Heinrich's SUMMER WORLD Seasons May 2011

Our May 2011 selection is SUMMER WORLD by Bernd Heinrich. Heinrich is the first author to be honored for a second time by PVNWG. We read his WINTER WORLD previously. See here.
To read the introduction to Summer World and listen to a radio interview with the author, click here. Our 2010-2011 seasons ends with our Summer World discussion on May 22 while we enjoy a celebratory picnic at Maryland's Greenbrier State Park.

APRIL 17 Meeting Re DISCOVERING MOTHS

Four busy members folded their wings for a few hours to rate John Himmelman's guide to Discovering Moths. Host joy served us sparkling cranberry juice whilst our imaginations circled round these fascinating night-time 'jewels.'

Moth enthusiast Cheryl brought a collection of moth specimens and Vicki the "fishdoc" shared a Sphinx moth cocoon she found while clearing her garden for spring. Check out one of Cheryl's blog posts on moths here. Member comments:

Diane Sylvester: Himmelman sounds like a fun guy and I'd love to attend one of his moth trail events. While much of the book has been easy reading, I would like to have seen drawings or photos of the moths on the pages where he was discussing them to make them more intimate. I found the drawings a little dark to discern much detail(or is it my eyes?) but there needed to be more of them. I have a end wall of my house that attracts many moths and I have photographed many of them. Using this book, I have identified some moths in my photographs. I have the W.J. Holland book Himmelman references and I also find it extremely difficult to use since the moths I see are in their natural poses, not the specimen poses I find in that book. Based on Himmelman's recommendation, I will probably try to locate Charles Covell's book A Field Guide to the Moths of Eastern North America. Moths are a very complicated subject and as he said, it doesn't get the press that butterflies do.