butterfly hunters

Today we ventured up to Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory in South Deerfield, MA, with some of our homeschooling pals. This was not our first visit to this wonderful place, you can read about our last visit there in this blog entry and also in this one, and you can see lots of butterfly photos from that trip here and here and here. Oh, and some photos of some of the other critters that live there as well can be found here. Yup, we like it there! In this first picture, my boys and their friend B use their identification chart to hunt down various species so they can check them off on their list.

J shows me what the caterpillars in this tank are going to change into eventually -- Blue Morpho Butterflies, one of my favorites! The caterpillars are actually sort of hideous, which is surprising given how gorgeous their adult form is.


Zoo Boy was sure to point out all the reptilian inhabitants as well, here spotlighting the fact that Magic Wings STILL has Bearded Dragons, and WE still do NOT. Duly noted. He also managed to talk one of the employees into taking the Gila Monster out of it's cage so he could pet it. It was a lively fella, and all my photos of their interaction came out ridiculously blurry, so you're just going to have to take my word on it. Zoo Boy giggled at how feisty he was. I made a mental note NOT to consider, under any circumstances, allowing him to get a Gila Monster.

J and Zoo Boy check their identification chart to figure out the name of the butterfly they are looking at. They didn't accept "Charlie", which was my answer. (In fact, I got a quite mature roll-of-the-eyes response from at least one of them.) It was a really good day to be in a tropical location -- the weather on the other side of the glass wall was windy and bitterly cold, while we on the inside were cavorting around in short-sleeves.

J takes a quiet moment to enjoy the ambiance. I could spend all day in that place. In fact, we're talking about bringing our entire families (husbands, too, imagine that) up there for a weekend in mid-winter. Part of the idea is so that the menfolk can partake in the wonder and beauty of this place, too. The other part, of course, is that then we'd have someone else to chase after the kids, and us Moms can just sit and enjoy the butterflies, flowers, tropical atmosphere, and each other's company for a bit. Ahhh, sounds like heaven!