On a recent trip to the zoo we visited a butterfly garden. And it was a hit! We spent quite awhile in there and I think we could have even spent more time there. My parents waited outside with Sirah while I took Ciaran and Rhiannon inside. My parents were astonished that so many people came in and went out in the time we spent in there. The kids really enjoyed roaming around with the butterflies. The zoo provided a clipboard listing the different species with their pictures so we roamed around trying to match the butterflies we saw with the ones on the list. We were also noticing the different types of chrysallis. Every time we saw a painted lady the kids were sure it was the ones we raised that the zoo caught.
Some of the different species of butterflies we saw yesterday were: queen, buckeye, zebra longwing, comman, clouded sulphur, great spangled frittallary, julia, sleepy orange, white peacock, checkered white, monarch, painted lady, giant swallowtail, zebra swallowtail, and even an uhler's artic. Rhiannon's favorite of all those was still the pained lady - though she also liked the julia. Ciaran's favorite was the giant swallowtail and he liked the sleepy orange. We seemed to see the most of the zebra longwings and the hardest to identify was the uhler's artic.
The butterfly garden was a very peaceful place and encouraged me to research and consider planting one ourselves next year. Definately a place we will visit again - next time I think I will bring our own checklist so we can keep track of them. We did take the checklist out to a bench and write down the ones we saw. I highly recommend this activity.
Peace,
Tenn
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