeowner Series includes all kinds of nifty ideas for making your yard creature-friendly. You will become interested in ridding yourself of noxious grass the upkeep of which is frustrating, a lot of work, and expensive, and probably a source of pollution in your watershed. The book explains the reason why you also want to rid yourself of invasive exotic plants and add native plantings to your yard. Many `exotics carry disease and many fail to nourish the local fauna that grew up with the native stuff. Birds, for example, find the berries from the native Dogwood much more nutritious than the fruit of the Kousa Dogwood. You want to strive for balance in your yard if you want more bird sightings. If you live far enough out in the hinterland, you may also find other creatures visit your yard (though I live in Arlington VA and my neighbor reports a raccoon is having a fish dinner every night from her pond, and I know I have smelled a skunk on many mornings).
The beautiful photos in this publication will inspire you to plan and plant as well as spread peanut butter on your homemade `energy muffins' filled with cornmeal, peanuts and suet or vegetable shortening. You can decorate a Yule tree for the birds the kids might enjoy and/or build a pond with decorative plants. Or if you don't have room for a pond, try making a puddle or a muddy area (the kids will love this) or a container garden for small spaces. You will need to provide cover, which can also be beautiful (we have Cardinals nesting in a Pyracantha bush out front -- my Conure loves to watch them from his window vantage point). We planted Clematis for the butterflies and trumpet flowers for the hummingbirds, and Echinacea for the Finches. The Chickadee loves seeds on the Crepe Myrtle Bush and the Mockingbird loves the Holly.
This is a great book for learning how to attract wildlife (the kind you want) and grow native flora for your fauna, as well as engage in fun activities with your kids or grandkids.
Featuring 17 great projects along with a wealth of tips.......2004-04-03
Illustrated throughout with enticing color photographs, Attracting Birds, Butterflies, And Other Backyard Wildlife by David Mizejewski (Manager, Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program) is an exceptional and highly recommended homeowner's guide featuring 17 great projects along with a wealth of tips, tricks, and techniques to create gardens filled with wildlife sights, sounds, and natural wonders. Featuring advice for obtaining certification for a backyard habitat in the NWF's Backard Wildlife Habitat program, as well as more general suggestions from building amphibian and bee nesting houses, to finding native plants, avoiding West Nile Virus in the water provided for wildlife, butterfly feeders, and so much more, Attracting Birds, Butterflies, And Other Backyard Wildlife is a first-rate informational guide and a welcome addition to personal and community library Wildlife and Gardening reference collections.
Book Description
Jeffrey Glassberg's acclaimed Butterflies through Binoculars guides have revolutionized the way we view butterflies. Now there's a field guide in the same practical format, and with the same emphasis on conservation, to identify caterpillars. Caterpillars are as varied, fascinating, and often as colorful as the adult butterflies they become. This is the most comprehensive guide to these creatures available. It contains all the information necessary to find and identify the caterpillars of North America--from Two-tailed Swallowtails, some of the largest butterfly caterpillars at just over two inches when fully grown, to tiny Western Pygmy-Blues. Caterpillar seekers will learn how to distinguish between butterfly caterpillars and moth caterpillars, where and how to find caterpillars, and the visual differences between young and older caterpillars. Each species section describes how to identify the caterpillar, complete with brilliant photos--many published here for the first time. To make for easy field use, each caterpillar's key physical features, abundance, habitat, and major hostplants are listed on the same page as its photo. The book also contains a special section on butterfly gardening, offering valuable information on how to set up a butterfly garden and raise healthy butterfly caterpillars, and provides a thorough list of the plants butterflies most like to feast on. From the concerned gardener who wishes not to kill caterpillars that may one day become beautiful butterflies to the serious butterflier wishing to take the hobby to the next level, this remarkable guide will provide all of the information necessary for an enriching caterpillar experience.
