Celebrating Our Seventh Anniversary

For our seventh anniversary Justin surprised me with a three day trip to Massachusetts to visit the Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory.  

We stayed in a hotel near by the conservatory. The surrounding towns had beautiful buildings like this church. 

We had a wonderful time at the conservatory! I didn't realize it was going to be an indoor greenhouse. I had been to a small butterfly garden as a little girl but it was all outdoors

Considering that there was a major thunderstorm while we were in the greenhouse I'm glad it was indoors.  

Most of the building was filled to the brim with plant life. This was the entrance area

 Before we went to the greenhouse we went through a separate little area with an assortment of bugs, amphibians, and reptiles with educational displays on the wall.

A display about the differences between butterflies and moths 

 I was really excited to see some poison dart frogs. They may not look small in these pictures but they definitely are!

I think this is a type of gecko. He seemed to be very content to stick to the glass. 

We were able to see little fringes on his toes that allows him to stick to glass.

I believe this is a nymph /  jungle nymph. These are actually quite large bugs. They kind of look like they might be related to mantis?

 This lovely terrifying pile of bugs are also types of nymphs

This aquarium was filled with walking stick bugs! I counted at least six. But I am definitely off on my count because these little guys hide so well.

There was an aquarium full of these little butterflies known as long wings in the exhibit room. These butterflies are able to collect pollen and become poisonous because of the pollen. Essentially these butterflies are little containers of cyanide poison.

This is an aquarium filled with different types of roaches.

 I'll spare you pictures but this yellow translucent one was kind of pretty

An adorable leaf bug! I like how it looks like it's been chewed on. Natural camouflage at work

One of the many framed displays of butterflies.

 I really like the bright blue one on the right side of the picture.

Walking into the green house was amazing 

It was like stepping into another world. You could not walk through the garden without having a few butterflies brush past you.

This is a zebra longwing. And yes they're related to those cyanide butterflies

A staff member at the conservatory was walking around with a jungle nymph on her arm. 

Her name is Lola and she's a beauty!

Look at this beautiful plant!

A female Cairns Birdwing 

The Cairns Birdwing butterflies were very calm. This one is a male.  

You could get really close to them. Made for some nice photographic opportunities!

In the greenhouse there was a display of Chrysalis and Cocoons.

 There were a few hatched butterflies and a moth in there.

 We walked past it a few times and there seem to be another little butterfly or moth that had just hatched.

 Another little zebra longwing.

A Brenton Blue.
 It was hard to photograph these because their outer wing is very dull and easy to miss

It took me a while to realize that these dull colored butterflies were the Brenton Blues. After I made the connection I was able to wait for them to display their inner blue color.

Do you see that blue blur at the top of the picture? That's the same Brenton Blue  They had places to go and butterflies to see.

A Brenton Blue eventually landed on me. I was very happy and I got to watch it clean it's little face. 

An Indian leafwing. 

When they close their wings the outer wing looks like a dead leaf. 

A malachite butterfly decided Justin needed to be more cute

Besides butterflies there were all these adorable little button quails in the greenhouse. We had to be careful where we stepped because they were running here and there and in between the bushes

I was very excited to see a koi pond in the middle of the greenhouse. Koi are so beautiful. I think they are my favorite fish.

Throughout the greenhouse there are these feeder sticks with what looks like a type of sponge in them be butterflies would feed from the special sugar water.

Some Cairns Birdwings on a feeder

A stunning Owl Butterfly 

Some more butterfly shots. I wasn't 100% satisfied with the quality of these photos.

Trying to identify the butterflies I saw has been a challenge. I have looked and looked for the name of this one but no luck. Do you know how many black and blue colored butterflies there are???? Too many to figure this one out.

 An interesting pink plant.

A tortoise. Apparently most of the birds, reptiles and amphibians there are rescues. I think that is wonderful!

This big old boy is named Porkchop

This photo is fun there was a orange butterfly resting on a leaf and three other other butterflies fluttering around it. I'm guessing the resting one is a female and the other three were males. I love how their flight was caught in the picture.

My next post will feature the best photos I took with my camera! Soon I promise!!

In the meantime- enjoy this video I put together!

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