Massachusetts Butterfly Club

An active field naturalist since childhood, also now a natural history author and photographer, Rick Cech is an affiliate curator at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in Entomology. He is the principal author and photographer of Butterflies of the East Coast: An Observer's Guide (Princeton, 2005), and wrote "A Distributional Checklist of the Butterflies and Skippers of the New York City Area." Rick co-authored the National Audubon Society Regional Guide to Florida. His recent works include editing and photography for the iApp “Audubon Butterflies - A Field Guide to North American Butterflies,” and development of the FoldingGuides regional butterfly series.

A life-long field observer, explorer and trip leader, Rick brings innovative perspectives to the study and appreciation of natural history. He played a formative role in originating the Sibley Guide series, as well as the National Audubon Society Interactive CD-ROM Guide to North American Birds. Rick's photography is widely published, in articles and books (including more than 950 in both Butterflies of the East Coast and Audubon Butterflies) as well as in photo exhibits and displays. He has led nature trips since the early 1980s, and makes regular presentations to natural history and botanical organizations across the country.