Monday in South Texas

After another scrumptiliplumpticious breakfast, we decided to head south to the very tip of southern Texas and the Rio Grande river area. I had heard about this meccas for birders and wondered why all the fuss. It didn't take long to find out. First we went to a state park south of Mercedes, TX called Estero Llanos Grande State Park. This is part of the 'World Birding Center' which is south Texas: http://www.worldbirdingcenter.org/. This series of sites is catering to birders from the world over, and it quickly became clear why. At this first state park, we walked up to the entrance, and there was a deck overlooking a wetland area, a dry erase board with birds seen that day, a docent volunteer guide and park ranger to help you i.d. birds, and 2 very nice spotting scopes for anyone to use. The birds were indeed fantastic, and we took a few loop hikes through the park to see what we could see. A number of new life listers were added by both of us. Here are some pictures, taken with a point-and-shoot, so please forgive the limited quality...


A Pauraque


This is a Green Kingfisher; terrible picture, but my favorite new bird of the whole trip, so I had to include it!


White-faced cormorant (spreading its wings) and Anhinga (background)


Great Kiskadee


Vermilion flycatcher

So you get the idea, even if the photos are suboptimal. Some day, we'll invest in real photographic equipment, because Ann and I both love photography. In the meantime, we'll let the digital world evolve a bit further and eventually, get some optics that can do these birds justice.

Our second stop was at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, another birding center, but we were late, the border patrol was on patrol and we saw only a golden fronted ladder backed three toed woodsapsucker (jk) and heard some very strange sounds (true!) as we hiked and ran in the dusk back to the car.

We drove in the dark past ambulances and police cars to Laredo.