The Butterfly Place in Westford, MA is located at 120 Tyngsboro Rd. It’d been a long, long time since I’d been there. From where I live in Taunton it’s about 70 miles and should take about an hour and 30 minutes to get there, depending on traffic.
I was making good time until an RV and an SUV decided to mix it up at the junction of RT 90 (Mass Pike) I was about 2 miles from the “Pike” when traffic stopped. The WB ‘copter floated overhead so I had an up to the minute report. According to them we weren’t going anywhere soon.
I shut off the car and open the windows and doors. Soon everyone was doing the same. People wandered around at the side of the road or up and down between the cars. Several ambulances and tow trucks went by but I didn’t see any Med flights so that was a good sign.
The hour we waited actually passed pretty quickly and I arrived at The Butterfly Place at 2:30 instead of 1:30.
The rules are simple, No Touch, No Talk, No Eye Contact..no wait, that’ the Dog Whisperer but it was similar. To protect the fragile inmates there was a no touch policy. If you are caught trying to attract a butterfly to your hands you are asked to leave.
It’s smaller than the Magic Wings venue in Deerfield but the principle is the same. There’s a coi pond, paths through greenery and little benches. Butterflies are everywhere. This is a family owned business so I don’t know if the staff was family or “hired help” but they were very nice and quite knowledgeable. They laughed when I told them I wanted to take pictures (Turns out so did everyone else) and challenged me to get a picture of one of the blue butterflies showing the blue. When they land they close their wings and look like a drab , brown butterfly.
They were the challenge, for sure. When they lit on the ground they did spread their wings…for a second and in spite of trying forever I couldn’t time it right so imagine my surprise when one landed right next to me and spread its wings as if to say “take it now, you only have one chance.”
Although we finally had a pleasant day outside, it was 80+ and humid inside. Just the temps the butterflies love.
You’ve already seen my favorite pictures on Wordless Wednesday.
Like Magic Wings, there were little Quail running every where. You had to be careful not to step on the tiny birds. The attendant called them Chinese Painted Quail.
Don’t let the small size fool you. They are fully mature. More than one pair were intent on making little quail. I got a chuckle when I heard a small voice ask his mother “What’s Mating?”.
I also spotted a pretty little bird. I couldn’t place it but something was tugging at the corner of my mind so I asked. It’s a Zebra Finch. I must have seen them at a pet store as they are domestic birds. She said there are 3 but the most I saw at once were 2 and I couldn’t tell them apart.
Butterfly wings closes at 5pm so about 4:30 I picked up the camera and headed home. The timing would put me right in rush hour traffic but it was worth it. It was a great way to spend an afternoon.
