Exotic butterfly sanctuary (U of Alberta botanical garden collection)

Hello my friends!

Somehow, I managed to not freeze the blockchain over with my northern posts, maybe we can go somewhere, well...a little sunnier. Winter blues tend to set in this time of year, with the days getting longer, it's just a matter of time until everything begins to thaw. I still have more to share from my mountain trip and frozen fun to be had like visiting the ice castles before winter is over, I still can't help but anticipate the warm days to come so here is one from lasts summer's posts that never came to be. One of our newer discoveries is a hidden gem hidden outside of the city limits yet such an integral part of the research program of one of our major universities, the University of Alberta.

Shot 1/400 sec. f/6.3 200 mm, ISO 1600

Formerly known as the Devonian garden now re-named U of A Botanical Garden (I prefer the old name) is a large 240 acre forested garden located near Devon Alberta that hosts various recreated landscapes, themed gardens, sculptures and other gifts from cultural exchanges with universities around the world. Established in 1959, the garden is part of agricultural, conservation/land reclamation and other environmental or botanical programs and holds their entire plant and live butterfly collection. During the summer, the garden is open to visitors for a small fee or membership to help support the program and expansion of the garden. A quote from their website:

"The Garden is part of a global network of botanic gardens working to understand and preserve biodiversity, and has partnered in the Millennium Seed Bank at Kew Gardens in England, the largest plant conservation project in the world."
https://botanicgarden.ualberta.ca/about/research/

We discovered this well hidden wonder a couple of years back and somehow missed the butterfly house, we got way too caught up in the rest of the garden to even notice it's existence since we ran out of time. Obviously, returning was in order. We enjoyed ourselves so much the first time and quickly realized to get the full experience would take multiple returns that we just got a year membership and get the costs done and over with. Memberships are golden, you can really cash in on them by focusing your free time learning and make for great long term photography projects that keep on giving.

Shot 1/250 sec. f/8 26 mm, ISO 100

Either way, these are exactly the kind of local things we like to support. The rest of Canada associate Alberta as oil country but we also have a strong agricultural background and are a major grain producer, with that comes the responsibility of caring for the hand that feeds...Our land. We take pride in our conservation efforts compared to what Hollyweird would have you believe. The oil mining companies generally rely on these kind of research programs to reclaim the land they have disturbed and create better habitats than what was there before, the other side of the coin mainstream media wont tell you, it's not all gloom and doom perpetually looking like Mordor as advertised and probably have some of harshest environmental regulations in the world. Here is a lengthy but worthy read if you would like to learn more about some of the land reclamation projects in my province:

https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/reclaiming-albertas-oil-sands-mines

Shot 1/1600 sec. f/6.3 200 mm, ISO 400

I know went a little off topic from the butterflies eh! I will be talking about this place quite a bit for the next little while over the course of summer, the grounds are too large to explore in one posts or one day for that matter. Going at different times is a must, the blooms change during the season starting with the crab-apple trees in full bloom in the Kurimoto garden (that will be my next botanical conquest). The center offers a variety of courses both for adults and children, venues and a full week-end calendar of social evening events for all ages. Paying close attention, they host a photographer session on certain Saturday mornings where we are able to go before the regular hours and capture the flowers in the morning sun before the dew had the chance to dry, it's a peaceful experience before the photobombers arrive....hum...other guests...hehe. Seriously tho, this the best time to go to get out the 10mm and do a couple of landscape shots with minimal people.

Shot 1/320 sec. f/9 18 mm, ISO 100

The butterfly house is located near the entrance to the grounds just behind all the shops and ice cream stand into a large glass building...how could I even miss it in the first place, anyhow we made it. The glass structure holds a collection of tropical plants that cannot survive our harsh winter outside providing the perfect habitat for these colorful pollinators to thrive. One of the famous residents is of course the large Emperor butterfly aka Blue morpho, it's beauty will lure you down the narrow pathways leading between the foliage and man-made streams as it flutters away. Rest easy, with wings so large, he's bound to take a breather and give you some time to admire.

Out of all the critters, this is the one most likely to make friendship attempts giving the term "social butterfly" a literal meaning. It doesn't land on everyone but will investigate and if it feels like it, it will latch on for the rest of the time there for easy photo-ops. In the above picture, the first one is new and healthy, the second one is nearing the end of his life cycle. An interesting feature in this species, the blue is nothing but an optical illusion, they actually contain no blue pigmentation whatsoever. The wings are made of little bumps that absorb most of the colors in the light spectrum only to refract blue back to the eye. Below is a perfect example of their actual color and patterns.

Sometimes I end up wearing the wildlife.

This picture is the inside of the wing shot at the perfect angle to eliminate seeing most of the blue, as you can see it looks exactly as the outside ... cool eh?

Be cautious when walking around, caterpillars are all over the pathways but if you pay close enough attention, they can also be found under trees or foliage especially near the ponds. Of course, we all know what happens next, they cocoon up and digest themselves to form their wings than harvested to be placed between 2 panels of glass and identified to ensure their security during the process and to display for learning opportunities for visitors. There is a space for them to just fly away and out of their temporary glass home to view them hatch in real time (it's actually quite a slow process and a bit distressing to watch as they seem to struggle). When they hatch, they are quite clumsy trying to finish stretching their wings while learning how to use them. (after they hatch, their wings tend to remain rolled up or appear broken at first)

So far, to my experience, the semi-wild life seemed calmer and easier to photograph during mating season as they displayed their rituals to impress their mates instead of fluttering around and of course the opportunity to catch them in pairs for amazing close up pictures. Keep in mind using a 300mm lens is still in order like any other wildlife to be able to maintain a good enough distance to not disturb them too much. I couldn't get all of the collection, it's quite large and not exactly sitting there on display, many of them seem to be quite shy and stay away from their visitors. It is rumored they have memory from caterpilarhood, maybe I can slowly gain their trust.

Shot 1/1250 sec. f/6.3 200 mm, ISO 400

Bugs with memories? What a thought!! Crazy ladybug! It's in fact true some scientific research have established studies that suggest such findings. Deep down I always knew since I created a caterpillar habitat under the porch as a pet. I played with it for a while, then it disappeared, suddenly I had a monarch butterfly that would follow me around and land on me...Don't judge, I was 4!! Ok enough childhood fluff stories and here is a link from real research from an adult!

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13412-butterflies-remember-caterpillar-experiences/

On the way to the butterfly house on our second trip , we intercepted a drowning dragonfly in the pond, the big hand of ladybug scooped it out and she held on to my hand like there was no tomorrow so I just delayed our agenda and let the poor thing settle down from her ordeal until she was willing to let go and moved into the grass, took at least half an hour.

If you are newer to steemit and would like to opportunity to win a few steem and maybe a bit of exposure to your blog, I encourage you to enter my plankton party photography/writing contest in the link provided below...so far the odds are pretty good, it could be an easy grab for you...
https://steemit.com/photohraphy/@ladybug146/saturday-plankton-party-writing-photography-contest-new-life-to-steemit

Cheers! xox