Over the weekend I visited the Chattahoochee Nature Center's butterfly exhibit. They have a small enclosed pavilion where you can walk around to see different kinds of butterflies. When you enter, they give you a little foam brush dipped in nectar, which you can offer to the butterflies to see if they'd like to land on it and taste it. And of course there were lots of butterfly-friendly plants too.
The pavilion was enclosed in a shiny mesh material, which made a nice soft background.
Malachite
Malachite
Julia longwing
Some of the butterflies were attracted to the nectar brushes, but others were more interested in landing on visitors. The staff actually checks every person individually on the way out the door to make sure no butterflies are tagging along when people leave.
Julia longwing
Thinking this might be a cabbage white or some other member of the pieris family
There were also lots of butterflies outside of the pavilion in the outdoor butterfly garden.
Gulf fritillary
Monarch
Zebra longwing
Eastern tiger swallowtail
On the way out of the park, I saw an unfortunate little spectacle too. I noticed a mockingbird fighting with what at first seemed to be a smaller yellow bird. So I stayed to see what was going on, and once I got close enough to see what was happening, I realized it wasn't a bird but a big yellow moth.
The mockingbird got the upper had pretty quickly, stabbing at the moth and biting it repeatedly. Then several other birds came down from the trees one at a time, trying to chase the mockingbird away from its prey.
I wasn't fast enough to get a clear shot, but a brown thrasher actually stole the moth away from the mockingbird for a minute before another smaller bird charged the thrasher and it panicked and dropped the moth again. Then a kid kicked a stray soccer ball near the birds, and all of them suddenly flew away and seemed to completely forget what had just happened. So all that fighting over a potential meal that they just abandoned in the grass afterwards! Poor moth. :(
It's easy to forget that birds are a bug's worst nightmare. And thank you!
I always love butterflies.
The nice travel and color images really caught my eyes.
Thank you! I love butterflies too, and late summer is the best time to see them where I live. Hoping to have more photos of them soon.
Dear Bethany, summer is the season of butterflies where I live also. I just post my 175th report about them. And I will post more photos soon.
Thank you for letting me know! I will go check it out now. This weekend I am hoping to get to a butterfly exhibit again. Can't wait!