I’m a statistician by training, a lepidopterist and botanist by avocation, although I did take botany courses in undergrad and completed a minor in biology.

An encounter with Side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana) in 2006 sparked an interest in the natural world which has never been extinguished. Tangential interests were added in the years since: weather and climate soon after herpetology, then botany, Lepidoptera, physical geography, and forays into many other groups. iNaturalist has helped broaden my interests even further, so that now I (try) to pay attention to nearly everything. From grasshoppers to mammals to fungi, but my knowledge with many of these groups is pitifully small, and I benefit greatly from the expertise of the members of the iNaturalist community.

More than anything, I’m in awe of the extravagant beauty of the natural world. In the modern world we prioritize efficiency and homogeneity. We are pragmatic, everything must have a reason. But the natural world is organized so differently: variations on variations. Each one with it’s own unique identity and existence and a complex interdependency on all of the biotic and abiotic factors in its environment.

A great example of this is the Satyrid hairstreaks (Satyrium sp.). In the corner of California where I come from there are five species which are all small, grayish and relatively inconspicuous. A butterfly most people would not even notice, and if they did, they would not realize there are five unique species. But there are! So similar and yet clearly distinct! Each one has it's own life-cycle and occurs in particular plant communities, sometimes sharing that landscape with one or more of the other Satyrium species, sometimes the only Satyrium occurring in the community. And the hairstreaks are just one example, we are surrounded by this endless variation, this endless beauty, if we will only stop and notice.

And notice this beauty we must. There is something about the beauty that necessitates our appreciation. It deserves, it even demands us to recognize it. But so few do. So much of the natural world goes completely unnoticed, unappreciated, with the only exceptions being the superlatives that manage to break through our distractions, perhaps a penguin or tiger in the zoo or a hybrid rose in a garden. It goes without saying that each of these creatures is unique and remarkably beautiful, yet there is perhaps even more beauty underfoot that never does get noticed. Wild buckwheats as well as orchids and beetles as well as polar bears.

Ultimately I see the wonder in the natural world around us as pointing to a personal Creator whose beauty and abundance is reflected in everything we see.

Enough philosophy and a little more about me: From 2012-2022 I devoted an extensive amount of time to documenting the butterflies of San Luis Obispo County, CA. I maintain a collection of perhaps 2000 voucher specimens from surveys all across the county. Fieldwork in this county poses special challenges, due to extensive areas of inaccessible private land (e.g. the Santa Lucia range from Hwy. 46 to the Monterey Co. border), and I am especially interested in seeing observations from these difficult-to-access areas. I’m always happy to field questions about finding butterflies in this area, or to identify observations as I am able.

For the last several years I’ve been located on the east coast, currently in the Washington DC area. I’m enjoying learning a new fauna and flora and looking forward to being able to start making contributions to our knowledge of the Lepidoptera of the region.

In the past (in California) I’ve also spent significant time doing projects on or surveys for Speyeria adiaste clemenci, Proserpinus lucidus, and Euproserpinus.

Almost all of my photographs are taken with my cellphone. I apologize for the poor photo quality. Perhaps short-sightedly (when you get home and realize you are missing photos of the important characters required for keying), I tend to prioritize documenting as many species as possible over taking many or aesthetic photographs. This also means my hands are in many of my photos.

I strive to only make identifications of other users' observations when I have a high degree of confidence in my identification but I am confident that I make mistakes, so please feel free to correct if you disagree with an ID I make. Given my own substantial hands-on experience studying butterflies in California, I focus my identification efforts there. Though I strive to be conservative in the identification of my own observations as well, they cover a much wider taxonomic range so are more suspect, please correct if something is wrong!

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