Birds? Check. Bees? Check (but not nearly as many as their used to be). Butterflies? Yup. All those cues scream “springtime.” No need to look at the calendar and see it’s March 20.
From coast to coast, flights of fancy await at a bounty of butterfly houses – beacons of environmental sanity, havens for heightened senses.
Here are a few of the best:
The Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center at Georgia’s Callaway Gardens is home to more than 50 different species of the delicate winged artworks. Tropical plants provide the perches for some 1,000 butterflies. Nothing here is static. Every week newly-minted butterflies shed their chrysalids, dry their wings, and render their first rhythmic wing beats. Be still as you can. Watch in wonder.
The Butterfly Pavilion is a Rocky Mountain retreat from the workaday world, a place to put this crazy planet in a semblance of perspective. There are five immersive exhibits here in the lee of the Rockies – including a mile-high rainforest suffused with free-flying, multi-colored critters. The pavilion is in Westminster, a suburb of Denver.
The Tucson Botanical Gardens bills itself as Arizona’s only live tropical butterfly exhibit. This deep-desert enclave showcases butterflies through April 30. Hold out your hand, and—again—keep quite still. Chances are good one of these extraordinary creatures will land in your palm. Quick, get a glimpse of the Blue Morpho as it disappears. Gaze agape at the wingspan of the comparatively huge Atlas Moth. See how the Large Owl Butterfly feasts.
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles’s Butterfly Pavilion is the last stop on Cheapflights’ butterfly tour. The Pavilion opens April 8 and the show runs through Sept. 30. Look closely and understand the cycle of Mother Nature – how butterflies use their tubular mouthparts to strain nectar form the plants, how caterpillars feed on leaves, and morph into something spectacular. See if you can spot the California dogface (Zerene Eurydice for you entomologists out there). It’s the state’s official insect. Marvel at the magnificent, ubiquitous Monarch. These creatures winter in California groves over the winter.
Depending on where you go, butterflies really are free, or viewed for a fee. Either way, the perspective is priceless.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: Kjunstorm)