Customer Reviews:
A Monumental Work!.......2007-04-17
Despite the fact that this guide is not very thick, it provides lots of helpful information and excellent photograhps for anyone wanting to try their hand at identifying butterfly larvae. I heartily recommend it!
On caterpillars.......2007-01-06
I found this book to be very useful in determining a caterpillar type, the book could have been thicker I think, as larger photos would have been more in line with my ancient eyes. Otherwise, it is a very good reference.
Caterpillars of Field and Garden.......2006-11-04
This is a very nicely done guide to the subject, and it is only flawed by the fact that moth larvae are not included. See "Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History" (Princeton Field Guides)by David L. Wagner for a more comprehensive guide. But, if you are serious about the subject, you should probably have both books.
An essential natural history guide.......2006-09-20
Those who've grown up in suburbia don't usually think of it as mysterious. Yet even our backyards are filled with mystery.
Take the caterpillar, for example. Stroll in your yard and you could quickly spot half a dozen kinds. Spend a little time, and you might find dozens.
But discovering caterpillars is a lot easier than naming them - or knowing what butterfly they become. And in a world that offers field guides to bird nests, mammal scat, and even roadkill, it's surprising to learn that someone has only recently written the first caterpillar field guide.
University of Connecticut Professor David Wagner's book, Caterpillars of Eastern North America, was profiled in the Aug. 8, 2006, New York Times, which drew me to it. The thick "field guide" is a magnificent compilation, with wonderful photographs, and wealth of information on caterpillars and the butterflies and moths they become.
Backyard caterpillar study has its advantages. The creatures can't run or fly away, and you can, with little effort, raise most into their adult forms. You might even contribute to science since, as Dr. Wagner points out, there are moths - including well-known ones - whose caterpillars have never been discovered. It's great fare for a natural history detective.
The First Complete Guide to Butterfly Larvae.......2006-02-10
"Caterpillars in the Field and Garden: A Field Guide to the Butterfly Caterpillars of North America" fulfills the very real need for the identification of the caterpillars of butterflies and skippers from North America. While not covering much in the way of moths (they have a token few at the end of the book) this book does pretty much what the author says it will do- help you identify the caterpillars of just about any butterflies found in North America, north of Mexico. The moths (which make up ten times species as butterflies) have numerous caterpillar forms and to identify these I would recommend the guide to eastern North American caterpillars by David L. Wagner.
One nice (and important) touch are the illustrations of the adults of most butterflies.
I annually take part in the 4th of July Butterfly Count and you can be sure I'll bring a copy of this book to the next one to see if we can locate some of the caterpillars of the butterflies we spot.
This is a great guide for anyone interested in butterfly gardens (helps you identify the immature stages), amateur naturalists or just the plain curious.
Book Description
Plan a colorful paradise for butterflies in your garden by planting and maintaining the kinds of flowers, shrubs, trees, and other plants that these fluttering beauties will find irresistible. This lovely and practical guide offers a variety of garden plans designed to attract butterflies, and helps you select plants for different stages in their lives, from food plants for caterpillars to nectar plants for adults. As these gorgeous visitors flock to your fragrant garden, you'll enjoy referring to the butterfly identifier included in Creating a Butterfly Garden. From detailed gardening information to fascinating facts on the life cycles of these winged creatures, here is everything you need to know to let a butterfly sanctuary blossom in your backyard.
Customer Reviews:
basic.......2002-08-11
A good starter book but you can find more info by just looking on the web. It does have some good layouts for gardens but my issue was I wanted native plants and they don't tell you in this book if they're native or if they came from asia or elsewhere. I found other references that were far better but this is a start. Its just very basic.
