A surprise hit with the teenagers: The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory. Myself, I never pass up one of these places. I was thrilled that everybody else liked it, too. This one had a lot going on in the nursery, where pupae and chrysali and whatnot were hanging and hatching and drying their wings in plain view. Not to mention, button quail chicks =
so cute. But it was hard to take photos of that because of the glass and the lighting. (It's always some excuse with me, isn't it?) So no chrysalis photos, sorry.
Lunchtime. Overripe banana, anyone?
This very fancy finch fit right in. A few varieties of finches and Chinese Button Quail live in the huge aviary as well.
Recently hatched, wings now fully inflated and dried, this one was later brought outside to join the big boys.
Blue morphos, from South America, win my vote for Most Disneyfied Look, as they often fly in groups of three or more, following each other in an erratic, cartoon-y line through the air, right past your nose. At rest, they usually fold their wings to display the dull brown pattern of the underside. This one below, who's more than a little ragged, was quite lethargic, too tired maybe to fold up, so we were able to get a good look at its metallic blue coloring.
So that's my recommendation: take the kids, even if they're old, jaded teenagers. I'll bet they like it.
A surprise hit with the teenagers: The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory. Myself, I never pass up one of these places. I was thrilled that everybody else liked it, too. This one had a lot going on in the nursery, where pupae and chrysali and whatnot were hanging and hatching and drying their wings in plain view. Not to mention, button quail chicks = so cute. But it was hard to take photos of that because of the glass and the lighting. (It's always some excuse with me, isn't it?) So no chrysalis photos, sorry.
Lunchtime. Overripe banana, anyone?
This very fancy finch fit right in. A few varieties of finches and Chinese Button Quail live in the huge aviary as well.
Recently hatched, wings now fully inflated and dried, this one was later brought outside to join the big boys.
Blue morphos, from South America, win my vote for Most Disneyfied Look, as they often fly in groups of three or more, following each other in an erratic, cartoon-y line through the air, right past your nose. At rest, they usually fold their wings to display the dull brown pattern of the underside. This one below, who's more than a little ragged, was quite lethargic, too tired maybe to fold up, so we were able to get a good look at its metallic blue coloring. 
So that's my recommendation: take the kids, even if they're old, jaded teenagers. I'll bet they like it.
1 comment:
Beautiful photos, beautiful birds and butterflies. I'm so glad you had the chance to see them!
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