The 22nd Annual Texas Butterfly Festival was a tremendous success, thanks to our sponsors, volunteers, vendors, guides, drivers, participants and the staff of the National Butterfly Center! Of course, the fantastic array of butterflies that appeared during the 4-days set aside for “chasing” deserve plenty of credit, too. After everyone recovered from the shock of an outbreak of Shadowed Hairstreaks, Red Rims and Malachites began to pop, then the Smudged Hairstreak showed up at a field trip destination…All of this was worth the price of admission, and to the surprise and delight of all, got topped off by a brief glimpse at the Orange Banner (2nd documented US Sighting, found and photographed by Martin Reid) and the Pale-spotted Leafwing! Common Banner, Common Melwhite, Blomfild’s Beauty and Strophius Hairstreaks began arriving the day after the festival concluded, providing everyone all the more reason to stay—or return—to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, again and again.
THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to this awesome experience, including the RGV Chapter of the Texas Chef’s Association, the Margarita Man, The Lodge at Pico Bonito, Honduras, the Canopy Family of Panama, and Easy-Ride Golf Cars.
We racked up over 124 species and lots of precious memories this year, so SAVE THE DATE for 2018, and plan to join us for this all-inclusive BUTTERFLY BONANZA!!!
New to the World
The Rio Grande Prix winner of the 2017 North American Butterfly Photo Contest is New to the World, by Roxanne Schorbach. Each year, we task our judges with selecting an image that is not only technically and creatively solid, but also engaging. The award-winning photo should be engaging, it should tell a story and educate viewers, many of whom may know very little about butterflies. Because this photo will join the exhibits in the Chrysalis Visitor’s Pavilion, it must support our mission and share something meaningful with everyone who enters—and this photo certainly fits the bill.
Congratulations to Roxanne! She has a check for $500 ‘on the wing’ for her submission that shows the unfurling of a newly eclosed Monarch. This process is rarely observed, but integral to the development and drying of every butterfly, before it can take flight.
The North American Butterfly Photo Contest will open September 1, 2018, so get out among the butterflies, and don’t forget your camera!
The National Butterfly Center is delivering on its mission of growing connections between people, plants, pollinators and the planet with a new solar array, featuring 102 solar panels. The Green Mountain Energy Sun Club donated almost $90,000 to pay for the array, which will save nearly $250,000 in energy costs through its lifetime production. In addition, the 34.17 kW solar array allows the National Butterfly Center to reduce its carbon footprint by 50%.
Each year, the Center will prevent 65,000 pounds of CO2 from being released in the air through the use of solar power. That amount of CO2 is the same as taking 2,500 cars off the road for a day, 60 households turning off their lights for a year or recycling almost 61,000 pounds of waste instead of sending it to the landfill. To learn more about why the National Butterfly Center chose to become solar powered, or to track our production/consumption and offset, click here!
Pondering a Podcast
The staff of the National Butterfly Center is a small but special group of people with a variety of skills and talents. From plant propagation and garden design, to photography tips and current events, we want to share valuable information with you in a portable, convenient manner that meets your needs. For this reason, we’re considering our own podcast—but we want to hear from you, first.
What do you want to hear about? When or how often? How long and resource-rich should our podcasts be, or how short and skimming? Do we turn you on and turn you lose, or try to deliver expertise by audio only, diving as deeply as possible into subjects that interest you? Should we feature guest speakers from across the region, state or nation? We could go on and on…
