We're Going on a Bug Hunt...

On the Hunt

...gonna catch a juicy one.  (Zora was quite pleased at Dad's revision of the "Going on a Bear Hunt" song)

My budding entomologist has been dragging Dad & Zane out to hunt for bugs a lot lately.  (notice she dressed for the occasion) It has mostly yielded moths and random "ugly bugs", but this day they had more excitement when they captured the butterfly.  We think it is the same Monarch that has slipped the net at every try the last few days, but they finally had success.  (the humans. The insects wouldn't define it as "success")

Zane kept reminding us to leave the bees alone.

It is sort of amazing anything could be caught with the little nets, and once we caught one we had to make it clear to the kids that using the magnifying glass was fine, but to keep the tweezers that came with the kit away from the butterfly.

Zane gets an up close look at the butterfly.

Letting Go.

After observing and discussing the butterfly for a while, it was time to let it go before it injured itself in the small space.  We learned that this butterfly didn't really want to exit when held the regular way and she had to tip the carrier so it could fly up before it could zoom out of there.  For some reason, once it made it's escape, it went straight to the treetops.  No hanging out on the plants for a while.  Smart butterfly.