Published 2010-11-15T20:26:00Z”/>
Lauren Beaven
Summer isn’t in sight, but the Chico Creek Nature Center is still bright with the colors of Butte County’s native butterflies.
The center currently features a small photo exhibit of local butterflies by award-winning photographer and Chico State alumnus John Hendrickson. Chico community members of all ages gathered Saturday at the center for a reception and talk with Hendrickson.
“If you went out on a day in June in Bidwell Park, I guarantee you we could find every one of these butterflies,” Hendrickson said.
But the vibrant colors and pristine lighting of the butterflies in Hendrickson’s photos aren’t easily captured, he said.
“If I can work with one that’s brand new and beautiful, it’s going to be a really nice specimen,” Hendrickson said.
To achieve this, he takes a walk through Bidwell Park in the early summer, he said. At the right time, the roads are crowded with caterpillars searching for a place to form a chrysalis, many of which can’t make it across the hot asphalt or fall victim to cars, bikes or unwary walkers.
Hendrickson and his wife have taken to rescuing the caterpillars and giving them a temporary home, he said.
“You just have to wait, sometimes as little as 10 days, and out pops this perfect butterfly,” Hendrickson said. “They’re spectacularly eye-catching.”
Once he’s taken the perfect picture, Hendrickson and his wife return the butterflies to where they found the caterpillars, he said.
“As a photographer, I’m really working for them,” he said. “I’m an ambassador for them and I want people to see how gorgeous they are.”
Hendrickson has a long history with the center and has always been interested and involved in nature and its preservation, said Tom Haithcock, executive director of the center. Hendrickson’s photography has been Published in National Geographic, Sierra Club, Newsweek, Audubon and National Wildlife and has been shown in more than 60 major museums in the U.S.
“At this point in my life, I don’t love butterflies more than I love a million other things,” Hendrickson said of his love for nature photography. “It’s an occupation that, the older I get and the more I do, the more I believe in it and know that it is needed.”
Hendrickson’s photos are surrounded by wildlife in the center’s Living Animal Museum. His photographs of the monarch butterfly’s journey from caterpillar to flight sit directly above a live rattlesnake and across the room from a rabbit.
The small children at Saturday’s reception peered with fascination at the animals while the adults, such as Butte College freshman Theresa Harris, enjoyed the colorful photography.
“There are just so many types of butterflies that you wouldn’t see every day, and to see them captured so beautifully, it’s just really nice,” Harris said.
Though Harris spends a lot of time in Bidwell Park, she wishes she could see more butterflies up close like this, she said.
The butterfly photography will most likely remain in the center for the next six months, and there is no charge for admission, Haithcock said. The center is open from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
“Nature is free,” Hendrickson said. “Once you develop a basic relationship with it, it brings you all kinds of joy. If you ever have an intimate encounter with a butterfly and you really get to look at it, you’re probably going to remember that.”
Lauren Beaven can be reached at
