There are indigenous peoples in Mexico who spent last winter risking their lives against cartel hitmen and illegal loggers to defend the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. https://www.vox.com/climate/24006471/cop28-rising-danger-environmental-activism. The butterflies they defended are returning now after devastating overwintering losses. https://xerces.org/press/eastern-monarch-butterfly-overwintering-area-in-mexico-drops-precipitously. We are in the critical migration path for this creature, which needs us to protect it from pesticides and habitat loss here. https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2024-03-04/monarch-butterflies-spring-migration-texas. You can provide a lifeline for Monarch butterflies and honor the efforts of their indigenous defenders by providing the native milkweed that they need to survive: https://xerces.org/milkweed/milkweed-seed-finder.
The Americas are uniquely blessed with hummingbirds, who are also undertaking their epic journeys: https://www.hummingbirdcentral.com/.Hummingbird populations are declining, and these tiny victims of climate change need us to protect them from our glass and domestic cats. https://www.uwyo.edu/news/2024/02/uw-researcher-studies-why-hummingbird-numbers-are-declining.html. Hummingbird feeders require proper cleaning and solution, but you can help just by hosting one easy shrub that can thrive in our brutal summers and continuously feed hummingbirds on its own: Flame Acanthus. https://txmg.org/hendersonmg/plant-library/flame-acanthus-or-hummingbird-bush/.
Finally, we have another butterfly here whose reliance upon a specific plant explains why it is also known as the Passion Butterfly. https://biodiversity.utexas.edu/news/entry/austins-other-orange-butterfly-the-gulf-fritillary. Gulf Fritillary Butterflies depend upon passion flower vines, so you can directly help by providing a native passionflower that you protect from pesticide. https://www.nurturenativenature.com/post/passionflower-vines-are-the-only-game-in-town-for-gulf-fritillary-caterpillars. The caterpillars in this month’s photo were amongst a dozen feeding on a single Purple Passion Flower vine, which they stripped bare but which is re-growing just fine.
North Loop Neighborhood Association 