Monarch Butterflies (Texas Country Reporter)

Discover the unimaginable beauty of the monarch butterfly.

Jenny Singleton & Monica Maeckle
Menard, TX

Website: https://texasbutterflyranch.com/

Video Script:: 

[Music] it's a beautiful pecan bottom lining the edges of the San Saba River beautiful clean water flowing in Minard County in Minard County it's become somewhat of a yearly tradition the fragile fluttering brilliance of familiar black and gold thousands of monarch butterflies have returned to the banks of the San Saba River a time when landowners photographers and butterfly experts roamed the river banks and ranch land to get a close-up glance at the legendary monarch I got started when I was seven and I had a second-grade teacher who told us about a huge giant playground full of monarch butterflies and I always thought to myself I want to see that someday so we're gonna put o88 right here on that baby okay give it to you to hold there Jenny singleton and Monica maickel lead this afternoon effort to gently capture adult monarch butterflies to tag register and be released to continue their mysterious mystical migration thousands of miles into Mexico the best place to see monarch butterflies in the entire United States is right here because they're gonna come down and nectar on those flowers to fatten up for them for their winter roosting how far did the Monarchs travel Dave had tagged monarchs come from Toronto and Montreal found in El Rosario the middle of Mexico 900 miles 2,800 miles and these monarchs have never been there before that's right that's the other really know it's a really magical thing we don't understand you they think it's son Q's they think it's pheromones they don't really know for sure something that scientists continue to study it's just really hard to believe that this magical thing happens in a way we're in the presence of Texas butterfly royalty Jenny and Monica are what you might call the matron saints of monarchs [Music] years ago Ginny started a festival to celebrate the Monarchs near her home outside grapevine a time when hundreds of people gather to honor the colorful migration our festival has been going on this is the 22nd year it started out small and this year is twenty second time we've tagged butterflies ahead of time and handed them out to the children and let them all let them go and you know you see the magic and two hundred and fifty faces right then I have the monarch butterfly and pollinator festival in Santa Tony which was started in 2016 which was inspired by Jenny's festival the flutterby festival grape vine but I mean if it wasn't for these guys I would have had to like just totally wing it which we kind of do anyway well I want to go check out this little Grove right here and there's a lot of Cowpens daisies under the mesquite and it looks like kind of a fertile patch for monarchs every time you catch a monarch in your net there's got to be some feeling that goes through you what is that that's the feeling that I get every time or when I see the first monarchs of the year I just feel like it's gonna be okay they're gonna they're back it's gonna be alright there's a cow and Daisy and you see a butterfly on it but you have to swoop and twist nice job did he already easy come easy go there's more butterflies where that came from that's right that's the good news we're having a really good year this year in 2008 we tagged a thousand monarchs along the San Saba River February of 2009 I got to visit the sanctuaries in El Rosario where I went up to a young man who was selling tags and gave him 20 bucks and got five tags and looked at him and went this looks really familiar and came home and discovered it was one of the tags that we had put on the butterfly Connie's one of mine check your day [Music] almost lighter-than-air a subtle silent rise skyward in a matter of seconds the monarch reminds us that nature seems to guard its most curious miracle the migration that spans thousands of miles and thousands of years for a brief moment this riverbank outside Menard is a rest stop on a treacherous journey okay here we go in a way Ginni singleton and Monica maickel are the wind and the wings to a movement across Texas honoring this magical migration it's almost like you cut in on some nature dance we're cut in for a moment and got to experience the beauty of this creature and then you like let it go back and do its thing we just had that one moment of magic they shared it with you yes you be a part of their world for just a minute before you let it go yeah [Music] you