Harlingen, Texas

  We arrived in Harlingen on December 31.  We are at a park called Tropic Winds and it is a great park with lots of activities, big sites, and friendly people. It is very quiet as far as traffic noise, airplanes and trains which is a bonus as far as RV parks go.  We enjoy the Texans who never fail to give you a how're y'all. 
    We have enjoyed a few activities and a free dinner in the park as well as talking to some very nice people.
   Most of our activities have been on the nature side which Don has been tolerating pretty good.  
   We have tried to stay on this half of the valley as we will move to the other end for the month of February.
One day we took a drive to South Padre Island where I went on a guided bird walk.

     we watched this heron catch and kill and swallow this fish which was really pretty amazing

 

                                                       tri colored heron

                                                     this is a black bellied plover- doesn't look too black to me  :)

it was low tide the day we went which was great for seeing lots of birds.

 this is a clapper rail which to bird nerds is pretty cool as they are pretty elusive

                                                                  this is an anhinga

that little gallinule is pretty brave floating around in front of the alligator.  Apparently alligators are nocturnal and he was fast asleep in this picture

These are pictures around the nature centre.  They have a nice high look out point and amazing boardwalks.  I could definitely go here every day but I think some one else would find it a bored walk.

 The beach was so nice - but it just made us miss the beach at Port A which is the coolest place ever to go to the beach.

This is at Port Isabel of the bridge you take to cross over to South Padre   We stopped to walk on the pier and check out the fishermen.
We drove into a town called Donna to check out the market.  I bought some amazing, sweet delicious ruby red grapefruits and some of the biggest most delicious pecans we have ever had.  We also went to an RV show near there and an Audubon Centre

it was a little late in the day to see many birds but the area was pretty and we saw some nice plants and the path was nice.  There is a large area of the Sabal Palm


One day we drove out to the Laguna Atacosa National Wildlife refuge.  The tram was not running because of government shut down but we walked where we could  They don't allow vehicles on many areas as they have had wildlife collisions with their ocelots.  Unfortunately we did not see an ocelot.  But here is what we did see

  I can never get sick of looking at the green jays, they are so pretty and when they fly there is a flash of yellow too!

We were delayed leaving as there was a very dense fog - but it did make for some pretty water drops  There is lantana growing wild everywhere. Such an amazing flower

                                                 Who knew coots could read?

 off in the distance at first I thought it was just current in the water.  But once I got out the binoculars I could see it was really hundreds of birds, mostly coots.

The next pictures are from the Hugh Ramsay Nature Centre which is part of the world birding areas.  It is close by and has great trails for seeing many types of birds and flowers and get some exercise to boot.  We go here a lot!

 This is a large cypress of some sort.  The leaves are very fine and it looks fluffy

                                                                    velvet lantana

                                                                 pond full of duck weed

This is the kingfisher pond, where they say are green kingfishers.  That is another bird we don't get at home so I hope we get to see one.

                                                            even the trees like camo

All kinds of pretty lantana

                                    one of the paths in the park

                             this is called prickly poppy - how absolutely gorgeous is that?

                                                    bee coming in for a landing

                                                                     huge agave

        this is a flower on the wild olive trees that are everywhere, they are important trees  as food and pollen

                              that's the olive

                                                         this one is called a potato tree

Following are some of the birds and animals we have seen at the Hugh Ramsey Park

                                                                  altamara oriole

                                                                          verdin

                                                       duck weed coated turtles

                                                      buff bellied hummingbird

                                                              long billed thrasher

                                                                         kiskadee

                                                                            javelina

                                                                Mrs. Cardinal

 the very entertaining Plain Chachalaca  - kind of a chicken like bird.  they eat on the ground or in the feeders and even at the citrus

                            Mr. Cardinal

         I believe this is a white peacock butterfly
The next pictures are from our drive yesterday.  My allergies to the junipers is really bad.  After 2 days of not breathing and a head full of cotton it was time for serious drugs and a day of limited exposure to outside.  We drove from Harlingen to Brownsville along the Mexican border.

            this was a huge field of onions

 there was so much of this crop - the best I can tell it is collard greens or some kind of greens

                                 These are sugar cane which we are told th tey burn before harvesting to get rid of the leaves and make it easier.  Apparently the heat is so hot the leaves burn quickly.  We have had black ash fall a couple of times when we were out and about and that is what it is from

That is the wall/fence on the border.  I was amazed to see how close were actually were to the border and how close many of the homes were.  Lots of them backed right onto that fence.  There was a huge tower of some sort and definitely  a border patrol presence.
We have some pretty fun tours and activities lined up for the next half of the month.