Monarchs Now Alighting in Canyon Lake

Monarch butterflies now alighting at Tye Preston Memorial Library’s butterfly garden are just the vanguard for this fall’s migration, which Texas Butterfly Center Ranch in San Antonio predicts could prove a “banner year.”

To track the butterflies’ progress, click here to view Journey North’s live monarch tracking map.

Comal County is included in the critical Texas Funnel, the migratory corridor through which all migrating monarchs must pass on their way to their winter grounds in Mexico.  Monarchs fluttering through over the next month will fuel up and build the fat stores that will get them through the winter in Mexico.

According to Texas Parks & Wildlife, Texas is an important state in monarch migration because it is situated between the principal breeding grounds in the north and the overwintering areas in Mexico. Monarchs funnel through Texas both in the fall and the spring. During the fall, monarchs use two principal flyways. One traverses Texas in a 300-mile wide path stretching from Wichita Falls to Eagle Pass. Monarchs enter the Texas portion of this flyway during the last days of September. By the third week of October, most have passed through into Mexico.

The second flyway is situated along the Texas coast and lasts roughly from the third week of October to the middle of November.

The 2019 Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival, sponsored by the Texas Butterfly Center Ranch, runs from October 12 – 20 and includes gardening workshops, educator forums, a lunch-and-learn with monarch expert Dr. Dara Satterfield, and the Monarch Ultra race.