Butterfly Jungle

Each year, the San Diego Wild Animal Park holds their "Butterfly Jungle" exhibit. Hundreds (if not thousands!) of butterflies are all in close proximity to everyone in there. It is *very* popular with photographers. The gates to the park open at 9, but a line was already forming around 8. Folks with LOTs of camera gear RUN to the exhibit. And for good reason.

Because the exhibit is kind of small, and because the folks running the park are rather good-hearted folks, they only let in 50-60 people inside the enclosure. After that, people only come in as others exit, and they don't force you to leave. As such, 10 minutes after the park opened, the line was 1.5 hours long. Folks with all that camera gear will take over an hour to get their snaps, so the initial bubble can take a long time to burst.

But it is a photographer's dream. Using a telephoto or a macro, long distance or close up, there is something to shoot at just about every turn. I *highly* recommend it.

I was there with my wife and some friends from work. Afterwards we wandered around the park. Since it *is* spring, and the animals *do* get "the urge to merge", a lot of the males were in full plumage. There was one that stood out - litterally. A Kori Bustard. It is the heaviest bird that can still fly. And it's HUGE! This particular male was standing straight up and had a sack under it's head fully inflated. It would 'snap' it's beak while hitting the sack with the beak. The result was a sound that at first, we didn't hear. It was like someone hitting a very large bass drum! We heard it hundreds of feed away! The thing was huge, and everyone who has seen the pictures claim it's the ugliest bird they've seen. I dunno, I've seen some ugly birds but this one was plain awesome.

The day was warm but not hot. Still, Kathy and I were beat when we left at 1:30. (We got to the parking lot around 7:30.) We were both so toasted that around Oceanside, we pulled off the road and took a short nap.

Almost all the pictures are cropped. Some of the images are heavily cropped, either because of the reach of the lens or there was a better picture inside the picture. I'm heading there again to hone up some more on shooting butterflies.

Images are here: http://tccphotography.zenfolio.com/p461315894

Info on the Butterfly Jungle is here: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/butterflyjungle/

Enjoy!