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.

Hawai’i Photographs

December 25, 2008

Hawai'i and Back Home

The following photos by Thea Linnaea Pyle accompany the Hawai’i/Christmas post.

Below: Nene geese and gosling

Below: A Land Called Hanalei

Below: Feral Fowl of Kaua’i—they seem like the island’s most abundant birds, since freed by a hurricane years ago

Below: Christmas decorations, Hawai’i-style

Below: red or starfish stinkhorn (Aseroe rubra), in Koke’e State Park, Kaua’i

Below: Native greenswords (a composite related to silverswords) at a Waimea Canyon overlook

Below: a spectacular succulent on Diamond Head, Oahu: name, anyone?

Below: watching Xuthus swallowtail and painted ladies hilltopping on Diamond Head, above Honolulu

Below: welcome back to snowy Portland

Below: Christmas with grandson Francis, who knows there’s a Santa (or two)