Very very basic book.......2001-08-06
There are much better books on buttrerfly gardening out there than this one - I recommend Butterfly Gardening by the Xerces Society. Its got not only the plants that butterflies like but also the lifecycle of butterflies. Creating A Butterfly Garden is like the hummingbird gardening book by the same author - very very basic with listings of plants and drawings of gardens but little more. You can get what's offered in these books off the internet. I ended up spending a little more to get a decent book that got me further below the surface and have a great butterfly garden going - variety is the key. The more kinds of flowers, the more kinds of butterflies. Its important to recognize that to have butterflies you need to have caterpillars too and they are fun to provide for and watch develop as well
A clear, concise, and informative book.......1999-03-19
This little book clearly describes the life cycle of a butterfly and what a garden needs to attract and retain butterflies. The descriptions of plants are brief but provide enough information for further research should one desire. The plants are organized by season which is very helpful. There is a nice butterfly identification section in the back of the book to round out the enjoyment of a garden. The author even lists some butterfly suppliers for those who want a head start on nature. This book is perfect for successfully planning and implementing a butterfly garden.
Book Description
Increasingly, homeowners are recognizing the need to provide natural abode for those fluttering jewels of naturebutterflies and hummingbirds. Sally Roth offers a menu of irresistible plants plus organic garden design strategies to create backyard habitat.Discover tried-and-true techniques for selecting, using, and maintaining nectar feeders and attracting a broad range of butterflies by offering foods other than nectar. Easy-to-follow instructions detail fun projects like creating mud puddles for butterflies or setting up a mister so hummingbirds can bathe in flight. Youll find out how you can provide nesting sites and nest materials for hummingbirds.Readers from 5 to 75 will be thrilled by the sight of hummingbirds or butterflies enjoying the habitat theyve created for them. The book includes a field guide to the 16 hummingbird species found in North America and 75 of the most popular butterfly species, along with Roths entertaining and insightful guide to butterfly and hummingbird behavior.
Customer Reviews:
Great Resource!.......2007-05-15
This book was just what I needed to learn about attracting humming birds and
butterflies. This has been very useful for figuring out how to start my garden.
I am very visual, so the beautiful pictures in the book and the general text design layout
makes it easy to read.
Helpful and beautiful.......2007-02-08
This book is wonderful for anyone who wants to garden in nature's best interest.
Blends gardening and wild animal management and observation.......2003-01-06
Attracting Butterflies & Hummingbirds To Your Backyard deserves ongoing mention as an outstanding survey of how gardens can attract desired wild birds and butterflies. From determining how native plants interact in the environment and help attract native visitors to understanding how to maintain a healthy environment, Attracting Butterflies & Hummingbirds To Your Backyard comes packed with tips which blend gardening and wild animal management and observation.
Book Description
For every person who has ever watched and marveled at the magic as a butterfly emerges from a chrysalis, this book is a treasure chest of amazing butterfly transformations. Readers are invited to explore and experience the life cycles of 22 common backyard butterflies, in this unique collection of stunning fullcolor, up-close photography, all taken in a live garden setting.
From the Black Swallowtail to the Monarch, the Question Mark to the Painted Lady, each butterfly is shown from start to maturity, with sequential photographs of the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and emerging butterfly. Additional detail shots highlight caterpillar behavior, changes in the chrysalis as the wing pattern emerges, open- and closed-wing shots, and the color variations between the male and female butterflies.
Authors Judy Burris and Wayne Richards, a brother-and-sister team, tell how they created the ultimate butterfly havens in their own backyards, planting every kind of caterpillar host plant and nectar-producing flower imaginable. With cameras in hand, they set out on a mission to record the lives of all the butterflies that flocked to their gardens. Readers learn how they can create their own butterfly gardens, with specific host plants suggested for each species, most of which are found across North America.
This richly visual and highly browsable guide to the life cycles of butterflies will appeal to wildlife enthusiasts, gardeners, school teachers, and families alike.
Customer Reviews:
Life Cycles of Butterflies.......2007-08-16
Wow, what a book! Fantastic photos! All the basic information for each butterfly included in the book is listed in one place. I have a butterfly garden in my back yard in central Florida and have several very good books on butterflies and butterfly gardening and this book is an excellent addition. I originally purchased this book to give to the granddaughter of a friend that is interested in butterflies. I am keeping it!
