References and Useful Links
Other Gardens
Plants
- http://www.ncbg.unc.edu/ - The North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill, where we started our journey of exploring options and deciding on plants with a personal tour. The website is a fantastic resource for everything you want to know about gardening, native plants, conservation and more; they offer classes and tours, sell native plants, and if you are in the Chapel Hill area you should take time to visit.
- http://www.wildflower.org/ - The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the source of most of the information about our garden plants. Most of the links on the plants page go to this site.
- http://www.plants.usda.gov/ - The USDA Plants Database, an extensive database well worth exploring.
- http://www.missouriwildflowerguide.com/ - The Missouri Wildflower Guide is a well-designed, easy to use database of wildflowers. Not all are applicable to North Carolina but there is extensive overlap.
- http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/nature.htm - Jeff Pippen is a professor at Duke who maintains an amazing collection of photographs of local plants and animals on this site.
- http://www.ncwildflower.org/ - NC Native Plant Society. Their name says it all.
- http://www.nichegardens.com/ - Niche Gardens in Chapel Hill was the source of many of our plants. Their catalog is searchable by many variables, and if you are searching for just the right plant for a particular spot in your yard, you should check out their website.
- Wagner, David, Caterpillars of Eastern North America, Princeton Univ Press, Princeton, 2005, - this book was the source of most of the information about which plants served as larval food sources for particular species of caterpillars.
Butterflies
- http://www.rlephoto.com/ - Butterflies of the Carolinas and Virginia website, created by Randy Emmit, provided most of the photos and links for the butterfly pages.
- http://www.wildlifegardeners.org/forum/index.php - This is a great, non-commercial website where you can post photos of the strange caterpillars, other insects or strange plants you find in your yard and someone will identify them for you.
- http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/ - Butterflies and Moths of North America, fondly known as BAMONA, is an extensive site that is being updated regularly with verified species sightings and accounts. It is a great source of information about butterflies and moths.
- http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/butterflies - Tom Murray maintains a photographic database of all kinds of animals and plants, well worth exploring, especially if you’re trying to identify an unknown insect or spider.
- http://www.carolinanature.com/butterflies/ - Will Cook’s North American butterfly photos.
- http://www.ncwings.com/index.html - A beautiful website by Ted and Linda Wilcox with photos of butterflies, skippers, dragonflies, damselflies and wildflowers.
- http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/MainMenu.shtml - A source for identifying moths, which can be much harder to track down than butterflies.
- Daniels, Jaret – Butterflies of the Carolinas, a Field Guide, Adventure Publications Inc, Cambridge, MA, 2003 – This book was the source of most of the range information that led me to decide which butterflies were in Chapel Hill, as well as the months the adults were present.
- Cranshaw, Whitney – Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Field Guide to Backyard Bugs, Princeton Field Guides, 2004 – To help you identify all the creatures that aren’t butterflies!
Interested in Creating your Own Garden? These sites can help!
- http://bringingnaturehome.net/ -The website, and the book by the same name, were created by Dr. Doug Tallamy, Professor and Chair of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the Univ. of Delaware, and make the case for why we need to be planning our yard with wildlife in mind in order to decrease the effect of habitat loss on a wide variety of species.
- http://www.nwf.org/In-Your-Backyard.aspx - The National Wildlife Federation has a very detailed website full of information for adults and children about making your yard friendly for butterflies and other wildlife.
- http://ncbg.unc.edu/pages/44/ - The NC Botanical Garden’s link for choosing Native Southeastern plants for your Chapel Hill garden, containing specific plant lists for you to use.
- http://www.thebutterflysite.com/gardening.shtml - Provides location specific advice on plants for other parts of the United States.
Kids Butterfly Sites
Other Nature Sites
- http://www.triangleland.org/ - The Triangle Land Conservancy is a group dedicated to protecting important open space in the Triangle area – stream corridors, forests, wildlife habitat, farmland and other natural areas to keep our region a healthy and vibrant place to live and work.
- http://www.monarchwatch.org/ - For older kids or adults, learn about Monarch butterfly migration, how to help monitor and tag monarchs.
- http://www.lostladybug.org/ - Ladybugs are disappearing across the US, being displaced by Asian ladybugs bought in stores by well-meaning consumers. Help to monitor our native species in this citizen science project.
- http://www.birds.cornell.edu/netcommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1478 – The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is the premier website for those interested in our feathered friends. Learn about birds, participate in Project FeederWatch or other citizen science projects.