Book signing in Fort Collins

Book Signing and Presentation Event



Paul A. Opler, Professor,
Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, Colorado State University


"Moths of Western North America” book signing and presentation

Lory Student Center, Room 220-222, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, 80523

Tuesday, September 8, 2009, 3-4pm


This new book authored by Jerry Powell and Paul was published by the University of California Press earlier this year. It will be available for purchase. Paul will sign your copies of this book and any other of his previously published books. Paul will have a supply of other books available for purchase. This new book is now available for purchase at the CSU student store in Lory Student Center.

Books and related products by Paul Opler

1. Butterflies of North America, an activity and coloring book
[artist Susan Strawn] ISBN 1-57098-435-2 paper, $ 9.95 retail

Order from Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, 4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706 [www.roberts-rinehart.com]

2. First Guide to Butterflies and Moths, Peterson First Guide
With Amy Bartlett Wright, ISBN 0-395-90665-2 paper, retail $ 5.95

3. Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Butterflies
(artist Vichai Malikul) ISBN 0-395-90453-6 paper, retail $ 20.00

4. Peterson Field Guide to Western Butterflies
(artist Amy Bartlett Wright) ISBN 0-395-79152-9 cloth, retail $32.00
ISBN 0-395-79151-0 paper, $24.00

5. Butterflies, Peterson FlashGuide
ISBN 0-395-82996-8, retail $7.95 U.S.,

Order # 2, 3, 4, & 5 from Houghton Mifflin Co.
Wayside Road, Burlington, MA 01803
1-800/225-3362; [www.hmco.com]

7. Audubon Videoguide to Butterflies: Essentials for Beginners and Gardeners (DVD), (with Jim Ebner), Retail $40.00

8. Audubon Videoguide to Butterflies: Common & Endangered
(DVD), (with Jim Ebner), Retail $40.00

Order both DVDs from MasterVision, 969 Park Ave., New York, NY 10028
212/879-0448; 410/516-6994; www.mastervision.com

9. Moths of Western North America
(with J.A. Powell), ISBN- 0-520-25197-0, Retail $95.00 [cloth]

Order from California Princeton Fulfillment Services, 609-883-1759, FAX 609-883-7413, www.ucpress.edu

Note: You can view some of Paul Opler's and Evi Buckner-Opler's images on the world-wide web home page at
or contact Paul or Evi via e-mail: evi_bavaria@webaccess.net

Jocelyn Gill, Agriculture Canada, work on color plates

We wish to acknowledge the work of Ms. Jocelyn Gill, Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, Biodiversity Program, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, Ottawa, Canada for her expert work on the color plates for our book Moths of Western North America. Jocelyn did all of the photography, digital manipulation, and plate assembly for all of the Macromoth specimen plates and did some clean-up and assembly for the Micromoth plates. She also advised on the layouts for our plates. Some of her work was performed under contract to the University of California Press, but she also carried out much of the work on time donated by her supervisor Dr. J.D. Lafontaine. We feel that the high quality of the plates is the most attractive feature of our book and will be useful to many readers for many decades. We are grateful for Joce's dedication and expertise.

Moths of Western North America published

The official publication date for our book was yesterday, May 27, 2009. Books have not yet arrived at the University of California Press' warehouse, but they may be ordered from the University of California - Princeton distributor at 1-800-822-6657, BioQuip, Inc for 10% discount at 310-667-8800, Amazon.com, or many other book sellers that may be found on google.

Jerry and I will be pleased to sign your copy.

Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas II

I have been participating in the current atlas project and have been working on 15 priority blocks with my wife Evi and a few good birder friends. My blocks are in Larimer and Weld Counties, Colorado. I really enjoy this and it contributes significantly to kno0wledge about our state's avifauna. The web site is www.cobreedingbirdatlasii.com.

The Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas II Project (Atlas II) was initiated in 2007 by the Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) and the Colorado Bird Atlas Partnership (CBAP). Atlas II is a 5 year project, comprised primarily of volunteer field staff, to collect data on the distribution, abundance, habitat use, and breeding phenology of the avifauna breeding in Colorado. The first Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas was initiated in 1987, and the results were presented in the publication Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas (Kingery, editor 1998). The results of Atlas II will be compared to the results of the first Atlas and will provide information on potential changes in distribution and population status of Colorado's breeding birds. This information will be important for wildlife managers/biologists that are making decisions on land management practices throughout Colorado.

