Monday, October 4, 2010
RRR RV Resort, Crystal City, TX - Mar 8-9
This is a lovely private park with the seclusion and roomy sites of a state park. It has large back-in sites in a wooded area along the Nueces River. Crystal City's main claim to fame is the Popeye statue on the town square, honoring the spinach which is a major crop here. They have an annual Spinach Festival which we were sorry to miss. Other than that, this was basically a rest & catch-up-with-laundry stop.
Falcon State Park, Falcon Heights, TX - Mar 1-7
This stop was mainly planned because of nearby rare birding opportunities; also, we were expecting another pleasant TX state park encounter. Unfortunately, the scenic views and peaceful surroundings are completely ruined by the natural gas drilling and well development at the park. The noise, lights & machinery affect the camping experience in a most negative manner. They run 7x24, with very bright lights at night, so there is no respite.
We visited local birding locations known as Roma Bluffs, Salineno (fondly called "The Bird Lady"), Chipeno, Falcon Dam, Zapata & San Ygnacio. Unfortunately, the number of rarities not seen is far larger then the number seen. The two rarest birds we saw here were the Brown Jay (which flies over from Mexico at one specific spot several times a day) and Audubon's Oriole.We enjoyed hiking on the nature trail around the park as well as hikes in the Zapata, Roma, and San Ygnacio. The town of Roma has a historic area that is quite interesting and in the process of being restored.
Many of the buildings within Roma's historic district are brick structures designed & built by Heinrich Portscheller, a German-born builder & master brick mason. This gives the town its own distinct appearance. The bluffs, which lie just past the historic district, overlook the Rio Grande at a very scenic spot.Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, Mission, TX - Feb 15-28
This 587-acre park ("Bentsen" for short), which was donated to the state in 1944 by Senator Lloyd Bentsen's parents, provides the best winter birding in South Texas. Overuse & an extended drought, however, have caused management to rethink land usage; current plans are to close the trailer loop, while expanding the park to over 1300 acres. The hope is to eventually have an unbroken chain of parks along the entire valley, which will benefit not only birds, but the two endangered wildcats of the area: fewer than 100 Ocelots now remain in the wild, & as few as 30 Jaguarundis may exist in small pockets along the Rio Grande, making inbreeding a major concern.
We mainly concentrated on Bentsen our 1st week, joining the morning & evening bird walks, walking the trailer loop & tenting area, and hiking the Nature Trail that extends to the Rio Grande (new species: Hook-billed Kite, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, Clay-colored Robin, Blue-headed Vireo, Bronzed Cowbird, & Hooded Oriole). The Hook-billed Kite's favorite food is a tree snail, which we saw many of, clinging to trees & even cacti.
The 2nd week we explored the wide range of facilities outside the park. Santa Ana NWR has 2000+ acres of excellent birding habitat, including resacas (ox-bow lakes) & Spanish-moss laden woods. Only 1 or 2 feet of elevation change is enough to change the habitat from desert scrub to subtropical. We arrived at 7:30 for the morning bird walk, which was quite enjoyable, seeing many "old friends" but, alas, no new species. We did hear Tropical Parulas but never actually saw one. After hiking further on our own, we joined the 2pm Tram Tour during the hottest part of the day. The Tour leader, a young Hispanic woman attending college nearby, was a wealth of information. Only 2% of the original habitat still remains in the valley, & the Rio Grande is just a shadow of its historical self, formerly flooding several miles inland every spring, fertilizing the riparian forests. We continued birding after the Tour (again failing to see the elusive Tropical Parula) & at dusk came upon a bobcat 20 yards down the trail, loping casually to within 15 ft of us before he ducked down a side trail. We then had dinner with a fulltimer couple that volunteers at Santa Ana who we had met earlier in the day. We enjoyed Santa Ana (pronounced "Santana" by the locals) so much that we went back later in the week.
We visited Anzalduas Park & Dam, a county park with a similar park right across the Rio Grande in Mexico (more than one person told us that much of the valley is more North Mexico than Texas). Rare birds occasionally stray into Anzalduas, & Sprague's Pipits are often seen near the entrance, but we saw none. It did offer another opportunity for a refreshing walk in pleasant surroundings.
Another "must see" was the Donna Flea Market, with just about anything trailer-related for sale, plus so much junk that looked like garage sale rejects. The flea market is kept alive by the 1000s of Winter Texans who descend on this area every year.In keeping with our supporting local arts groups, we attended a performance of the ballet "Giselle" by the South Texas Dance Theatre. The performance exceeded our expectations & then some! The 2 leads were especially fine, probably better than anyone we saw in Denver; the female lead in particular giving an overall impression of grace & weightlessness with her smooth, flowing arm motions & footwork. Our friends, Pat & Dennis, went with us & enjoyed it also. They will continue to travel with us until the 1st of April. Although our activities often diverge during the day (they are not into birding as much as we are), we enjoy evening games & other get-togethers.
