There will be a Home, Garden and Nature Festival at the National Butterfly Center on Saturday, March 31st, 2012 from 9AM to 5PM. There are several scheduled seminars, butterfly tours, bird tours, a wildlife art exhibit, and “Lunch At the Park” will also be available.

November is always a great month for butterflies in the Rio Grande Valley and you can expect to see several rarities at the National Butterfly Center. A Blomfild’s Beauty has been seen coming to the bait at the Center. This was a life butterfly* for John, who has been hoping to see and photograph it for the past couple of weeks. As you can see from the photo, it has a absolutely spectacular underwing pattern – thus the “Beauty” name.

Retama Village resident Bill Supulski is teaching a Nature Photography 101 class at the National Butterfly Center on Friday, November 18, at 10AM. Tuition is $15, and participants are to bring their own camera. RSVP required. The full class brochure (downloadable PDF) is linked in the article.

Here are some notes to help the newcomer to watching butterflies. These notes will be handed out at the first Retama Village Guided Butterfly Walk on Oct 28th. Here I also include the relevant web links. Please join us for the Guided Butterfly Walks on Fridays 10:30 to 11:30 am, Oct 28 through Nov 25. Meet at the front entrance to the Retama Village Clubhouse.

Retama Village residents were delighted to see the Black-vented Oriole return to neighborhood feeders this October. It had last been seen in early March 2011. This rare bird has drawn birdwatchers from all over the US. It is now being seen regularly at Bentsen Rio Grande State Park. Photo and video linked in the article.

Bentsen Rio Grande State Park is hosting the 16th Annual Texas Butterfly Festival on Saturday October 22nd from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM. There is a Butterfly Walk at the National Butterfly Center from 1:00 to 3:00 PM as well as several family and community-oriented events at the State Park headquarters. See the article for links to more information.

Over the past week it seems the number of hummingbirds in our area has increased dramatically. We are right in the heat of spring hummingbird migration. But spring and summer are not the only times we have hummingbirds in the Bentsen Palm area. We have hummingbirds all year round!

John photographed adult male Baltimore Oriole, Bullocks Oriole, Orchard Oriole as well as Hooded Oriole, all visiting the coral bean trees next to the clubhouse in Bentsen Palm Village RV Park on the same day. The Hooded Oriole is a summer resident here in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. All the other orioles are just passing through but stopped to enjoy the nectar-rich blooms of the coral bean trees.

Once the Spring Break crowds leave South Padre Island at the end of March, it’s a good time to bird the island and catch the April spring bird migration. Learn more about the migration of birds across the Gulf of Mexico and enjoy a few photographs from the bird sanctuary at the South Padre Island Convention Center.

Both the Altamira Oriole and Hooded Oriole nest and raise young in the Bentsen Palm area. The Altamira Oriole lives year round within the dense subtropical forest of Bensten RGV State Park. The Hooded Oriole prefers the more open areas around the Park Headquarters and around the Retama Village subdivision. See the photos of these colorful orioles.