El Charco is a continent and a garden. One may crisscoss its mesa and cling to rocks in its canyon, rewarding the curiosity of layman and professional alike. Of nature wild in El Charco: 110 varieties of butterflies have been sighted, but there are more ; 156 species of birds have been seen but the bird count is not final ; the list of vacular plants, now standing at 535 species, will grow. These are merely numbers; what is interesting are the stories that we can tell about individual birds, plants and other creatures. This is a book is a peek at what we do know and a prompt to learn more.