Great visual guide.......2007-08-12
Great pictures, good text, very good reference book for those interested in the butterflies in their yard.
TERRIFIC Butterfly book.......2007-05-21
Probably the best butterfly book around
The photography is spectacular and it's written in easy to understand language.
This is a must-buy product if you want to attract butterflies to your yard.
Butterflies who doesn't love them?.......2007-05-18
I love having the pictures of all stages of the butterflies life span to identify with in my own gardens. This book is for every age and everyone who is interested in butterflies.
The Life Cycles of Butterflies.......2007-04-06
The best book I've read on butterflies. Excellent pictures to identify
each butterfly as well as the egg and caterpillar. Also extremely
helpful is the listing and photo of host and nectar plants for each
butterfly. I purchased another one to give my grandson for his birthday.
Average customer rating:
|
Butterflies: How to Identify and Attract Them to Your Garden
Marcus Schneck
Manufacturer: Rodale Pr
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0878579176 |
Customer Reviews:
Florida Butterflys.......2007-05-13
This is the best book I have purchased for butterfys. It has great pictures of the butterflys as well as the caterpillars.
It gives you all the information needed to get your own butterfly garden set up.
When they say complete they mean it.......2005-09-19
I am just starting butterfly gardening and I found so much helpful information. On the other hand, my sister has been butterfly gardening for years, and still found the book helpful. It makes identification of butterflies and caterpillars easy and has many lavish illustrations of both the butterflies and the plants that attract them.
Great Book!.......2001-03-16
I have had this book for a year and I am always pulling it back out to help purchase butterfly plants and to ID catipillers and butterflys. Lots of excellent pictures of every stage of each Florida butterfly. Excellent lists of plants, both host and nectar. Great pictures of the plants. The only thing I have found missing is any info on when to expect the butterfly's in your garden.
Flordia Butterfly Gardening.......2000-04-18
This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in buuterfly gardening. Lots of helpful practical information. This book was recommended to me by Zane Greathouse who owns Greathouse Butterfly Farm.
Book Description
This new edition of the classic handbook describes how to attract butterflies and other beneficial and beautiful insects to your garden.
Butterfly Gardening presents everything the gardener needs to know to create intricate, small-scale ecosystems in an urban or suburban setting that can substitute for the rapidly vanishing habitats that are essential to the survival of butterflies. Contributors to this volume include Miriam Rothschild, an eminent entomologist, avid butterfly gardener, and expert in wildflower conservation, who describes the life cycle of butterflies, how and what they see, and how this relates to "gardening with butterflies." Landscape architect Mary Booth provides imaginative garden designs and easy-to-follow directions for designing and planting. Edward S. Ross, pioneer of close-up nature photography, discusses observing and photographing butterflies.
The book also includes a "Master Plant List" of species that attract butterflies, butterfly food plants listed by geographic region, seed and plant resources, a list of gardening and conservation organizations, and a bibliography of books and periodicals about butterflies.
Customer Reviews:
Too much activist nagging, not enough focus on gardens.......2004-10-09
This was a promising-looking book. It has a good number of very interesting butterfly pictures, attractive diagrams of bedding layouts, and photos of useful flowers. However, I was greatly disappointed by two things.
First, the personalities of the multiple authors intrude too much in the book. Not only do we read too much of "I" this and "my" that, but the potted biographies are sometimes much too long, self-regarding, and irrelevant. Are they promoting butterflies, or themselves?
Second, I quickly got the sense that the butterfly-gardening discussion is really a Trojan horse for environmental activism. It lectures repeatedly at the reader, when the reader feels like saying: "Stop trying to convert me! I bought the book, didn't I? I'm happy and willing to make a garden that butterflies might like, and that should be enough."
