Flutter Me Bad

Brown Clipper

And so the Tucson Botanical Gardens begin another year of Butterfly Magic. On this day I was astounded by the new additions to the greenhouse!  It was fun getting back to the docent work.

Great Mormon Butterfly

We've had some new additions like the Great Mormon and Julia butterfly, but there were certainly more:)  The best part this year is that the Butterfly Magic is included as part of the entrance fee at the gardens. So if you've never been to one of these events, it's worth checking out.

Julia Butterfly

The butterflies of Southern Arizona are quite different from their tropical siblings. In essence, I sit studying charts and names to help me ID these beauties.  I can point out our butterflies here in the desert but I still have a hard time with the tropicals.  So today I studied the Great Mormon butterfly with great interest.

Birdwing Butterfly

Of course some of the popular regulars include the Atlas Moth.  I believe as of this write a Lunar Moth also went into the greenhouse.  Another beauty in the moth world.

Atlas Moth

So while things will hopefully cool off soon, this place will be warm and humid all year round.  As a docent, we rotate out in 3 shifts over 3 hours.  Entrance, educator, and Exit.  This year I have several students volunteering from the high school and I hope they enjoy it as much I do.

If you live in Tucson and are interested in becoming a docent at the Tucson Botanical Gardens, contact (520)326-9686, Ext. 39 or email education1@tucsonbotanical.org for more information. And as always, more tomorrow......

Lacewing Butterfly

Lofty Intentions

 At the Tucson Botanical Gardens, you'll discover the tropical butterfly exhibit at Butterfly Magic.   The exhibit will be open until April 30th.  After that you'll have to wait until October....or you could go to the tropics.  That's fun as well:) 

The Postman Butterfly(Heliconius melpomene) found in Panama and parts of Mexico, South and Central America. 

 Most of the butterflies are shipped from parts of Africa, Australia, Central and South America.

 It was a nonbusy gardening day and I had to get some photo work done for a post on Rock Gardens this month.  It's easy to capture butterflies while they are on a flower, but todays photo shoot was about capturing them in flight.  And that is NOT easy.  I think they're harder to capture than most birds! 

The Cairns Birdwing Butterfly(Ornithoptera euphorion) This is a female. The butterflies are found on the Northeastern coast of Australia.

 If you visit the exhibit, remember that it does get warm inside the building and it's humid.  If you wear glasses or are planning on doing some photography, you'll need to give yourself some time to unfog your camera or eye lense:)

It's quite the show and everytime I go, I see something different.  While it was a challenge doing photography with A LOT of people inside, I got some shots that I'm okay with....don't ask what happened to the 400 + that weren't chosen for this post:)  More tomorrow.....

Butterfly Magic at the Gardens

Frosty.  Rainy. Cold morning.  Until I got to the butterfly exhibit and then it was....hot, humid, and steamy.  I don't know what both extremes will do to a body, but I'll find out tonight. Hopefully I won't get sick. On this gray and cloudy day, a moment of sunshine and color presented itself in the gardens!  Today I went to volunteer at the gardens in the butterfly exhibit and it was a wonderful contrast to what was really going on outside.  I love conservatories and greenhouses because you can grow things inside that you normally wouldn't be able to plant outside....for example, you'll see tillandsias(or air plants) all around the tropical garden.  Here are pics and a vid from today's outings.

The Morphos Butterfly(wings closed)

                                                                 Morphos with wings open.

The exhibit will be open until April 30th, 2011. 

The Glass Wing Butterfly

Birdwing Butterfly

The video contains several shots from the exhibit before visitors arrived plus you'll get to see how they move about the greenhouse.

The Atlas Moth

Tomorrow I'll show what we did to prepare for the super freeze that is happening tonight and throughout the weekend.