June 25, 2017
On the weekend I headed home to visit my family to celebrate my younger sisters birthday. It was such a lovely day so we decided to go out for a walk somewhere. After some discussion we decided to take a trip up to the Arboretum at the University of Guelph to enjoy the hiking trails and many beautiful gardens.
When we got up to the Arboretum there were tons of other cars in the parking lot and once we headed down one of the trails we encountered lots of other people who were out enjoying the nice weather. There were several people who were out walking their dogs and there were also some people enjoying a picnic.
Many plants and flowers were already in full bloom and there were many vibrant colours to enjoy as we passed by several of the gardens. It was all really beautiful and I especially loved the purple blossoms as that is my favourite colour.
My family was walking a bit ahead of me when I noticed something flapping its wings in the long grass just off the trail. At first glance I thought it was maybe a butterfly but upon closer examination I realized that it was some kind of moth. I was able to identify it as Yellow-collared Scape Moth after I got the photos off of my camera.
We continued walking along the trail and headed into a wooded area away from the main gardens. My mom was in front of me when she noticed a butterfly sitting on top of a leaf. When I got up to where she was standing I saw that it was a Swallowtail Butterfly. Unfortunately one of its wings appeared to be badly damaged. They are so incredibly fragile.
After exiting the forest we made our way through the many gardens that are located close to the Arboretum Centre. They were all in various stages of blooming and there were many different plant and flower species to enjoy. In the Japanese Garden there are several ponds and on this particular day lots of frogs were out sunning themselves on the rocks.
Finally as we were getting ready to leave I saw a Red Admiral Butterfly enjoying some nectar from the beautiful flowers just outside of one of the gardens.
Below are the photos I took during my family’s visit to the Arboretum.