The moralizing starts with the preface, and continues with the introduction by E. O. Wilson. Wilson wags his finger at "prideful Homo sapiens," saying that people are mostly "indifferent or repelled by the generality of insects." Apart from stating that Homo sapiens has every reason to be proud of its accomplishments, I would like to add that people have (naturally) feared insects for excellent reasons: mosquitoes bring malaria, the West Nile virus, and other diseases; pests spoil crops and contaminate food; and the bubonic plague, spread by rat fleas in Europe in the mid-1300s, wiped out one-third of the human population. So don't lecture us about how we're just mindlessly prejudiced against insects (or anything else for that matter).
There are several books on this subject currently available. If you are looking for a book by garden-lovers, for the benefit of other garden-lovers, I would advise you to choose one of them. I would certainly recommend Attracting Birds and Butterflies by Barbara Ellis.
Excellent resource..........2001-09-16
BUTTERFLY GARDENING is a collection of interesting essays about butterflies. Chapters cover gardening tips, including an annotated list of plants that attract butterflies, and various other butterfly related topics such as: "What do butterflies see?"; "The struggle to survive"; "The life cycle of the large white butterfly"; and "Moths in the garden at night." If you love butterflies, you will probably enjoy this book but it won't go a long way toward helping you identify the Red Admiral you spotted on the Frikartii Aster yesterday. Another reviewer referred to this as a starter book, but I don't think of it as that at all although it does introduce a number of important topics.
The book includes a few "designs" for butterfly gardens, but they are general, and you would do better to use the garden designs in THE AUDUBON BACKYARD BIRD WATCHER. Let's face it, where the birds are is where their dinner is and dinner for birds is often the larval stage of moths and butterflies. The plant lists in BUTTERFLY GARDENING are adequate. Certainly the best thing to plant is Buddleia..the butterfly bush. This morning I saw three Monarch butterflies on my lavendar flowered Buddleia. The bush also supports a Grandpa Otts morning glory vine which produces flowers that are a dark bluish purple which changes to a purplish magenta. The butterflies were flitting from flower to flower and the color combo was a knockout.
This little book has much to recommend it. From BUTTERFLY GARDENING I learned the value of Parsley for larvae and that no matter how many butterfly boxes one hangs the little critters are visitors not tenants.
best butterfly gardening book!.......2001-08-06
This book actually takes you past the very basic of plant lists (primarily US native plants) and arranging your garden (although it has all that too). It gets into things like a chapter on what butterflies see, their life cycles, butterfly watching tips, conservation, photography,pictures of caterpillars, etc. The photos are fantastic - not just pictures of butteflies on flowers but really close-up pictures of the wings, and butterflies in flight. They also include information on moths which is neat. This book is above and beyond the best book I've seen on butterfly gardening. For those who want to not only attract butterflies but also know what's going on and understand some of their world, this is a great book. I'd buy it all over again!!
Excellent guide book.......2000-09-20
I'm an up and coming butterfly gardener. This book had a great deal of information to share not only regarding what species of flowers to plant, but also about the life cycles of the butterfly and the importance of planting your garden for the entire life cycle - from egg, to caterpillar, to butterfly Discussion focused on butterfly/larva predators and how important they are to the cycle. Tips on photography, particularly in the dark were helpful. The pictures of the butterflies and flowers were exquisite! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and the information in it will go a long way in helping me create my dream garden.
A great starter book as well as an advanced resource........1999-12-15
This book gives you comprehensive advice on starting and appreciating a butterfly garden in a small, and easily digestible package. It includes sections on butterfly natural history and identification, garden design, sample garden plans, a plant guide, predators, photography and conservation. It's a great starter book for those interested in creating their own garden but also has a good appendix section for those who want to get a little deeper into the subject. This would make a great gift for someone wanting to start his or her own garden.
Book Description
Nature's colorful creatures will flock to the yard when you follow the guidelines set forth in this book. Attractive flowers and natural plantings will attract birds and butterflies throughout the season.
Customer Reviews:
attractingbirds and butterflies to your garden.......2007-01-04
The butterflies were a definate plus in my garden this year, will be working on the birds this year!
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