Previous week temperatures over 100F degrees abated somewhat for our week in Texas' Rio Grande Valley aka "The Valley." Based in Harlingen, Texas, we were centered between two major coastal birding hot spots and border areas where we hoped to see many of the local "specialties." Our timing was a little early to see migrating passerines and the unusual Groove-billed Ani, but as we would later realize, we did arrive at a great time to observe the Broad-winged Hawk migration.
We birded two
World Birding Center sites in Harlingen, Harlingen Thicket and Arroyo Colorado, and while they gave us a feel for the area, they weren't very productive for birding. All the other sites we visited had something to offer and were well worth visiting. We found the
Texas Coastal Trail map we picked up to be out of date -- we should have noticed the photo of youthful governor George Bush on the back!
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| Blooming prickly pear cactus greeted us in Harlingen |
Our first evening we went out looking for Green Parakeets and Red-crowned Parrots and although unsuccessful, had a blast watching
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks coming in for the night at Pendleton Park.
Home to more documented species of birds than any other National Wildlife Refuge in the US,
Laguna Atascosa NWR was our first stop the next day. On the way, we were thrilled to see our first
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher on the wires along the road. They seem much more tail than bird!
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| Scissor-tailed Flycatcher |
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| Harris Hawk on the way to Laguna Atascosa NWR |
The NWR's visitor center feeders and nature trails provided our first and possibly the best look at
Green Jays and
Plain Chachalacas. Quite by accident, I also got a little too close of a look at a resident alligator just off the trail!
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| Green Jay |
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| Plain Chachalaca |
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| Mike scolds the alligator for startling Susan |
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| Not what you expect to see on a bird walk! |
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| Golden-fronted Woodpecker |
Laguna Atascosa is also of the few places in the US to see the endangered Aplomado Falcon in the wild, and we drove the 15 mile auto loop trying hard to spot one. No luck, but we did see a group of five osprey that at one point looked remarkably like Aplomados to our hopeful eyes.
Ocelots also wander through the coastal thorn forests, though being nocturnal and few in number, we didn't expect to encounter one. Mike did catch a glimpse of a bobcat crossing a sandy wash.
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| Ocelots are endangered and only 80-120 of them live in Texas, with about 30-35 in Laguna Atascosa NWR |
As we were preparing to leave the NWR we were treated to a visit from the stunning
Altamira Oriole, perching nearby above our car.
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| Altamira Oriole |
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| 21 foot high section of border wall |
A female
Crimson-collared Grosbeak had been frequenting the feeders at
Sabal Palm Sanctuary since February so we made that our first stop Saturday morning.
We drove through a huge gap in the border fence to enter the sanctuary which had a remote tropical feel, complete with mosquitoes. This was the southernmost point (less than 1/4 mile from the border) we would reach on the trip and our cell phones welcomed us to Mexico.
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| Border wall with watchful Border Patrol |
The birding at Sabal was productive and the visitor center volunteer was very helpful in spotting and identifying birds from the porch of the tiny visitor center. We got good looks at the Grosbeak, Altamira and Hooded Orioles, Olive Sparrows on the porch, plus Louisiana Waterthrush and Least Grebes along the trails and lookouts.
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| Crimson-collared Grosbeak (rare for Texas) |
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| Sabal Palms at the Sanctuary |
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| Louisiana Waterthrush |
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| Olive Sparrow |
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| Bougainvillea growing in the jungle-like sanctuary |
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| Least Grebe |
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| Hooded Oriole |
The volunteer also told us that Aplamados sometimes were seen along the road to Boca Chica Beach and that was all we needed to head even further east along remote Hwy 4. Once again we struck out on the falcons. We didn't linger to walk the beach because it was littered with numerous Portuguese Man O' War.
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| Susan on Boca Chica Beach |
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| Portuguese Man O' War on Boca Chica Beach |
As we were leaving, a lone white bird caught our eye in a nearby tide pool. He turned out to be the fairly unusual white morph of the Reddish Egret!
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| Reddish Egret (white morph) |
About one month after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appamatox Courthouse, 111 Union men died at the Battle of Palmito Ranch, located a few miles inland along our route. A local AM public radio station recording informed us repeatedly that this battle was long forgotten in the history books, and that we should know that the last land battle of the Civil War was fought in Texas. Other than the unfortunate chronology and unnecessary deaths, no other significance of the battle is apparent.
On the way out from Boca Chica Beach we stopped to observe several White-tailed Hawks.
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| White-tailed Hawk |
It was Easter weekend, but we ignored our good sense and headed toward crowded South Padre Island.
As we returned to more populated areas, people were selling colorful dyed eggs along the roadside. For some reason Mike was not interested in buying hard cooked eggs out of the back of a truck in near 90 degrees heat.
We stopped for a quick barbeque lunch in Port Isabel at the newly opened Lady and the Pit, then crawled through traffic in the main tourist section of "The Island" until we got to the
World Birding Center.
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| World Birding Center at South Padre Island |
A wonderful facility, it includes a four story high lookout and extensive boardwalks offering superb viewing opportunities. We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the shorebirds and broke away near dusk to explore sand dunes at the northern tip of the island.
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| Boardwalks at the SPI WBC, looking toward Laguna Madre |
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| Great Egret fishing |
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| Long-billed Curlew |
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| Tri-colored Heron |
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| White Ibis |
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| The ever-present Great-tailed Grackle |
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| Black-necked Stilts |
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| Snowy Egret |
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| The busy beach area near the end of the road north on SPI |
On our way home we got a very good look at Laguna Madre, the huge but very shallow (average 3 ft depth) body of water separating Padre Island from the mainland, as we inched across the bridge back to the mainland with hundreds of other day tripping holiday weekend tourists.
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| Our rental car at the end of the dune-ridden road |
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