Its That Time Again

Posted on December 28, 2016December 28, 2016 by Dusty Roads

New Years is right around the corner. A blank sheet of paper if you will. Lots of people will be looking back over 2016 and setting goals for 2017. There will be the usual “lose weight”, “quit smoking”, “be nice to the neighbor” and so on. I’ll probably make some “resolutions” too. After all, a little introspection is a good thing but I tend to think of this week between Christmas and New Years as a time to wade through a whole year’s worth of photos.

Red Fox on a rock

Most of my pictures are of the snap shot variety. I grab the camera and try to capture a moment, maybe something to share here but every now and then I try to get that special picture. One that makes me say ahhhh.

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It gets harder and harder to get those special pictures. Everybody has a camera and everybody thinks they are a “pro”. Just this kind of atmosphere raises the bar.

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I’m reviewing my pictures for that special , indefinable quality that makes them a “cut above”. I want to find the 10 best.

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They have to be in focus, with lots of pixels so they can be blown up to gallery print size, and they need to be special in some way.

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So for the next few days I’m going to share my pictures as I search for those special top 10.

Some of these are pretty good but I don’t think they will make the cut. We’ll see.

The Butterflies of Westford

Posted on February 29, 2016February 29, 2016 by Dusty Roads

Butterflies, harbingers of spring, gentle bits of gossamer floating on the breeze. Who does’t love those happy bits of color?

Well it seems that not everyone likes butterflies.

Butterfly Place

Our afternoon was visiting the Butterfly Place in Westford. It isn’t as large as the butterfly conservatory in South Deerfield. We’d been to Magic Wings several years ago and Alex wasn’t pleased with the large blue butterflies that seemed (to him) to swoop and dive bomb him. But Alex was older now so it should be ok , right?

Alex and Dawn entered the indoor gardens quickly enough but soon were looking to make their escape. Alex left first and watched from the window.

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Dawn lasted longer but was clearly restless. Both children were ready to leave before my camera had even had a chance to acclimate.

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The camera had been in the trunk of the car to give everyone more room so going from the cool outside air into the humid 80 degree environment the butterflies need caused the lens to fog. That was to be expected and the only thing I know to do is to wait patiently and let nature take care of the condensation.

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I did try to take few pictures with the foggy lens treating it as a diffuser. I was pleased by the result.

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In addition to the butterflies I recognized a Zebra Finch but there were several other colorful birds as well.

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I don’t know what they were. Some children were calling the rainbow birds and that’s as good as anything considering their bright colors.

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The quail were out in force and quite active running between visitors feet.

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There were quite a few people there, many with cameras but it was challenging.

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Butterflies don’t stick around in one place for long and when one lights you need to be quick, jockeying for a chance for a shot before someone else pushes by you.

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They have a “quiet hour” from 9 – 10 am for photographers only. You need to let them know the day before that you are coming. I think I just might try that.I’m adding it to my list!

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A Butterfly Legend

Posted on August 3, 2013August 3, 2013 by Dusty Roads

I’ve shared quite a few posts about butterflies so as I move on to other topics I thought I would leave you with this Native American Butterfly Legend. Be sure you make a wish!

Butterflies of Cape Cod

Posted on August 2, 2013August 2, 2013 by Dusty Roads

As you know I explored the Butterfly place in Westford recently. As a result of that post I was told about another Butterfly house located on Cape Cod. A quick online search turned up an address in Bourne, 26 Herring Pond Rd. I plugged it into my GPS and was off to check it out.

About half way there I realized that I knew where I was going. I’d seen the sign for Butterflies of Cape Cod many times as I headed for the Sagamore Bridge.

I always promised myself I would stop in one day. I didn’t realize it was a butterfly habitat. I thought it was just a gift shop.

Sure enough, my GPS led me right to this spot.

The butterfly house is located behind the gift shop which is in a pretty little house. You enter the front door into the shop and go out the back into a yard. The screened butterfly habitat is right there.

The habitat is smaller than The Butterfly Place in Westford or Magic Wings in Deerfield but that isn’t the only difference. Westford and Deerfield celebrate tropical butterflies. This little habitat features local butterflies and moths. This is nice because you get to see butterflies up close that might only flit quickly away in the open. These are butterflies that could be in anyone’s yard or field.

As you first enter the habitat there are glass enclosures containing caterpillars and chrysalis and pupae. Pass through another screen and you are in the little container garden.

As soon as I entered I spotted a big ole Luna Moth. These are such beautiful creatures. The green shade is “other worldly”. I have seen them before but rarely and it’s always a treat. One of the owners was there and he said it was just sitting there now because it was daytime but that in the evening the Luna Moths get very active floating around on those gorgeous wings.

There were a lot of Monarch butterflies. They seemed to be very social insects gathering in groups on the flowers.

They made great subjects as they paid no attention to the humans wandering around.

Two other butterflies that I’ve often see were also present, one called a Buckeye and another called the Painted Lady.

We had to watch where we stepped because some of those silly butterflies like sunning themselves on the warm, cement path.

There were a couple of local swallow tail butterflies but as is so often in these habitats the tails were damaged or missing.

The challenge was the little white butterfly called a Cabbage Butterfly. They are small and they don’t land long.

Even when they do land they often keep their wings fluttering. I don’t think they are rare. I can remember seeing them everywhere when I was growing up.

I spotted some caterpillars climbing in the greenery, future butterflies on the move.

As I was leaving I stopped in to chat with the proprietors. They can be found on Facebook (who can’t these days) but if you like them you will get updates when a new butterfly hatches in the enclosure.

The little store has lots of nice things from jewelry to books to miniature butterfly enclosures for kids to learn from. Plus they have lots of pictures of their butterflies. I wonder if they would be interested in carrying my cards? I could make a special set of just their butterflies. I think I’ll take a sample next time I go down. Never hurts to ask!

The Butterfly Place

Posted on July 28, 2013July 28, 2013 by Dusty Roads

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.