The 20th Annual Texas Butterfly Festival is quickly approaching! Trips are selling out and our second block of hotel rooms is shrinking fast. If you are coming in your RV, or wish to rent one for your stay in the Rio Grande Valley, Oleander Acres RV Resort is offering specials for festival participants. If you need a vehicle while you are here, Budget Rent-a-Car, another friend of the festival, will take 25% off your reservation, just for mentioning the Texas Butterfly Festival.
We’re also counting down to the opening of the North American Butterfly Photo Contest, on Tuesday, September 1. Now is the time to review your photos from the last year, and prepare to enter for your chance to win the $500 Grand Prix.
The new stream and birding stage is finished, complete with a photography blind, just in time for fall migration! This attraction is conveniently located outside the Visitor’s Pavilion, as part of the Texas Butterfly Gardens. While we wait for the butterflies to arrive, many of our members and visitors are enjoying the birds enjoying their bath. In one spectacular week, we’ve welcomed dozens of species including the Blue Grosbeak, the Tennessee Warbler, the Lesser Goldfinch and the Painted Bunting.
Summer in the Sun
What a pleasure it’s been to host more than 100 children enrolled in the Boys & Girls Clubs of Mission and McAllen, this summer. They received nine weeks of hands-on adventures in the wild and had many first-time experiences. Not only did they find proof of protected Texas Horned Lizards on the property, during their Tracks & Scat lesson; they also learned about careers in nature, how to set camp, basic bird and butterfly identification, the importance of native habitat, and how to get lost and found in the outdoors.
This program is funded by a competitive grant from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, which purchased equipment for use in our ongoing environmental education initiatives. We bought digital cameras for the campers to use, and this allowed us to see the world as they see it. As always, we were pleasantly surprised by the children’s fresh perspective. The photo shown here came from one of our summer campers!
1st Installation of Butterfly Promenade Pavers
Now, you can leave a permanent marker in memoriam or 'just because' in the new Texas Butterfly Gardens, with the message of your choosing inscribed. The first batch of brick pavers is being installed this week. Thanks to your support, we will begin setting them in the Butterfly Promenade, soon, so everyone can see the special sentiments and personal tributes expressed by those who have chosen to participate in this donor program.
What a pleasure it’s been to host more than 100 children enrolled in the Boys & Girls Clubs of Mission and McAllen, this summer. They received nine weeks of hands-on adventures in the wild and had many first-time experiences. Not only did they find proof of protected Texas Horned Lizards on the property, during their Tracks & Scat lesson; they also learned about careers in nature, how to set camp, basic bird and butterfly identification, the importance of native habitat, and how to get lost and found in the outdoors. 
