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On our recent vacation to Florida, we stopped in to visit some of God’s most beautiful creatures at The Key West Butterfly Conservatory. Inside this climate-controlled, glass-enclosed habitat are 50-60 different butterfly species, along with gorgeous plants and flowers, and some exotic birds.
We spent about an hour just strolling through, watching these winged-creatures zoom around us, sometimes even landing on one of us. Like these blue morphos that seemed to be attracted to Tom and Ben’s baseball caps . . .
Blue Morpho butterflies are one of my favorites. With wings closed, they aren’t that remarkable. I do think those camouflaging eyes are cool though. But when they fly with wings open, they are amazing! They’re also very difficult to photograph because they fly quickly and don’t light for long.
From the conservatory’s Facebook page:
The Blue Morpho is among the largest butterflies in the world, with wings spanning from five (5) to eight (8) inches.
Habitat: Morpho Peleides live in tropical forests of Latin America from Mexico to Colombia. It has been said that pilots flying over rainforest have encountered large groups of Blue Morphos above treetops, warming themselves in the sun. The Blue Morpho are severely threatened by deforestation of tropical forests. Also, birds like the Jacamar and Flycatcher are the adult butterfly’s natural predators.
Here are a few shots I managed to get. I think the one you see so clearly was dying. It was resting in the bush, not moving much, and looked pretty ragged.
Butterflies weren’t all we saw that day. There were gorgeous, exotic birds and turtles, too!
But most of all there were butterflies . . . and a few moths as well. Take a gander at the African Moon Moth in the bottom right corner below. And in the upper lefthand corner, the Zebra Wing Butterfly. We haven’t taken the time yet to identify the other butterflies yet. But we will.
What a glorious science study that will be!
Obviously, we have come to the end of the alphabet. Were any of you successful in blogging every letter this round? I know it’s a challenge, but it is so fun to do. This is my 2nd time around and round 3 will begin next Monday. I hope you will join me!
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