Texas with Carol and Don 1/30 - 2/4/14

We met up at the Houston airport on Thursday, flew on down to McAllen, where we stayed for 2 nights.  On Friday morning we went to the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, where we got our only view of the Rio Grande, above.  This area is referred to as the Rio Grande Valley, but as Californians we can tell them that there ain't no valley there.  As Don says, it's really a flood plain.

 

Saturday morning we headed north to Corpus Christi, Padre Island, Rockport, and Ingleside, but before we left McAllen we spent time at this urban park, an old estate very well kept up, with lots of habitat, bird feeders, critter sculpture (see below), and plenty of neat birds.

Here's Don, on the beach at Padre Island, where he felt compelled to blend in with the Texans and show off his ink.

This is a very chilly Monday morning, when we were birding at the Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary, on the Rio Grande south of Brownsville.  Did I mention it was chilly?

And late Monday afternoon we found another urban park, this one in Harlingen, where we found 2 more new birds.

Enough with the people, what about the birds?

 Great Kiskadee at Santa Ana NWR

  Altamira Orioles at Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park

White-tipped Dove at Bentsen RGV State Park

Black-crested Titmouse at Bentsen RGV State Park

Golden-fronted Woodpecker at Quinta Mazatlan

Laughing Gull at Doc's on Padre Island

Reddish Egret at Port Aransas

 White Pelicans on patrol at Port Aransas

We went to Rockport to take a 3-hour boat tour Sunday morning, mainly to see these guys, Whooping Cranes.  Very cool!

 The one on the left is a juvenile

 This pond was an avian cornucopia, with Roseate Spoonbills, White Ibis, Avocets, Willets, Great and Snowy Egrets, and a Little Blue Heron that didn't make it into the picture.

 American Oystercatchers on a sandbar

We passed this tug and barge, and someone on our boat saw a Peregrine Falcon land on the railing, about halfway down the barge.  If you squint your eyes you can just barely see a black dot...

 So our captain/tour guide swung the boat around and we pulled alongside.  I'm sure the tugboat captain thought we were completely nuts!

 This Olive Sparrow was at Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary

 As was this Yellow-throated Warbler

 We found this Green Jay at Laguna Atascosa NWF, but they were ubiquitous at the Rio Grande Valley sites, particularly those with feeders!

 Gray Catbird at Laguna Atascosa NWF

This Plain Chachalaca looks like a fierce predator, but it is more like a chicken.  They were also at all the birding sites.

Final bird count for the trip is 109 species!!!!

Last but not least, we can't forget the strange Texas culture...

 Melt-in-your-mouth barbeque in Alamo

 The curio/beach stores did some weird things to draw in customers!  These 2 were in Port Aransas on Padre Island.

The gorilla, dinosaur and reef were all in Port Isabel, between Brownsville and South Padre Island

 It was a fabulous trip -- thank you Carol and Don for inviting me along.