2022 FESTIVAL RECAP

The Festival takes place during peak monarch migration season in San Antonio, when migrating monarch butterflies east of the Rocky Mountains funnel through Texas on their way to Mexico to roost for the winter.

San Antonio sits in the heart of this migratory flyway and claims status as the nation’s first Monarch Butterfly Champion City by the National Wildlife Federation. The Alamo City also ranks as a Bird City, USA, and a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy–designations we celebrate each October with our Festival.

Most events were FREE. We use the monarch butterfly migration to celebrate the importance of wildlife pollinators and their role in making one out of every three bites of our food possible. We also tag butterflies in honor of loved ones’ who died, weaving the insects’ spiritual dimension into the festivities through our Forever Journey campaign. The insects typically arrive in the high altitude mountains west of Mexico City by Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos.

Here’s what transpired.

As part of our commitment to the Mayor’s Monarch Pledge and our role as the first Monarch Butterfly Champion City in the nation, we issued a pollinator habitat challenge to the community.

It started in 2018 for San Antonio’s Tricentennial: 300for300–300 pollinator habitats pledged for San Antonio’s 300th birthday. We exceeded or goal.

Then we aimed for 500 habitats by 2020. We exceeded that one, too. Now we want to hit 1,000 pollinator habitats by Day of the Dead. Will you help us? Sign up here and get on the map!

Let’s not forget 2020.  We couldn’t gather in person that year, or mourn the loss of loved ones. The year represents a metamorphosis and our 23-minute movies chronicles its challenges through the lens of the migration and metamorphosis of the monarch butterfly.

The film follows the monarchs from Mexico on their journey north to Canada and back in October. You’ll appreciate the parallels between the monarchs’ struggle to continue their life cycle and ours, as we all morph to the next stage. Watch it on YouTube.

Each fall, monarch butterflies arrive in the high altitude forests west of Mexico City in time for Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos. We’ll honor this tradition by tagging hundreds of butterflies in honor of loved ones who died. The names of loved ones will be entered on the data sheets sent to citizen science project Monarch Watch with the hope that the butterflies are recovered in Mexico. FIVE butterflies tagged in honor of loved ones who died have been recovered and reported since the inception of the Forever Journey campaign in 2020. Want us to tag a butterfly in honor of someone who died? Fill out this form.

“Caterpillar condos” were awarded to 75-Title-1 public schools to celebrate monarch migration season.

What’s a caterpillar condo? It includes two monarch caterpillars and milkweed–the monarch’s host plant. Over the course of a month, students observe the life-cycle of the monarch as it morphs from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly, then tag and release as part of a citizen science project with Monarch Watch with learning supported by four videos of TEKS aligned, hands-on curriculum developed by Blooming with Birdie. Participating teachers attended a teacher training session hosted by Blooming with Birdie at the Witte on September 24.

Applications are now closed.

Sponsored by Valero

Enjoy butterfly tagging, caterpillar observation, food, music, and an eye-opening discussion with Texas Butterfly Ranch’s Monika Maeckle about the “endangered monarch” as we celebrate Blooming with Birdie’s 3rd year of the Caterpillar Condo program. Our friends at Rainbow Gardens and the Nectar Bar will join us to talk about pollinator plants and gardens.

This event is free and open to the public. This event is for adults.

Rainbow Gardens is partnering with Blooming with Birdie to provide Pollinator Garden Starter Kits to support the Texas Butterfly Ranch’s Pollinator Habitat Initiative to reach 1,000 habitats. Join us for a class with Blooming with Birdie’s Maura Bobbitt to learn how to use your kit to start your very own pollinator garden. Seating is limited; one ticket will cover seats for two adults. Register here.

Festival partners and sponsors who make our Festival possible each year will enjoy a Q&A with Skip Hobbie, chief photographer of Deep in the Heart, a wildlife documentary narrated by Matthew McConaughey, as well as insights from bat ecologist Nathan Fuller on the role of bats in the ecosystem and Mezcal. San Antonio Report founder Robert Rivard will moderate, followed by a screening of the film.

A mezcal mixer and light bites made possible by pollinators will precede the screening. INVITATION ONLY

Underwritten by the Winkler Family Foundation, UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy – San Antonio

and San Antonio Parks Foundation

Join Laura Jarvis of the Butterfly Landing for Part II of pollinator gardening. In this session you’ll move beyond monarchs to learn more butterfly species and their preferred plants. Jarvis will cover butterfly and plant care and other topics. This is an extension of Pollinator Gardening 101, which is not a requirement for enjoying this class. 

Register here! 

In celebration of the 2022 Monarch Butterfly & Pollinator Festival, the Witte presents “Flight of the Butterflies,” an award-winning documentary that shares the  compelling story of Dr. Fred Urquhart and his wife Norah’s 1976 “discovery” of the monarch butterfly roosting sites in Mexico. Their tenacious efforts included the development of the first citizen scientist tagging programs. Don’t miss it!

Picture Your World and learn some nature photography tricks at this workshop aimed at 8- 18-year-olds. Friedrich Wilderness Park is home to pollinators, rare birds, and terrestrial orchids. Picture Your World will provide cameras, photography instruction, and a guided hike with a Master Naturalist to make the most of your experience.

Cost: $15.00 per youth participant. Space is limited and advanced registration is required. Tickets and registration info available on the Green Spaces website.

Come listen as we read a story about pollinators in our native plant gardens, make a craft item to take home, and enjoy the peaceful outdoors at Mitchell Lake.

Join us for an enlightening presentation by UTSA environmental scientist Eres A. Gomez on—wait for it—anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs). ARs are rodent poisons, but creatures who eat rodents as prey are often effected. Eres will share results from a recent study on rehabilitated owls in the San Antonio area.

Registration and other details here: BAS Monthly Meeting October 26, 2022-Eres Gomez, Rodenticides and Raptors