Twin Palms RV Park, Rio Hondo, TX - Feb 8-14
This park is centrally located for visiting birding spots near Brownsville; there are so many that the place deserves a longer stay. Laguna Atascosa (muddy lagoon) has several hiking trails & interpretive drives. Unfortunately, due to several years of drought, the lagoon was completely dry. Also, due to construction, the main drive was closed. However, we enjoyed the rest of the NWR. The "new" birds we saw were White-tipped Dove & Common Pauraque. Other birds of interest - Eastern Screech Owl & Golden-fronted Woodpecker.In nearby Harlingen we visited the Iwo Jima War Memorial at the Marine Military Academy. This is the original working model for the casting of the bronze in D.C. It is 32-ft high with a 78-ft flagpole. It & the accompanying museum were a very interesting stop.
Another day trip was to S Padre Island. At the north end of the road you could walk & drive on the beach. The lovely beach is covered with shells. The paved road ends where a sand dune has blown across it. You can see segments of pavement continuing, so who knows how far the road is buried? We visited Sea Turtle, Inc., founded in 1977 by Ila Loetscher, known locally as the "Turtle Lady." The goal of Sea Turtle, Inc. is to aid & assist in the preservation & protection of the Kemp's Ridley turtle. They also support conservation & rehabilitation of all marine turtle species. The final stop on SPI was at the birdwatching pier, a 1500-ft boardwalk made of recycled materials on the bayside of the island, passing thru dunes & wetlands. We were fortunate to see an elusive Clapper Rail.Our other birding trip was to the Brownsville area. Our first stop was the Brownsville dump, a birder "must". You line up with the garbage trucks & sign in as a birder. They give you a map to the special parking area for birders. Unfortunately, the area doesn't currently live up to its reputation, but it is a unique experience. We continued on to Sabal Palm Audubon Center, south of Brownsville in a bend of the Rio Grande. The endangered Ocelot & Jaguarundi are believed to reside in the wildlife sanctuaries in this part of TX, but we were not fortunate enough to see either. However, we hit the jackpot with birds, seeing 5 new species - Plain Chachalaca, Ovenbird, Ringed Kingfisher, Altamira Oriole & Cave Swallow. What an exciting day of birding!
In our remaining day here, we will continue our roadside birding search for the rare Aplomado Falcon. So far, our roadside birding has only turned up a Peregrine Falcon -- pretty exciting in itself.
The cats have not appreciated being on the move again, but we keep them settled down with the help of Rescue Remedy (a Bachflower formula for humans & animals) added to their water.
SeaWind RV Resort, Riviera, TX - Feb 1-7
This is a lovely county park on Baffin Bay just east of Riviera. It has spacious sites & friendly people. There are nice areas for birdwatching along the bay & a nature trail in the park. We went on a half-day nature tour at the King Ranch in Kingsville. The naturalist is a very good birder, so we saw many species. Only one, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, was new to us. Other species of interest: Olive Sparrow, Least Grebe,Green Jay, Great Kiskadee & Vermillion Flycatcher.Pioneer Beach Resort, Port Aransas, TX - Jan 1-31
We started New Year's day with our customary anniversary celebration of brunch out. Later in the day we had Pat & Dennis over for a meal of chili (containing black-eyed peas for good luck!) & played more games, while watching Colorado lose horribly in the Fiesta Bowl.We have enjoyed a lot of birding here. We started out going to the Port Aransas birding center for their Weds am outings. We became friends with the leaders, & were invited to go along on several weekend trips with the Outdoor Audubon Club of Corpus Christi. We went to several inland ranches to look for birds in different habitats.
We have seen several new species this winter: Greater White-fronted Goose, Ferruginous Hawk, Common Ground-dove, Burrowing Owl, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Marsh Wren, Lark Sparrow and Swamp Sparrow.
We have also enjoyed some tourist activities, including an interesting tour of Heritage Park in Corpus Christi, a group of historic homes that have been moved to a shared block in the downtown bayside area. The tour explains the history of the homes & tells about the people who first lived in them. We also visited Padre Island Natl Seashore, Goose Island SP, the South Texas Art Museum, & have taken lovely scenic drives. 
As a special bonus, one of our friends here catches more fish than they like to eat, so we have been the happy recipients of their "extra" fish. Doug has learned to be quite a good preparer of fish. We will really miss our fresh fish when we leave in a week!The cats have enjoyed our staying put for two months. They will surely hate seeing us getting ready to hit the road again. They continue to be what makes our RV really home.
Our last week was filled with a flurry of activities that we had not "gotten around to" earlier or our "last time" for doing special things. We will especially miss our great bridge games, the line dancing classes & the Port A birding center. Sunday we rented an electric car & drove on the beach for a couple of hours with Pat & Dennis & their 2 kids, who were visiting. We all took turns driving!