Atlas II data are being collected throughout Colorado, per U.S. Geological Survey 7.5-minute topographic quadrangle maps (quads). Each quad has been divided into halves vertically, and thirds horizontally, resulting in six equal blocks (Figure 1). The southeast (SE) portion of each quad is the Atlas II priority block for which field volunteers are first collecting data. The second priority block is the quad's central-west (CW) section, for which data may also be collected after completing the SE block.

Audubon videoguide to Commmon and Endangered Butterflies

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

I just wanted to let you know about Audubon's VideoGuide to Butterflies Common and Endangered, a two-and-a-half hour DVD that I worked on that is coming out now.

I'm very excited by the finished product, which has much more (and much more beautful) moving footage of scores of common North American butterflies than any other DVD or video.

In addition, and this makes it all the more special, the VideoGuide has moving footage of all the listed endangered butterflies in North America save one (Lycaeides argyrognomon lotis), as well as a couple of threatened species and a couple of other candidates for future listing. Each species has moving footage taken in its habitat, the result of Jim Ebner's years-long quest to video all of them, and an informative voiceover that facilitates identification and an understanding of the conservation issues at stake. It is a truly amazing achievement.

The attached sheet has more information about the program, and you can learn more at www.mastervision.com/mv-bfly.html

Thanks for listening!

Paul

Butterflies of the Sierra Nevada

This is the 11th year that my wife Evi and I will teach our class on Butterflies of the Sierra Nevada for San Francisco State University. The class will be taught from July 13-17 at the Sierra Nevada Field Campus [www.sfsu.edu/~Sierra] near Bassetts, Sierra County. At this point, registration for the class is open and we have 8 persons already registered. We usually find at least 60 butterfly species during the week during our daily hikes to different localities and habitats. For each butterfly we find we provide information on behavior, nectar plants, caterpillar plants, and life hisotry. Our longest walk is about 1.5 miles in length. We have a combination of morning and evening lectures and day-time trips, usually at least a short distance by car, sometimes on gravel roads. We are also somewhat knowledgeable about other animals and plants and point out quite a few of these during the week. We are sensitive to the goals of our students and try to help each person learn the information. Students have the option of taking the class for credit.

We recommend that our students have one good book on western butterflies, either Brock and Kaufman or Opler. It is not required but students may wish to have either Sierra Nevada Natural History or Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada. We invite any inquiries about the class and encourage folks to take any of the high quality classes that might be still available.

Participation in First Mazatlan Birding Festival

On January 11, 2009, Evi and I flew to Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico. From January 12-24, we helped lead field trips and gave a 2-hour workshop to Festival attendees about the Butterflies of Sinaloa and the Monarch's Michoacan overwintering sites. The Festival was organized and run by Carolyn Felderhof and husband Paul Beckman, of Sendero Mexico. The principal speaker and leader was Peter Alden, noted ornithologist, author, and tour leader. There were roughly 50 registrants for the Festival and several local visitors.

In preparation for the Festival, I revised the draft list of Sinaloa butterflies by Andrew D. Warren [www.MariposasMexicanas.org]. There are now roughly 500 species of butterflies and skippers documented for Sinaloa. Local experts may contribute to this effort. The master list of Mexico butterflies is maintained by a group of Mexican scientists at UNAM. We hope that in future fesivals there may be some specific field trips for butterflies and that tour leaders may begin to bring groups to the available facilities in Sinaloa.

Most of the effort was geared to showing birds to the registrants and more than 200 species were located during the Festival and associated field trips. Highlights included visits to the new Tufted Jay Preserve in the Sierra Madre Occidental near El Palmito. There are now several guest cabins in the preserve that facilitate visits to the area. Highlights in the preserve were of course viewing of many flocks of the Tufted Jay, as well as location of the Eared Quetzal, Stygian Owl, Blue-hooded Euphonia, and large mixed species flocks of warblers, tanagers, woodcreepers, and other wintered birds. More than 20 warbler species were seen there including Red-faced, Townsend's, Hermit, Black-and-white, Crescent-chested, Golden-browed, Painted Redstart, Slate-colored Redstart, Colima, and a new state reecord for Black-throated Blue (P.A., C.F., P.B., P.O.).
Other sites visited featured coastal estuaries and lagoons with many thousands of waterbirds. In the lowland and intermediate elevations a rich mixture of wintering and resident landbirds and raptors were observed. These featured West Mexican Chachalaca, Purplish-backed Jay, Black-throated Magpie-Jay, Yellow-winged Caciques, and Military Macaws. The Mazatlan Birding Festival web site [www.mazatlanbirdfestival.com] will feaure lists of species observed and more details of the Festival's program, speakers, leaders, and tour destinations. Plans are already proceeding for the planning of the 2010 meeting.