Butterflies
 

School vacation this week left us with the grandkids so we took a day trip up to Deerfield, Mass. to visit Magic Wings, a butterfly conservatory and garden shop. It was awesome! The conservatory houses thousands of live butterflies and plant life where you can walk around, observe and mingle with the butterflies. I, of course, went nuts with the camera. :D

There were endless varieties of every shape and size.

...and the colors were stunning!

Some of the flowers were amazing too!

Glasswings are so cool. We had one of the variety that look kind of like oversized fake bees hanging out on the butterfly bush at work.

Awesome pictures!

I, of course, went nuts with the camera.

And we would expect no less from you !!!!

EGGESELAENT PICS !!!!!!!!!

Super! I'm going to check it out next time I'm up there. Thanks! :D

It's well worth the trip, Bruce. I highly indorse it, bring a camera and some kids!

There were more than just butterflies in the conservatory too, several varieties of birds were cohabiting with them. I just missed getting a picture of a hummingbird, little bugger was too damn quick.:( I also saw a small covy of partridges right near the entrance.

Oh yeah, the rugrats loved it too! :biggrin:

Lovely pics 404!

Camera, yes. Kids, I'll use other peoples.
I'd probably just wonder around with my mouth open and forget to take pictures. :blush:

Butterflies in Niagra Fall, NY
 

Last fall I visited the butterfly conservatory at Niagra Falls, NY and was truly amazed, I did not know if I would see live or dead butterflies. It was unbelievable, it is set up like a rain forest and you walk around in circles climbing up 15 or so feet. There were thousands of live butterflies. If you have never been to one put it on your list of things to do.

what kind of camera do you have again 404?

It's an Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom.

Is the fifth from China?

I'm not sure of the of the variety names or where any of these butterflies are from, Billy. I was too busy just taking pictures of all of them to pay attention to details like that. ;)

The sign that that butterfly is resting on was on a little information desk within the conservatory. There were thousands of butterflies flying freely around the place and I just snapped thier pictures wherever they happened to land long enough for me to focus on them.

Right on, 404. Butterflies are eye candy. :thumbsup:

If I were to take an educated guess on which one of the butterflies I took pictures of is Chinese I'd pick this one. That's only because of the marking on it's spine look like Chinese characters to me. :confused:

A couple more pretty ones.

Wow, I had no idea you could get so many different kinds of butterflies in a small area like that. In the San Fransisco area of California (well, somewhere along the coast within a couple hundred miles or so of there), there's a place where the Monarchs butterflies breed, and you can see tree branches covered with thousands, just huge masses of them, but it's pretty much just the one kind, there isn't the variety seen in 404's pictures. Amazing.

I went to this butterfly house two summers ago while on vacation in the Adirondacks. wicked cool

When you get to the bottom of Griff's link click "home", but first turn the sound up. :biggrin:

404, Griff, burns334, What were the rules on flash pictures? I would imagine lots of flashes, up close and personal, would not be good for them. :confused:

Bruce, I don't recall there being any rules against flash photography in the conservatory. The place was similar to a green house and bright enough inside so there wasn't much need for a flash in most of the pictures I took. I did use the flash a few times when trying to get a shot of one amongst the greenery and saw other people doing likewise.

The only rule I did see enforced was no touching the butterflies or enticing them to land on you. If they did happen to take a liking to you and lite on your head or wherever it was fine. Just don't try to shoo them away as that would be touching. I had one land on the back of my neck and had to resist the urge to slap the little bugger off. ;)

IMO, it would depend on the type of film used ("fast" enough so a flash wouldn't be necessary), and the type of flash (tilt, bounce, etc.).

But 404 said that the place was bright enough so that a flash didn't have to be used for some pics.

And great pics they are 404! :thumbsup:

That went out with swordfighting and knickers. Nobody used film anymore....except the professionals. :D

404Error's trip to Magic Wings
 

I keep searching through the pages of Magic Wings, in the hopes of seeing the "handmade quilt by Dottie Case that includes the words Magic Wings 5 times." I've even tried Google/Google Images, to no avail. :yelsick: (those posters with the letters and numbers naturally-appearing in the butterfly wings are really neat, btw)

404Error, by any chance did you point that camera of yours away from the beautiful butterflies long enough to take a picture of that quilt? It's driving me mad--I want to find the hidden words, but I don't live anywhere near there. :( (and did you find all five instances of Magic Wings?)

And one final question--what would you suggest as the minimum age for children to go there? My sister lives close enough to drive there for a day-trip, but I don't know if her boys are too young (either to appreciate what they are in the midst of, or to not go butterfly-chasing). tnx

No Dormouse, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the quilt. I remember seeing it near the admissions counter but as we were with the kids, they were halfway through the door to the conservatory before I was done paying.

As for your second question, the girls are aged 3 and 6 and they both loved the butterflies. I think this place would be interesting for any age group from toddlers on up. Who wouldn't love having butterflies flying all around you. The 3 year old was a little intimidated at first til one of them landed on her and she realized the butterflies are really pretty...and they don't bite! :)

By popular demand, (from the grandkids) we went back to Magic Wings this past weekend. This time I did take a picture of the quilt hanging in the main lobby. I'll be damned if I can find even one of the five places where 'Magic Wings' appears on the quilt. Anyone?

Well, I do see one. :lol:

The top hat in the lower left corner is clearly one owned by a magician ... so there's another "magic".

Can you link to a higher resolution version of the image? might make this game easier to play ...

Here's the big picture. Aside from Bruce's find I still haven't found anything. :confused:

The sign under the quilt says 'the words' Magic Wings are in the quilt.

How many times does the stitching go around the big words? ;)

I found one so far ... bottom border of the quilt. the scroll work is actually the words "Magic Wings". Skip the middle couple of butterflies.

I am pressed for time right now and have to go to work, but I can highlight them later for anyone who doesn't see it.

yes

Doesn't go all the way around, more like shadow/shading. :confused:

I was joking - If they stitched the big words on with two rows of thread, that could count as three - the cloth words and two concentric thread outlines.

I spent some of my not so spare time at work looking at the larger image ... I can find quite a few places where I can identify letters from the words, but not always in the proper sequence ... I'm missing bits every now and again. I think there may also be another occurance in the wings of the large colored flutterby, but it's difficult to tell because the dark browns and blacks in the wings blend together.

What I find very surprising is that a google image search does not come up with any pics of the quilt.

I've found the single letters too but just can't put them together to form the words.

I did the google search too, Wolf. Nada. I even have the pamphlets from Magic Wings and nothing in them tells where the words are in the quilt.

I have my suspicions about the upper border ... there hasta be something there, darnit!!

That's it.

WE NEED MORE POWER!!!

Okay, somebody with a five megapixel camera has to go there and get another really good picture ... or series of pictures isolating various parts of the quilt.

Wolf, I took that picture with an 8Meg camera. The full size picture is 1.5MB in JPG format, the PhotoBucket.com site only allows up to 250KB per photo so that was the best I could do. I can email you the original if you want but I don't know if it will help.

I'm clutching at straws as I refuse to believe that they have hidden the words so well that I cannot find them!

It probably has nothing to do with the quality of your photo which is quite considerable.

But yeah, if you'd email the fullsize image, I'd certainly appreciate it! I'll PM you my address.

Top edge of large butterfly's wings, but lost in JPEG artifacting.

Perhaps morse code or braille for one of the others?

Good eye Russ! I see the word 'magic' clearly in the original picture now.

And after further scrutiny of the original I found the word 'magic' in the bottom of the same wing. There's something along the very top edge of the quilt but I just can't decide if it's actually words or not.