The 9th Annual Texas Butterfly Festival

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Texas Butterfly Paradise

Exploring the 'fall colors' of the lower Texas coast..

visit the Texas Butterfly Festival in Mission

While the rest of our nation awaits anxiously for the first cold snaps of fall to bring color and the changing of the seasons into their lives, residents and world butterfly enthusiasts migrate to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The changing of the seasons here is marked by the arrival of hundreds of species of migrating butterflies with colors that would rival any New England Fall foilage show. The Texas Butterfly Festival of Mission,Texas is now in it's 9th year and growing in popularity worldwide, it's the perfect way to usher in the fall season. The festival is held annually Oct. 14-17, and while most festival acitivites are free, there are many workshops and seminars held throughout the valley region that are well worth the nominal fee for both novice participants and expert butterfly enthusiasts.

The Rio Grande Valley is fortunate enough to be in a very important position on the butterfly migratory path as well as having the perfect year round climate and vegetation to sustain lots of non-migratory species of butterflies.

The valley has long been known as a bird watchers haven and is now growing a reputation for butterfly watchers. One would think that those interests would be contrary in nature as butterflies would be prey for birds, but conservationists have gone to great extremes to include vegetation areas specific for butterflies and other areas for birds. Of course the laws of nature can't be changed and evidence abounds on some butterflies wings, nips, scratches...narrow escapes from certain death. But by and large birds don't seem to congregate in these large butterfly migratory grounds. Each fall season, visitors flock to the Valley to be surrounded by a cornacopia of butterfly colors.

As with all Texas festivals, a parade starts things off and there is nothing more delightful and colorful than the children's parade on Saturday morning in Mission. There are, of course, arts & crafts tents to participate in where you take home your own butterfly inspired art, and,of course, the traditional festival fare to eat. Most impressive is the Cockrell Butterfly Center brought in for the festival from Houston. The center is a large screened tent filled with vegetation and a large assortment of butterflies who light on your shoulder during your educational tour.

With growing worldwide attention to the Valley as a hotspot for butterflies, there are great ambitions to attract even more butterflies as well as those who come to see them. The International North American Butterfly Association Park is headquartered in Mission and currently has two new areas under development - a twelve acre area which will house a beautiful visitor center and many state-of-the art interactive educational exhibitions. The style will be remininscent of old Spanish missions throughout the valley and the southwest. A second project area is a 72 acre habitat with wildlife trails for visitors to wander through large populations of butterflies. The center is fortunate to have the design team of the Overland Partners of San Antonio working on the project - the same team that designed the buildings at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. As with all growing nature groups with ambitious plans, donations of time and finances are welcome.

So never let someone tell you Texas doesn't have a fall or experience fall colors....it's just different in Texas, and there's nothing new about that! Check out the links below for more information on The Texas Butterfly Festival and the Valley's butterfly resources.

The 9th Annual Texas Butterfly Festival

NABA International Butterfly Park

Mission Chamber of Commerce

Edinburg Scenic Wetlands and World Birding Center

Fins2Feathers Birding & Butterfly Tours

Rare Butterfly photos courtesy of Scarlett Colley of Fins2Feather Tours.

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