February 5, 2019
I have been wanting to find more butterflies to photograph, but so far, they have been few and far between—and the ones that have flitted by, haven’t ever stopped to get their picture taken. I figured that the scarcity of butterflies must be related to the scarcity of flowers –it’s just too early in the season. So, maybe if I went somewhere where there were more flowers, I’d find more butterflies. Luckily, there was such a place close by– the Florida Botanical Gardens (and a butterfly garden to boot)!
I can’t say that the Botanical Gardens, or the butterfly garden in particular, were teeming with butterflies, but they did have more butterflies than anywhere else I’ve been, so I was delighted. Best of all, two out of the four butterflies I saw were willing to have their pictures taken!
Spiderwort 
Bee on a flower (Mel’s shot)
In addition to the butterfly garden and all the beautiful flowers on the grounds, the Botanical Gardens also had “90 acres of wetland, pine flatwoods, oak forest and scrubland…” which is where Mel and I took an additional walk and found a stunning red shouldered hawk perched high and proud in a very dead tree. We both took lots of pictures!
Red Shouldered Hawk 
Red Shouldered Hawk (Mel’s shot)
There were so many wonderful things to see today–flowers, birds and butterflies, that it was really hard to leave. But, it was already the middle of the afternoon, and we were both famished! We’ll be back in a few weeks, though, and hopefully see even more flowers and butterflies to add to our visual collection.
Anhinga (Mel’s shot) 
Brown Anole on a Cypress Knee (Mel’s shot)
Yellow Rumped Warbler 
Blue Gray Gnatcatcher
A Red Shouldered Hawk with a touch of Tillandsia Usneoides to the left – an air plant that I’m sure your seeing plenty of!
Good eye, my son, good eye! I was distracted by the bird and didn’t notice it! But yes, there are lots of air plants here.