How I Got Started on Butterflies

First, monarchs showed up in my garden, and I managed to snap a few good photos.  Then, on June 5, 2011, I took my camera and headed to Garden in the Woods.  The camera was a diversion to make hiking more enjoyable.  While I was walking through the meadow, I spotted two small butterflies that I had never seen before.  When I returned home, I attempted to identify them and not owning a field guide, I turned to the internet.  The first, a Pearl Crescent, was easy to identify using the internet.

The second was not quite as simple.  I ended up contacting someone from the Massachusetts Butterfly Club website for help.  They informed me that it was a Little Wood Satyr.

While on the Mass Butterfly Club web site, I noticed that they had an email for reporting butterfly sightings.  I wrote and asked if they took information from non-members, and they did.  So I began reporting, sending along photos for confirmation.

I returned to Garden in the Woods throughout the summer, and added other locations such as Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Elm Bank Reservation in Wellesley, Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary in Natick, Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center and Wildlife Sanctuary in Worcester, Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary in Princeton, and Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Concord, always looking for butterflies and trying to capture photographs of them.

My husband and son call it an obsession.  I call it a newfound passion.  I can't wait for butterfly season to resume this year!