By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The monarch butterflies do not always show up when they are supposed to. Educators at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center schedule the annual Butterfly Festival based on when the monarchs are predicted to move through the area. Educator Mandy Kern said, boom or bust, this year's festival from 9 a.m. to noon on Sept. 28 will feature many activities.
"It's our biggest event we offer throughout the year, the most publicly-attended event we have," she said. "We've ranged anywhere from a couple hundred people to 800 people and families that come out. We're hoping for another good year."
The website monarchwatch.org tracks and predicts the migration of the butterflies each year. KWEC moved back this year's Butterfly Festival because of the Great Bend Airfest scheduled for Sept. 20-22, but Kern said that's a good thing.
"It should actually work out really well in our favor," she said. "Monarch Watch has said that the fall migration might be a little late this year. It got a little cool up near the Canada border and the Dakotas."
One of the most popular parts of the Butterfly Festival is capturing and tagging the butterflies. Nets will be available and attendees will be paired with tagging leaders. Each year, butterflies that are tagged in Great Bend are later found in Mexico.
"Scientists still are just real curious as to why the butterflies migrate and why they go the route they take," Kern said. "It really helps them. If they know these butterflies pass through Great Bend, Kansas, they'll have some idea of where their food might be, where the milkweed is located. It's just data that can help Citizen Science Project."
The Butterfly Festival will also include a Bumblebutt Petting Station with the Grassland Groupies where attendees can pet male bees that cannot sting. StoneLion Puppet Theatre returns for a puppet show, and Cloud 9 Creative Experiences will do face painting. There will also be several craft and activity tables, an invertebrate zoo featuring various insects, and an ongoing mural painting.
The Butterfly Festival is free to the public and no registration is required.