About Mike Reese

What kind of person spends so much time taking pictures of insects… and then making a web page about them, as if someone else would want to know? I ask myself that question pretty often these days.

I’ve been a cook, botanist, high school math teacher, golf and basketball coach, and finally a high school librarian. Now that I’m retired, I have even more time to get out to the field.

Though I’ve always been interested in one thing or another — prairies, swamps, slime molds, that sort of thing — but I first started with butterflies with my son David. First we collected but soon began just taking photographs.

Our family moved to Wautoma, in central Wisconsin, in 1985. I was excited to be in one of the sand counties, having of course read Leopold’s Sand County Almanac. I’ve since explored every nook and cranny of the county and the surrounding area, and become involved in the North American Butterfly Association. I’m currently the moderator for the naba.org national sighting pages.

Dragons, damsels and tigers, oh my!

In 2002, I started taking photos of dragon flies and damselflies — which were included on the second version of this website — and in 2004 I discovered tiger beetles. The third version of this website includes robber flies as well.

I’m no Lepidoptra “expert”, having never officially studied butterflies. I’ve just spent lots of time wandering around, getting my feet wet and looking for whatever happens to be flying by.