Victoria's Butterfly Gardens, Part 4: Even More Beautiful Butterflies, Plants and Animals! (+10 insets)

(+10 insets!) (Please scroll down to "Today's Pictures" for image information)

Trip Talk: Victoria Butterfly Gardens...The Show Continues!
Visiting a butterfly garden is something everyone should do if you have the chance. Have you ever done a Google Search to find out if there is a butterfly house nearby? You may find yourself surprised! In my case, by including "Near Me" along with "Butterfly House" I learned of a place just two hours away! It has butterflies during summer months, along with other attractions in the area for us to enjoy when visiting. What fun! It will be something to look forward to right in our own backyard!

Steve and I spent about an hour or two at the Butterfly Gardens and every time we walked around the enclosure we'd see many things we hadn't noticed the last time around. It's just so profusely planted and filled with animals to discover, it was wonderful.

Today's Pictures
My main picture today features a Red Postman butterfly, which can be found in Mexico, Central and parts of South America. It's named for the way it follows a daily route, just like a mail carrier! :) There are between 20-40 subspecies which often interbreed because of overlapping territories. The resulting hybrids are an interesting blend but are often sterile. If you'd like more information, I found a fascinating web page which has many pictures of these butterflies and includes their locations.

Inset 1: Check out this gorgeous Zebra Mosaic Butterfly! I am crazy about its pattern!

Inset 2: I got some very nice details on this otherwise unremarkable and unidentified brown butterfly. I cannot help myself from trying to figure out what species each butterfly is but it's often a lost cause. Did you know there are over 17,500 species around the world? It's no wonder I rarely find the exact species when I look!

Inset 3: There is a wonderful display at the Butterfly Gardens where their caterpillars are raised. This one was enormous and I enjoyed watching it move along the underside of a stem, munching leaves as it went. What a crazy shape and color…and if you can see, there's another small caterpillar at the top of the image too.

Inset 4: A lovely pair of butterflies feeding on a slice of grapefruit. The more visible butterfly is a Malachite--thank you Anne Eliot for the positive id!--but the other one? Nope, can't tell you what species it is, though I looked and looked! It's so hard to resist searching, even though it's usually hopeless! :D Let me know if you come up with something! :)

Inset 5: There was a pair of macaws to admire, a Blue-and-Gold and this one, the magnificent Green-Wing. Are you surprised I didn't say it was a Scarlet Macaw? I have a link here, which shows a picture of a Blue-and-Gold, a Scarlet and a Green-Wing Macaw so you can see the difference!

Inset 6: These Guzmania Bromeliad flowers got my attention where they bloomed next to the main path in the Butterfly Gardens. I had some fun changing the path's color to something more attractive!

Inset 7: A trio of Blue Sky Vine flowers that hung down from where they were growing on some tropical trees. These beauties are officially called Thunbergia grandiflora and part of a group of about 100 species. These plants are fast-growing and if the conditions are good, will establish themselves easily, often becoming invasive.

Inset 8: Imagine my delight when I found an area of a pond that was covered with lily pads and flowers! They are one of my favorite water plants and I think this one is an Egyptian Lotus.

Inset 9: This Blue Sky Vine tendril turned and began twining up itself, creating a natural green hangman's noose! In the background you can see a group of flowers in bokeh. :)

Inset 10: The textures of this leaf were too much for me to resist! Sadly I didn't get any crisp pictures of the entire leaf but I believe it was from a Canna Lily plant.

Pam, I'm not at all surprised to learn that you've gotten pictures of 53 species where you live, but WOW!!! That's just amazing to me!! I don't dare count the species I've captured but it's probably only about 20 or so I reckon. I'd hoped to find more butterflies this season while we traveled around but unfortunately there weren't many opportunities where I could just chill out and wait for butterflies to visit. We're hoping that our future travels will include much longer stays here and there so I can correct this extreme frustration. Truly, I was pretty unhappy that we couldn't just BE more often because we felt we needed to maximize on each location. I had visions of sitting by a moist place where butterflies gathered for minerals and water and spending an hour just taking pictures. Or finding an area full of flowers which had bunches of butterflies to capture images of. However, I did get a few pictures which made me really happy! We'll accommodate for Being In the Moment as we work out the kinks of our travels! :) Oh--and it sounds like we're both experiencing the same chilly mornings! *BIG HUGS from southern Oregon* :)

Explored on 11/03/19; highest placement #4.