It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Superman.
For the Rio Grande Valley, especially in Harlingen, it's a bird. The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival is ready for blast off. Scheduled to begin on November 6, the festival will run through November 10.
Join the National Butterfly Center on Saturday, November 2 – Tuesday, November 5, for the 24th Annual Texas Butterfly Festival, and see for yourself why USA Today calls Mission, Texas, “the butterfly capital of the USA.”
Renowned for a volume and variety of wild, free-flying butterflies that cannot be found anywhere else in the country, deep south Texas is home to the country's premier butterfly event, featuring field trips and educational activities for beginners to experts, private gardens and guided 'hot spot' tours, The North American Butterfly Photo Contest, and a free community day fun.
The three-day event starts off with the Running of the Monarchs 5K Trail Run and one Mile Fun Run. The run will be held across the National Butterfly Center’s grounds and gardens. Participants must pre-register for the event to receive a commemorative Monarch Medal. The entry fee is $24 for adults and $12 for children. All funds are used to support the environmental conservation work of the center. Seed bombs will be provided to participants to throw along the route of the run.
The community day will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visitors can learn how to make their own Banana Brew, attend arts and crafts session, hunt the hackberry trail, pin the tail on the Swallowtail, and more.
The National Butterfly Center is honored to host the festival and provide attendees a remarkable and rewarding outdoor experience. Registrants will spend three days exploring renowned public lands and private properties with world-class trip leaders, where you may reasonably expect to see more than 60 species in a day.
Last year, attendees from 23 states and four countries registered to experience one of the most biologically diverse areas in North America, with the assistance of expert guides. Come see for yourself why the Rio Grande Valley has earned worldwide recognition for its outstanding butterfly and birding spots, inviting thousands of visitors each year to discover its remarkable assortment of preserves, refuges, nature parks, trails, and more.
Whether you are an accomplished naturalist or a beginner enthusiast, the Texas Butterfly Festival is the place to be. Here, many eyes 
make for exciting discoveries, including U.S. records, super rarities, subtropical strays, seldom-seen species, 'life' and chase butterflies that may only be found in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV), where the river winds its way toward the Laguna Madre at the Gulf of Mexico. This unique region encompasses no fewer than 11 different types of habitat, from tidal wetlands to riparian forest, brushland scrub to prairie savanna, and is home to more than 1,200 different species of plants, 500 species of birds, 200 vertebrate species, roughly 300 species of butterflies, and over 90 species of dragonflies.
To learn more about the one and only Texas Butterfly Festival, where to stay, what to do, and how to participate, visit the website at www.texasbutterflyfestival.com.
Put on your Indiana Jones hat and get ready for adventures in archeology at Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park on October 19 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
At the 13th Annual Rio Grande Delta Archeology Fair, visitors can take part in activities, demonstrations and displays that show the Rio Grande’s connections to prehistory (the native peoples who lived here) as well as battlefield archeology and historic archeology.
The free event invites visitors to dig for buried treasure and figure out what it is and who left it behind. Living historians or reenactors, people who have studied the soldiers of the Mexican-American war and will be on hand to tell about their “life” in the Army. Members of indigenous tribes will teach how to throw a spear using an atlatl. Visitors can also try their hand with a metal detector. Numerous other demonstrations and activities are designed to keep visitors entertained.
The event is designed to introduce people to archeology, local archeological resources, and the value of resource preservation. Visitors can learn about the methods and tools archeologists use and find out about current research. The goal of the fair is to create a feeling of shared stewardship of archeological resources.
The event is cosponsored by are the Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools program (CHAPS) from UTRGV, Southern Archeological Consultants, and the Brownsville Historical Association.
Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park is located 600 feet north of the intersection of FM 1847 (Paredes Line Road) and FM 511, between Brownsville and Los Fresnos. For more information, call (956) 541-2785.
