Nature! Nature! Wonderful Nature!

We have quickly established a habit of leaving the RV park each morning, and heading to one of the many areas that are hotspots for birds, and that have trails or boardwalks to explore.  We have visited several new places as well as returned to some we visited our first week.  I want to share the pictures of some of what we saw.

Bentsen Rio Grande SP

Green Jay

Altamira Oriole

Nest of the Altamira Oriole

                                 

    

Great Kiskadee getting fresh drops at a water station. As a kid I can remember drinking from a hose too.

White-tipped Dove - such lovely colours.

Great Kiskadee and Cardinals sharing the water.

Hugh Ramsey Nature Park

Bobcat shared her trail with us. She had two babies with her, and we enjoyed her company for several minutes.

Oriole and Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Santa Ana NWR

Always a good sighting!

Harris Hawk. We learned they hunt in a "pack" like wolves and is the only hawk known for this behaviour. We actually saw group of three in the morning, and then four sitting high in this dead tree together in the afternoon.

Queen Butterfly

One of the bird blinds at Santa Ana.

One view of the Rio Grande with Mexico in the background.  Hi Neighbors!

A field of cabbages was being harvested across the road from the entrance to the NWR.

South Padre Island

Least Bittern

Love the bad hair day this Reddish Egret is having.

Looks like it is tip-toeing on the surface.

There are some big gators here and this large male was peeking through the rushes.  We were on the boardwalk 😉

Roseate having a nap with a Tricolored and surrounded by (mostly) American Widgeons.

 

American Wigeons

Laguna Atascosa NWR

Snow geese and the darker one second on the right I was told is a Ross's Goose.

We saw several Aplamodo Falcons but this picture is taken from one in a showcase in the Visitor Center. 

Kestrel on the way into the refuge. See about a dozen a day on our travels.

Caracara known as the Mexican Eagle although it is not in that family.

Some of the very endangered Ocelots of the USA live in this refuge. It is believed that around 50 still exist in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Estero Llano Grande State Park

Vermillion Flycatcher. This was a very windy day and you can al out see the effect in the following pictures.  We have had a lot of wind this past week, sometimes gusting to 30-40 mph.

Tropical Kingbird  This bird was identified, by the expert leading the birding group, by its call. It is identical in looks to the Couch's Kingbird.

Green Kingfisher

Back at the RV park, our site is coming along.  We should be in our official home in a few days😍.

There really is more to share than I can fit into this post, but hopefully you will enjoy the bird sightings

and get a small snapshot of this lovely area. I am keeping a bird list each day and sometimes I have seen 60-70 birds on one day.  I will include an abbreviated list in next post.

We are enjoying the friendly people and the delicious Tex-Mex food. 

And we are gathering pictures of some special aspects of the Lower Rio Grande Valley as well.

Our television/DVD player works well for programs after it gets dark, so we are quite content! 

Sending love and hugs, L and L