September 2007

BUTTERFLIES ALIVE
by Cody Chandler Hilton

The 2007 Butterflies Alive exhibit at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is a great place for kids and their parents to go to spend a day together. The Butterfly Pavilion is a huge structure covered with netting, where countless numbers of beautiful butterflies and moths can be seen close up. They hatch in this stucture and fly about, landing on the flowers and plants, where they drink the nectar. Sometimes they land on the visitors.

The species we saw there included the Monarch, Viceroy, Queen, Red Admiral and the Zebra long wing butterflies, and there were some nice moths too. There are guides who will tell you all about the butterflies you see, and they protect the butterflies from flying out of the pavilion. Taking photos of the butterflies is great because you can get very close to them.

The Caterpillar Cafe has good hot dogs and chips for kids, and also has salads for adults to eat for lunch. This is a nice way for families to learn about butterflies. You should put this on your calendar for next year so that you don't forget. You can find the dates at www.sbnature.org.

Thanks for reading my column, and next month I will be writing about the Ocean Museum on the Santa Barbara Wharf. You can write me at CodyHilton@aol.com.