Laguna Atascosa NWR

Friday we visited laguna Atascosa again, not much there this time, lots of visiters though. Part of the refuge was closed for bow hunting, but we drove the 14 mile loop.
We stopped at the visiters center after our drive and one of the volunteers was telling us about the Friday nite tours, so we decided to join it. We hadn't had lunch just snacks but that's the way our travels go. We didn't see much on the tour either but did learn that there is supposed to be Nilgai on the refuge, an antelope type animal from India, brought to the Kings Range as a game animal and of course they escaped and wondered to a safe place. We did see a wild pig, several deer and several Pauraques a night bird that likes to sit on the road and catch bugs. Since it is a night bird no photos so I borrowed this painting from Wikiepedia.
This morning we are watching the birds at our feeder, we had 3 Green Jays and a couple of Titmice with our usual Cardinals, Long-tailed Grackles, Red-wing black birds and Sparrows.

Just down the road

It was another beautiful day here in the Rio Grande Valley, we had a few more visiters to our feeder this morning (they are the first two photos of my slide show). Ken decided we needed to add a ground feeder so we went shopping for another feeder this morning.
We now have neighbors on each side of us, we haven't meet them yet.
We decided to visit the County Park just down the road from us in Arroyo City. It turned out to be a good birding park, there's camping there too right next to the river but their monthly rates are much higher than what we are paying here. We even saw a Spoonbill but to far to get a photo. The Redheaded ducks are to be somewhere in that area and in the biggest concentration in US but we didn't see them there was something with red heads in the far far distance. The shore birds I'm not good in identifing. I believe the river runs into the Laguna Madre the bay on this side of S. Padre Island and is a salt water river.

Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary

We checked off another birding site today, this one was south of Brownsville on the Rio Grande River. It was an interesting place but very few birds and butterflies but as we were ending our visit I heard a noise and saw several Chachalaca in the underbrush. So we were able to add another bird to our life list.
The first photo is a flower from a tree in front of the Brownsville Visitor Center, just gorgeous. The lady behind the counter was from Richman, MO practically a neighbor!
I guess a couple of my names for the duck and a butterfly were wrong yesterday, Ken's photos are more detailed and he decided the duck was a Blue-wing teal and the butterfly a Laviana White-Skipper, sorry.

Edinburg Scenic Wetlands

The sun came out around 11 am today so we decided to get in a little birding. The Rio Grande Valley has this map of birding and butterfly sites, I posted a photo of it a couple days ago, we are visiting the more important sites. There are 97 sites listed, we have visited 14 sites so far.
Monday we went to a movie, we saw the Curious Case of Benjaman Button, it very good. The theatre was very nice, decorated in Art Deco style and Mondays are $5 Senior day.

Nice Birding day

Ken put out a bird feeder next to the dining area window, here's our first bird this morning. After going to McDonald's for breakfast, we went to Hugh Ramsey Nature Park and Ken set up his camera to try and capture a few photos. He was very succussful and we can add at least 4 more birds to our life list.

These are taken with my point and shoot, it's about as good as I get. This is the Kiskadee.

Here is a Golden-Fronted Woodpecker, there were two new doves for us, Buff-bullied Hummingbird and a Long billed Thrasher, sorry my photos weren't very good maybe next time.

It was a warm day today about 85 but another cool front is coming thru and it is to be only 53 tomorrow and maybe a shower.

Market day

It's been windy again, but temps in low 80's . Friday we checked out the new state park, Resaca de la Palma. We drove in and had high hopes when we saw all these people in their birding garb, but it turned out not productive at all. Ken saw his first Kiskadee, it's the yellow bird I photographed and posted earlier in a slide show and that was about it.

Today we had breakfast at the clubhouse, they fix breakfast once a month for $4. Then went to Harlingen to their Sat. Market. Ken bought a Lantana plant for $4, and I bought some Mexican sweet bread to try. It's not as sweet as I thought it would be. We saw this vender selling corn, so Ken stopped and bought a few ears and a small watermelon. Well, the corn was tough and like field corn so we tossed it. We haven't tried the watermelon yet.

It was time to do laundary again, so I did that this afternoon.

A Beautiful Start to New Year

We rang in the New Year with the RV park, only 16 of us made it till midnight. Sandy, the fun coordinator, made black-eyed peas which were very good. We are meeting new people here every day, they are really nice here.
The weather was perfect today, 76 degrees with a light breeze. We decided it was a good day to check out Port Isabel and S. Padre Island they are only 30 miles from us. It was really nice and we shall be going back, next time with a beach blanket and flip flops.