Fall brings butterfly bonanza

Odessa could be hopping to a flitter-flutter, flying frenzy pretty soon, and it won't have anything to do with swimming strokes, socialites or nervousness felt in the stomach.

These butterflies are the real deal - and city skies are already spotted with color from the winged insects making their way south.
As temperatures cool nationwide, the annual migration of the monarchs and other butterfly species often feature pit stops in the Permian Basin before the last leg of their journey to warmer air in Mexico.

It's a natural phenomenon that Burr Williams, executive director of the Sibley Nature Center in Midland, said is downright amazing at times.

"Every year we have a decent monarch migration, and sometimes it's pretty spectacular," he said. "Butterflies will just hang out here waiting for a good north wind to carry them south."

Fall flowers help draw the fall fliers, Williams said, and butterfly watchers have seen thousands of monarchs in a single grove of trees.

"This summer, we noticed barely a butterfly anywhere, but then we got rain and now they're out," he said. "Someone could find 30 species of butterflies in 30 minutes if they went to a particular patch of flowers.

"There's always a tight relationship between plants and the butterflies - not only for the nectar aspect, but for larvae to feed on," he said.

Because the different species have particular plants they enjoy and differing wintertime habits - some live through as adults and others go underground as caterpillars in anthills - it's possible to see various species even in the cold.

"Get yourself a net and a jar with a magnifying lid and try to find all of the field marks," Williams said.

Debbie Frost, horticulturist for Ector and Midland counties, said some planters create butterfly gardens to attract the flying insects. The Commemorative Air Force in Midland has a similar garden on its site.

"We have some plants out there that they particularly like," Frost said. "I've already seen a lot of butterflies this year."

Barbara Chambers, a master gardener in Odessa, said she became interested in butterflies after viewing a myriad of monarchs in Del Rio. Now her two-acre garden in West Odessa serves as a nice place for butterflies to light on their trip south, which usually occurs in early October.

"This is a way station, and they arrive in the thousands," she said. "This year it's going to be different, I think, because the birds are leaving early - you never know how many there's going to be."

Part of the butterfly's mystery is its complex life cycle from egg to caterpillar (larvae), pupae to adult. Chambers said butterfly generational gaps don't prevent the insect from flying the same path its great-grandparents did.

"They'll be four-times removed, but they know where to go," she said. "It's amazing the way nature is, everything takes care of itself if you leave it alone."