Barbara Walker Butterfly Festival

Today I attended the 7th annual Barbara Walker Butterfly Festival at Mass Audubon's Broad Meadow Brook wildlife sanctuary in Worcester, MA (as a volunteer).  The weather was beautiful, hot and sunny, perfect butterfly weather.  They were giving out prizes to people who wore costumes.   The little girls with tutus and wings were so adorable!  It's nice to see the children who are so thrilled with caterpillars and butterflies.  It made me wonder:  At what age does it wear off?

When I opened the garage door to leave for the festival, I noticed a butterfly in the driveway, a new species for my yard!

Red-Spotted Purple

There were lots of Cabbage Whites in the butterfly garden at Broad Meadow Brook, none of which were getting any respect!  Here is an interesting insect that I noticed on the wall of the visitor center.

Summer Fishfly (I think)

Snowberry Clearwing moth

The Caterpillar Lab had a huge display of beautiful caterpillars.  I saw their display last year at Tower Hill Botanic Garden.  There were some different varieties this time around.  They are always interesting to see and a great draw for the children.

Luna Moth caterpillar

Later, this Luna Moth was released outdoors.

Polyphemus Moth caterpillar

Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar

Promethea Moth caterpillar

Imperial Moth caterpillar

White-Marked Tussock Moth caterpillar

IO Moth caterpillars

Tobacco Hornworm caterpillar

Black Swallowtail

American Lady

Banded Hairstreak

Silver-Spotted Skipper (below)

Peck's Skipper (above)

Tawny-Edged Skipper

On the way home, I stopped briefly at the parking lot across from the town beach in Westboro.  There is about 60 feet of "wetlands" along the roadside that has nice wildflowers and sometimes has had interesting insects.  It did not disappoint.  There were grasshoppers, spiders and skippers galore!

 Two-Striped Grasshopper

 Black and Yellow Argiope (garden spider)

 Eastern Forktail (female)

 Fragile Forktail

 Peck's Skippers

 Common Buttonbush

Danny and Georgie escorted me to Farm Pond in Framingham tonight so I could attempt to photograph the "super moon" rising over the Armenian Church.  It was already too high in the sky by the time we got there.  We were about a half an hour too late.  It was only a slightly more successful attempt than the road construction I ran into last month!