Checking out the birds again


Sunday to Wednesday January 24 to 27/2010




We didn't accomplish too much this week but we ventured out of the resort today to visit Estero Llano Grande State Park in nearby Westlaco with our new friends John and Bonnie - Rvers from Kincardine Ontario. We Ontario people have to stick together because there aren't too many of us down here in southern Texas. The Winter Texans in this RV resort mostly come from the mid west states and mid western provinces. So back to the park we were at today. We arrived there at 8:30 so we could go out with a naturalist to learn about the birds that are there. About 80 different species of birds were spotted in that time. This park is 176 acres on the site of an old rv resort and is special for its large wetland environment so there are lots of waterfowl to see and an alligator too.



This photo is of a Pauraque - special to the Rio Grande Valley. You would walk right past it and not notice it because it looks like a piece of wood on the forest floor. It is a night hunter and sleeps on the ground all day hardly moving an inch.



These birds are Chachalacas - special to this area too. They are the size of a pheasant and they make alot of noise. We actually saw this flock at a bird feeding station at the Valley Nature Center in Westlaco that we visited in the afternoon after we feed ourselves at McDs - $1.49 Big Mac Wednesday.

Other birds of not we saw today were - Vermillion Flycatcher (small bright red bird - size of a swallow - black wings), whistling duck (burned marshmellow color), Anhinga (large water bird), cinnamon teal, white winged dove, buff-bellied hummingbird, golden fronted woodpecker, scissor-tailed flycatcher, eastern phoebe and savannah sparrow.

That is all the birding places in the area that I wanted to get too. Tomorrow I am going over the border into Mexico with some friends of Cousin Don and Maureen. Don doesn't want to go.

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