Alex meets the Butterflies!

We took Alex to the butterfly rainforest museum to see the butterflies. He is fascinated by outdoor sights right now, and we thought he would get a kick out of the visit.

Here's Ginny and Alex getting used to the surroundings,


and here's Alex getting up close and personal with one of the residents. I'm afraid I didn't take the time to indentify the species, so if anyone can identify them for me, I will be glad to update this entry with common and scientific names.


Here's a closeup of the same butterfly species:


And another one. Some of the butterflies sat still longer and were easier to get a shot off, while others never seemed to settle down.


Butterflies weren't the only residents in the rainforest. These birds seemed to be enjoying their meal. Hopefully they don't find butterflies too tasty.

This butterfly I actually know the name of. It's a Banded Morpho. It is quite large, and looks rather moth-like on the bottom., with many "eyes" to fool predators.


But seen from the top, the Banded Morpho has these iridescent blue stripes. They are quite striking.

This is one of my best shots, I think. Too bad it wasn't sitting on a more contrasting flower.


These butterflies didn't often sit still. They have quite a bit more color on the top of their wings, but I never could get a good shot from the top. This upward facing shot looked to be a nice semi-silhouette, but I couldn't get the focus exactly right. A subcompact Canon Digital Elph is not ideal for these types of shots, but when you're managing a 4 month old infant at the same time, a small, easy to handle camera is necessary.


If I could've got this one in just slightly better focus, I think this would have been my best shot. The colors are striking, the flowers are nicely formed and colored, and I really like the well defined water droplets on the leaves.


I like the display of the thorax, head structure, and coiled proboscis on this one, as well as the contrast between the dark body and the brightly colored spots. Somebody please find me species names on these! Maybe I'll try to drop by the museum again soon.


I was trying to get shots of these very striking butterflies the whole time we were there. They rarely stopped moving. As we were going out we spotted these 2. The top one was continually dive bombing the lower one for some reason. Either it was attacking it over territory or some reason, or it was something far more amorous than that!


This picture actually came out far better than I expected it to. The coloring on the body of this one is quite striking, especially the eyes.


The bright red spots on this species made me want to get a shot of them badly. But they never sat still. I thought I had a good one here, but I had to reach up and take this one above my head, and I didn't realize he was sitting still because something had installed "skylights" in its wings.


Other then the iridescent blue streak, this species seems to have the markings of a Hereford cow!


I'd have really liked this photo as well, except the depth of field is so short that, while the wings are sharp and in perfect focus, its head and thorax was not. Oh, well! Otherwise I like the off-center composition, though it would be better with a flower of some kind.


New photos should be coming soon, weather permitting. We are going to try to take Alex for his first dip in the pool!