California Trip

It was a thrill to see butterflies in California while visiting my daughter, who lives in Berkeley.

I had the good fortune to meet Sal Levinson, The Caterpillar Lady, through a mutual friend. Sal is a butterfly educator and a docent at the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens and we spent a lovely hour discussing butterflies.

An expert on butterflies, she also knows about and advocates for the butterflies’ host plants. Sal has a very informative and excellent blog: Berkeley Butterfly Blog.

She gave me her two creations; a book on butterfly crafts and a Dvd she created about Monarchs. Thank you Sal!

Sal’s butterfly garden revealed native Gulf Fritillaries and their caterpillars.

Later that day we took the ferry to San Francisco and visited the  the Rain Forest exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. The architecture resembled the canopy arrangement of a tropical rain forest and included some gorgeous birds.  I wonder if they eat the butterflies?

Saw Owls, Magnificent Owls, and many longwings.

 

 

Comrades

This is a Facebook post from the National Butterfly Center in Texas.  These folks are identified as “Butterfliers”.  I would be quite happy to be among them, a butterflier among other butterfliers.

These are the butterflies mentioned in the post.

The paper kite, rice paper or large tree nymph

Paper Kite Butterflies hanging out in the Vivarium. Their high contrast black and white design indicates toxicity to their predators, but loveliness to their admirers like me.

November at amnh

My recent project of trying to identify the species in the Butterfly Conservatory has been very absorbing. My book of butterfly photographs is growing and comes in very handy. Each picture has the name and origin also.

However, there are some photographic observations that belong in this blog and not in my species identification book that is used mainly for information. Here we enjoy beauty!

Clipper, Malachite and Doris Longwing Butterfly.
The Doris butterflies come in several colors, but each has a flame design.

Dig the purple glow of the Magnificent Owl Butterfly.