Butterfly House Finale (1)

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The Roston Native Butterfly House at the Springfield Botanical Garden closed for the season as of last Sunday. There were still plenty of caterpillars even in the last weeks – tiger swallowtails, giant swallowtails, red spotted admirals, black swallowtails, cecropias, and monarchs.

There were a few chrysalises and cocoons too.

During my last two Sunday morning shifts there were about 90 people that visited. It helped that the temperatures had cooled down a little from the 90s earlier in September.

3rd week of Master Naturalist Core Training

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The third week of core training focused on volunteering. Two helpers unexpectedly did not show up so the class was a little stressful for me but still turned out to be an excellent class for the students!

I picked up three tables needed for the field trip from our storage unit before the class and they were dirtier (dust and cobwebs) than I expected…so I got help from my husband to get them unfolded and sprayed clean on our driveway the next day!

The field trip was on a Saturday. After a lecture about how the native butterfly house is sustained, there were 4 rotations where the students shadowed a volunteer….as close as we could get to hands on volunteering. The 4 rotations were:

The butterfly house

The caterpillar café – where we all saw lots of caterpillars and plants they need…and I took a lot of pictures

The bison table (which we do as a school program or a table at festivals). The only picture I took was of the front lower jaw!

Rotten logs (which we do on a tarp on the ground or a table – usually at an outdoor event where there will be lots of children)…and always find a lot of critters….and details for logs themselves.

At least one of the groups got to release a tagged monarch butterfly! And several bought some plants that were on sale in the gardens during the lunch break.

Native American Heritage Celebration

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Master Naturalists had 2 tables at the Native American Heritage Celebration that took place on the Wonders of Wildlife parking lot recently. This was my second year to volunteer at the event and much easier than last year since I was only volunteering one shift on each of 2 days (rather than most of the 3 days last year). Some of the core training students got some early volunteer hours at the event as well.

One table was dedicated to bison – with a full table of things made from bison parts. The other table was caterpillars of native moths/butterflies: luna moth, black swallowtail butterfly, and monarch butterfly.

On the first morning of the celebration, I walked around and enjoyed the displays of pumpkins and gourds.

One of the other educational tables was showing the ‘three sisters’ – beans, corn, and squash. They also had some wonderful large sunflower seed heads.

Probably the most dramatic event at our table was the emergence of a monarch butterfly from a chrysalis that had been on the plant with the caterpillars on the last day – and before I arrived. It had flown to a nearby gourd so I still go to see it and take a portrait!

Zooming - August 2026

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August was a good month to be outdoors…even though it required effort to avoid the hottest parts of the day. The photos I selected for this post were taken at Lake Springfield, along Bull Creek southeast of Springfield, in my Nixa MO yard, the Roston Native Butterfly House at the Springfield Botanical Gardens, the Springfield Conservation Nature Center, and Lewisville, Texas. As always – plants dominate but there are caterpillars, dragonflies and butterflies too!

Butterfly House Trees

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I decided to document the trees in the Roston Native Butterfly House during one of my recent shifts. All of them are there to provide food for certain caterpillars. So here is a tree tour of the house…starting on the right side as you enter the trees are

Wafer ash for Giant Swallowtail caterpillars

Hackberry for Hackberry Emperor caterpillars

Spicebush for Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars

Pawpaw for Zebra Swallowtail caterpillars

False Indigo for Silver Spotted Skipper caterpillars

Black Walnut for Luna Moth, Polyphemus Moth, and Red Banded Hairstreak caterpillars

(turning back toward the front of the house…looking at the trees on your right)

Tulip poplar for Tiger Swallowtail caterpillars

Black Willow for Red Spotted Purple caterpillars

Of course, there were lots of butterflies and a just-emerged Cecropia Moth that I couldn’t resist photographing too!

Roston Butterfly House Finale 2025

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The season for the Roston Butterfly House at the Springfield (MO) Botanical gardens ended the first weekend in October. I continued my weekly shifts.

On some of the cooler mornings in September, the caterpillars were the big show. Sometimes the skippers and hummingbird moths outside the house were more active. As the morning warmed, the butterflies in the house became more active and some seemed to enjoy sitting on people (including me)!

The large silkworm moths (cecropia, polyphemus, and luna) were not as available for display as during the summer months.

There was a very hungry tiger swallowtail caterpillar on a tulip poplar leaf; I made a short video.

My last shift was the Monday before the last weekend. The ‘stars’ of the shift were the Monarch butterflies (looking health and ready to migrate south), a black swallowtail caterpillar, and a luna moth (the last of the large species of silk moths we had to display).

I enjoy this type of volunteering…plant to do it again in 2026 and maybe do even more shifts!

Zooming – August 2025

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All the images I selected for this month’s zooming post were from places around Springfield MO and Berryville AR. The subjects were:

  • Juvenile birds (cardinal and robin) and an adult hummingbird

  • Flowers and plants (pokeweed, naked lady lilies, zinnias, crape myrtle, cone flowers, daylily)

  • Caves (Cosmic and Onyx)

  • Caterpillars (spicebush swallowtail and zebra swallowtail)

  • Butterflies and moths (spicebush swallowtail, red spotted purple, cecropia moth, luna moth

  • Juvenile racoon

  • Edge of a golf course scene

The picture of the juvenile robin was taken through a window and with camera settings that gave it a hazy look to capture the ‘feel’ of the day – it was a very humid August day! The one of a bench looking out onto a golf course was an attempt to capture the morning mood as we prepared to leave our Berryville hotel; it was a warm, sunny morning…full of bird songs…a good beginning of the day.

Enjoy the August 2021 slide show!