Carleton University Butterfly Exhibition 2012 – Day 7
Although there have been a few moments when the weather has appeared to be a bit threatening, and a few moments of apprehension when umbrellas had to be unfurled, the weather has so far cooperated and those in the line-ups at the greenhouses have had pretty decent weather. During this same period, my father passed away and thus my planned visits to the greenhouses had to be curtailed. Today, however, the greenhouses were on my route and a stop of an hour was in order. When I arrived the line-up wasn’t too bad but by the time that I left the greenhouse area, the line-up was beginning to extend outside.
Once inside the greenhouse, time didn’t seem to matter much as the butterflies with their exotic colours and flying styles soon took everyone’s attention. The high humidity in the greenhouses meant that it took a bit of time for the condensation to disappear from my glasses and from my camera lenses but soon I was able to start clicking the shutter again.
One of the things that I had to think about was the amount of time on my cars meter. On the weekend there is a flat $2 rate for parking all day near the greenhouses but during the school week, the rate is much steeper ($1.75/half hour) at the most convenient spots. No problem for me though, as I could count on my trained butterfly friends to check on the time for me every so often :-).
There were plenty of large Owl butterflies and Blue Morpho butterflies moving form location to location today and as always there were plenty of children quite willing to carry around a piece of orange sporting a large butterfly.
Among the smaller butterflies, I was happy to glimpse a different Parides sp. high above me. I hadn’t seen this species before so was happy that it stayed hanging from beneath the vegetation long enough for me to get my shot.
White Rice Paper butterflies were still in abundance as were various smaller species of the longwings and postman varieties of butterflies.
Another check of the watch and I knew that I would soon need to head back to my car before I got a parking ticket. It seemed that the butterflies know that I would soon be leaving and started landing all around me. A shot here, a shot there – I could have stayed another hour! Oh well, maybe another day, or another place or another year!
Soon, I was back outside in the Autumn air where the local leaves were beginning to put on a delightful display of their own.
*****
Lovely butterflies. Now I wish I’d joined you. Thanks for sharing what I missed.