The Hobby of Butterfly Watching
If you want a hobby that helps you become closer to nature, is a quiet way to spend your spare time, provides relaxation, and is relatively low-cost, butterfly watching may be perfect for you.
There's much to learn about butterflies. Did you know monarch butterflies eat milkweed? The plant contains poisonous alkaloids that helps repel enemies. Certain butterflies like certain plants and become accustomed to certain plants in their different parts of the world. You have to learn what each species prefers.
Learning to recognize eggs and types of caterpillars can be educational and rewarding. Classifying butterflies is a bit complex because of their similarities to each other and to moths. You'll discover that there are suborders, superfamilies, and "true" butterflies.
Just as different birds are native to different areas, so it is with the butterfly. This is a hobby that seems simple on the surface, but once you dig a little you can discover much that isn't general knowledge. You can use this information to help you meet other people and as a way to start conversations. Other nature lovers would be happy to share their experiences once they discover something in common with another person who also shares their passion with nature.
The hobby of butterfly watching does not have to be expensive. You can invest as much or as little as you choose as your interest grows. You can choose to have a career that leads to more extensive knowledge or just enough interest to enhance your garden with this simple little insect.
If you'd like to begin a bug collection, just be kind enough to not torture or kill the butterflies on purpose. The humane thing to do is to find the ones that have already perished. It may take more time, but it can be just as rewarding to watch your collection grow in a decent way.
If you want to display your butterfly collection for others to admire and gain a chance to help someone else appreciate the butterfly watching hobby, you should invest in a display case of some sort that will keep curious hands away from your precious insects. It's very easy to harm a butterfly's structure because of their frail construction. A case with a glass door would allow easy viewing and keep hands and dust from contaminating your collection.
You can make your hobby more interesting by traveling to different areas that allow butterfly watching. Parks, ponds, wild life refuges, zoos, drainage ditches, and roadsides with wildflowers are some of the inexpensive places to observe your new interest. As you become more involved in butterfly watching, you might enjoy the many different festivals around the world.
If you enjoy crafts, the many things you can make that relate to the butterfly are endless. This is also a way to share your new adventures with others. You can make useful and pretty crafts for low-cost gifts: t-shirts, posters, photographs of the butterfly that you took yourself and framed, paintings, pottery, and much more.
