Useful Resources
These are links to a few organizational and private sites that the web master finds most useful or interesting. The emphasis is on natural history of the Carolinas and/or the southeastern US. There are so many relevant sites on the Internet now, that no attempt is made to make a comprehensive list. See Will Cook's page (Carolinanature.com), linked below, for a really extensive list of links. Failing that, try a search engine, such as Google. Note that the web master does not normally grant requests for links to commercial sites. The ones posted here are ones found to be useful by the web master personally, and no endorsement is implied.Audubon: National Audubon Society and important local chapters...
- Wake Audubon Society--the other Triangle chapter of National Audubon. Covers Raleigh, Cary, etc. Check under Special Projects for the excellent A Birdwatcher's Guide to the Triangle.
- Mecklenburg Audubon Society--excellent chapter web site with good set of links.
- Audubon North Carolina NAS's North Carolina State Office.
- National Audubon Society
Conservation: North Carolina and regional conservation organizations, agencies, nature centers...
- North Carolina Botanical Garden (919-962-0522)
- North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission
- Eno River Association
- Triangle Land Conservancy
- Friends of South Ellerbe Creek (Neuse River Basin)
- USFWS page on North Carolina--contains excellent references on endangered species in the state.
- Howell Woods, an outstanding nature center in the NC Coastal Plain, just east of Raleigh. (Run by Johnston Community College)
- Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History near York, South Carolina
- North Carolina State Parks
- Piedmont Wildlife Center--Durham,
NC.
Phone: (919) 489-0900
Injured Wildlife: Rehabilitation Centers and Contacts
- Claws, Inc., Chapel Hill, NC
- Triangle Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic, Durham NC
- Carolina Raptor Center, Charlotte NC
- Wildlife Rehabilitators of NC--provides a list of rehabilitators in NC
Birds: Mostly birds and other vertebrates...
- Carolinanature.com--Chapel Hill Bird Club, Triangle Birding Guide etc., lots of other resources on butterflies, plants, etc.--run by Will Cook.
- Carolina Bird Club
- Mini-Breeding Bird Surveys for Orange, Durham, and Chatham Counties, NC. These are organized by Dr. Haven Wiley at UNC-CH.
- Jack Siler's Birding on the Net--excellent
- Don Roberson's Bird Families of the World--a very readable introduction to bird diversity.
- Patuxent Wildlife Research Center--Bird Identification Infocenter--great site with photos, maps, songs, some identification information.
- ENature.com--commercial site with browsable field guides. Not comprehensive, but very nicely done.
- Univ. of Michigan's Animal Diversity web--a diverse and ever-growing site.
- Operation Rubythroat----is an outreach initiative of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History near York, South Carolina
Insects: Emphasizing the arthropod world...
- Duke Natural History Society--group at Duke University interested in all aspects of natural history in the Carolinas
- Josh Rose's site--a miscellany of Triangle Natural History
- Carolinanature.com-many resources on butterflies, etc.
- North Carolina Entomological Society
- Long-horn Beetles of Florida --many scanned images of pinned specimens
- Randy Emmitt's Nature Photography--extensive site with lots of photos of local flora and fauna.
- BugGuide.net--Troy Bartlett's new on-line guide. Based in Georgia, has emphasis on SE US insects.
- Carolina Butterfly Society
- North American Butterfly Association
- Southern Lepidopterist's Society
- Notes on the Butterflies of North Carolina--downloadable pdf file with very extensive information on range, ecology, and flight period in NC. 11th approximation published March, 2004.
- Cedar Creek Minnesota--a biologic station with some good biologic survey information, especially on insects, but also flowers and birds.
- USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Biological Resources, especially useful are: Note that most of the geographic range maps on the NPWRC site are very incomplete and should not be relied upon.
- Butterflies and Moths of North America
- Digital Dragonflies--scanned images, very pretty.
- Ode News--resources and photographs on dragonflies and damselflies (odonata)
- Giff Beaton's Dragonflies and Damselflies (Odonata) of Georgia--nicely organized key to groups. See also his photos of robberflies (Asilidae).
- USDA diptera site--nice introduction to flies, an under-appreciated group of insects.
- Arkansas Asilidae
- Herschel Raney's eclectic website--essays, photos, etc. Especially good selection of Robber Flies (Asilidae)
- Jeff Pippen's nature page--including a checklist of Dragonflies of North Carolina and many photographs of leps, odes and herps.
- New Jersey Odonates--nice species accounts, though a quirky interface with asp links that don't always seem to work.
Plants: Wildflowers, trees, etc.,
- North Carolina Botanical Garden
- UNC-Chapel Hill Herbarium
- Carolinanature.com-many resources on plants, esp. woody plants of the Triangle area
- Texas AM University
Herbarium, including:
- Navasota Flora--Plants of Lick Creek Park is a good botanical tour
- Vascular Plant Image Gallery
- Missouri Botanical Garden
- Flora of North America--has a searchable interface for those families completed.
- 2bnthewild.com--Wildflowers and other natural wonders of the SE US
- USDA Plants site--many graphics and species account--excellent
Natural History Art: Mostly museums and libraries with a web presence, plus sources of art...
- Univ. of South Carolina Libraries, Rare Books Collection, including Audubon, John Abbot Watercolors (lovely plates of lepidoptera).
- Missouri Botanic Garden--Rare Books on-line
- Cornell ornithology collection
- Fuertes collection at Cornell
- Univ. of Virginia on-line version of Wilson's American Ornithology
- USFWS Clip Art collection
- World Wide Nature Artists' Group
- North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission's NC Wild Store
Triangle Museums: with a strong emphasis in natural history...
- NC Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh)
- NC Museum of Life and Science (Durham), home of an excellent butterfly house
Optics Information:
- All Best Binoculars--A work in progress as of February, 2011. No advertising.
Last Updated: November 23, 2011