Texas  -  Jan 15-Feb 11- 2019

Texas has a number of sites that they designate world birding areas.  These are a combination of nature parks, state parks, wildlife reserves etc.  Each area has similarities but also unique landscape and sometimes birds as well.   We took a drive out to Rosaca de la Palma State Park and were able to walk around on our own and then take a guided ride with a naturalist.

this area had lots of ebony trees as do a lot of the parks we go to.

 The vines wrapped around the trees just like rope

 I had just said I need to see a green kingfisher and this little lady appeared right on cue.
We also spent a couple of nights in a hotel on South Padre Island.  The weather did not co-operate real well and one of the cruises we had booked got cancelled.  But a great time anyway!  Just Don's luck that they had a nature Expo on at South Padre nature and birding park.  Also there was a market days event going on right next door.  We also took a tour of the sea turtle rescue and listened to a presentation of the types of sea turtles and what they do there to help them get rehabilitated to return to the ocean.  I also was lucky enough to go to a really cool raptor presentation.

 this was the prettiest vine that crawled all over a tree, the butterflies seemed to love it - mexican flame vine

 there were a number of kind of ducks, these pintail are probably my favorite duck, even tho they are a little stuck up

the spoonbills were nice and close and I watched them a long while
we went on a dinner/sunset sail boat ride and luckily we had a nice day for that

This is the beach right out the back door of our hotel behind a lovely pool area.

We took a drive to Progresso, Mexico.  Like in Algodones, you just park and walk across.  It was a little different in that as you enter into Mexico you have to put in 1.00 in quarters in a turnstyle.  As you leave you put in a quarter.  Not sure who gets the money or why but an interesting experience.  As we crossed the border into Mexico the wall was not slats like on the US side   I could hear voices that sounded like children calling.  Through holes in the bottom of the wall we could see people holding out hats asking for money.  It is sad to see such poverty.  A lot of the residents at the park we were at took up collections of food and clothing to help their southern neighbors  I was really in awe of the generosity of the residents.  They always had projects on the go to help abused women or the needy.
We had one last trip to our favorite park (Hugh Ramsey) before we left that area.

 I went one morning to a nature walk for plants.  Can you believe there were 3 master naturalists and me on the walk.  Very informative and fun for me.  this pretty bean is called a coral bean - it is poisonous

 This is the top of the Limoncillo,  it is extremely rare in the wild.  If one is discovered they mark the coordinates so they know where it is.  It doesn't get any kind of citrus fruit on it but an interesting tree all the same  They have done a lot of work at this park to plant native plants and trees.

 There were a number of indigo buntings there one day.  But there were also 3 javalinas that were a little too close for my comfort

I was pretty excited to see the opposom as I have never seen one before. Looks like something tried to take a bite out of his tail 

I found this picture while I was downloading off the phone  These are some of my bird nerd friends from New York

We left Tropic Winds RV park in Harlingen on January 31/19.  We are now in Bentsen Palm village RV park near Mission, Tx which is pretty much on the other end of the Rio Grande Valley.
I am sitting in the clubhouse trying to concentrate on this blog as the internet connection at our site is very terrible once afternoon comes.  It is not too easy to concentrate while listening to  people having conversation all around you.  Not to mention ice cream sales going on a few feet away.
There is lots of cool stuff going on in this park.  Many generous and talented people willing to show you their art or talents.  I tried a new painting technique called encaustic art.  Basically you paint with tinted beeswax using a small iron or tool

it is a really neat medium and I will go back this week for lesson number 2  They have a rock club here that goes out and finds rocks and teaches you to slice and polish them. I wish I had more time to do some of that.

We were told by friends to make sure and get a pork tenderloin sandwich from the Riverside Club so of course we did just that.  It is a pretty area and right across the Rio Grande river you can see Mexico.

 cutest little vermillion fly catcher

 there is a huge border guard patrol presence in this area, it is super interesting to see the wall and the patrols

this is Anzalduas Park, a local park.  We came across it by accident and decided to pay the entry fee and check it out.  It was right on the river and the picture right above is actually Mexico.  They have a park right on the river there too.  It was a nice day and everyone was out enjoying.

we also came across this La Comita Chapel that was in the same area.  This is one of the places that may be disturbed if a wall is erected.

This is another of the world birding sites.  We didn't really see many birds as it was the afternoon when we were there but they had nice high towers to walk up and take a look see.  This was the Santa Ana and lower Rio Grande Valley national wildlife reserve.

This is in the yard next door.  It has a number of blooms and many buds still to open

 This is a green parrot. We could hear them well before we saw them  Every day there are groups of them flying by making a huge racket. 

 We have a grapefruit and an orange tree right outside our door

 Poinsettia with little water drops

These are photos of a type of store they call ropa.  Ropa is clothing in Spanish.  I do not know where all the clothes come from but there are hundreds of bales, as you can see in the bottom photo.  Basically they open the bales and people climb all over them picking what they want to purchase.  Most of the signage was in Spanish but we think it was 30 cents a pound.  Interesting!  As we drove through the area we see there are many such outlets.

 these are the prickly poppy  I like this picture as there is a pretty cool bug up in the top left beside a huge water drop

 Texas sunflower

 blue mist,  i am obsessed with this for some reason

           this is some kind of flame acanthus-  the colors were so nice up against the blue sky

 These photos are taken at the McAllen  nature center.  We had quite a bit of rain and cool weather the previous 2 days and it seems the flowers were pretty happy about that.

 We walked right up and touched that wall   - LOL

 I think this is a blue grey gnatcatcher   - so cute

 part of the old pumphouse

 look at that fog!

I was shocked to see how much water it takes to grow plants.  Its a good reminder to see how much water the cotton we wear and sometimes throw away carelessly uses.  This group of photos is from the Old Hildago Pumphouse.  It is a very old area and really interesting to walk around.  The morning was very foggy but warm.  Prior to 1933 the pumphouse provided irrigation for the area.  A hurricane in 1933 flooded the valley and the river shifted a half a mile south.  
A couple of days earlier we went to the South Texas History Museum so it helped us understand the people, history and agriculture in the area.

Well I had hoped to elaborate a little more but now my battery is on low so this will have to do