Thursday, April 28, 2011

Goodbye butterflies ...

I'm dangerously close to becoming a butterfly "nerd" ... I've visited the exhibit at Meijer Gardens five times now. This morning, I arrived exactly at 9:00 so that I could hopefully beat the crowds. I snapped this somewhat blurry picture (above) of the only monarch I saw today.
The butterfly exhibit began March 1 and ends in two days. There were thousands of butterflies to see immediately after you walked through the airlock in early March. Today, I had to really search them out ... and hunt them down to find them! For the first 25 minutes or so, I had the conservatory to myself! JOY!
Spring has been VERY slow in coming to West Michigan this year. I'm STILL dressing in layers ... just to survive! A walk in the conservatory is SO therapeutic for me. The colors, the humid HEAT, the allusive butterflies ... just exactly what I need!
Last year, for the first time ever, I actually saw and photographed the clearwing butterfly. He is SO cool. But this year, I didn't even SEE one single clearwing! I was a little bit disappointed about that.
This gorgeous Julie Longwing ... isn't the COLOR amazing ... was very cooperative with my camera today!
It was very nice to be able to photograph today without stepping over people or worrying about getting in someone's way ...
And this Blue Morpho was the ONLY one of it's kind anywhere to be seen this morning. When I was here last week, there were dozens of them flying everywhere!

Over at the butterfly bungalow, I finally saw the Atlas Moth that I've been wanting to see for so long! The span of its wings is wider than my open hand! Isn't he amazingly beautiful?
There was an official butterfly lady (complete with name tag) standing next to the bungalow, available to answer any questions. So of course my question was: "I don't suppose you'd let me go inside the bungalow and get a decent picture of the moths ... would you? ... Please?! There is SUCH a glare on the glass ..." She didn't even flinch with her denial of my request. I told her I regularly ignored "No Tresspass Signs", fences, railings, etc. if it meant I could get a better picture. She was completely unimpressed. Sigh. Goodbye butterflies ... and moths!

3 comments:

judy hand said...

Great photos, Carol. I've tried
appeals like that too, with the same
results you had.

Peg said...

Hi Carol. Maybe you should see if they have any volunteer opportunities for next year. After all if you've got an official name tag it may be ok to go in "after hours" to take pictures.

Mom Jones said...

Hi Peg. Well, that's a thought ... however, as I listened to these volunteers they sounded like walking encyclopedias ... it's not that I'm not interested in butterflies, but I'm not terribly strong at retaining scientific facts. I have tons of nice photos now to use for card making purposes, but I saw lots and lots of "forbidden" places that I wish I could sneak into over there and get a fabulous photo or two ...