The Butterfly Big Year

Robert Michael Pyle, a veteran Orion columnist, hung up his word processor at the end of 2007 and set out in his trusty 1982 Honda, known as Powdermilk, to find as many American and Canadian butterfly species as he could in a single year. To keep Orion abreast, Bob promised to mail us tidbits from the trail and occasionally give us a call. Twice a month throughout 2008, we post Bob's notes from the road. His is a journal unlike anything else you've seen online.

Along the Colorado

September 24, 2008

Lower Colorado River

Click on any image to enlarge.

September 24, 2008,
along the Lower Colorado River —

From the already autumnal cool of the lower Columbia to the evil heat of the lower Colorado (a 50 degree rise), I've driven the near-endless length of Nevada to reach the butterfly riches of the Huachucas, the Chiricahuas, and the Davis Mtns., Big Bend, and ultimately, the Lower Rio Grande in S. Texas. Having pretty much exhausted the North, I find more and more flying the farther I case the season -- at least in the mountains. In this bleak and torrid place, only a drooping roadrunner.

Reports From The Road

The Butterfly Big Year

Along the Colorado

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