The Butterfly Gardens

One of the most beautiful creatures/insects, in the eyes of my daughters and myself are butterflies. For whatever reason we are just fascinated by them. This summer we have spent a lot of time at the butterfly gardens at our local zoo. My oldest daughter has truly loved learning the specific names of each butterfly and then trying to find them in the “greenhouse”. For example the Ulysses Butterfly which is also known as the Blue Mountain Swallowtail, the Blue Emperor, and the Mountain Blue. It is a spectacular bright blue and black butterfly on the topside of its wings, but then on the underside, it offers a more subdued coloring that allows them to blend into the woods and flower setting.

Our zoo offers a very relaxed atmosphere when watching the butterflies and they have a great staff, where the children can ask them questions about anything pertaining to the butterflies likes, dislikes, what they eat, life span, etc. Having a 5 and a 2 year old, as you know, they can ask such innocent questions that you wonder, how did they think of that, but the butterfly keepers were so gracious in answering all of the questions and increasing their curiosity in learning more. While we all learned more about butterflies, I also had a great time taking photographs of them.