Seeing Butterflies in Kuranda

Seeing butterflies in Kuranda, Australia, charmed us all.

A small town in Australia’s northeastern rainforest, Kuranda, marks the end of the Skyrail.

Guidebooks told us we’d love it.

We were traveling through the rainforest, so we stopped.

And we were charmed by seeing butterflies.

Big butterflies.

Delightful.

Busy.

And funny.

Seeing butterflies meant color and size.

We saw them at the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary, a short walk from the Skyrail.

We entered a large, screened building through two black curtains.

(The curtains kept the butterflies from flying out when the doors opened.)

The tropical setting featured a man-made waterfall and an abundance of lush rainforest foliage.

Seeing butterflies in this setting required careful observation.

And then laughing when one landed on my pink hat!

(Look carefully. Do you see it?)

As more and more butterflies landed on my hat (?!), people surrounded me and took photos.

Who knew they loved the color pink?

Butterflies certainly loved flowers!

Getting a closer look

The sanctuary included a “lab” area that featured a microscope for better examination of butterfly scales.

Fascinated, our granddaughter spent a lot of time gazing at a butterfly’s “wing scales” through a microscope.

Who knew butterflies had tiny scale-like feathers on their wings?

The lab area also featured a butterfly life-cycle display, which didn’t look as charming as the butterflies themselves!

As a butterfly sanctuary, it included information about the species, explained on signs throughout.

For example, “What do you call a group of butterflies?”

Choices:

• Kaleidoscope
• Swarm
• Rabble
• Flutter.

(Answer at the end).

All the choices sounded appropriate to me.

The Magic of Seeing Butterflies

Is it any wonder people thought they were seeing fairies when they were seeing butterflies?

Action filled the air. Children laughed as butterflies landed on their open palms.

Seeing butterflies flitting about in the filtered light caught our eyes time and again.

Some liked to cling to the roof, some sat on the rim of a shallow pan to drink.

The tricky part of the visit was taking their photos!

Oh, a group of butterflies is a kaleidoscope. Isn’t that a splendid description?