Valley Life

Life in the Rio Grande Valley tends to be laid back and relaxed. Despite the misinformation and politically advantageous lies that come across the conservative news channels, there are no signs of “IMMIGRANT CRISIS” or “Murderous Gang Wars” filling the streets. This is a subtropical area that enjoys a subtropical temperament. Traffic is slow. People ease their way forward when the lights turn green. They walk with an easy gait, many in groups, and carry on conversations with their companions and complete strangers. In fact, I have seen fewer police here than I did on our trip through Montana, Utah, and Idaho. Yep, I am settling in very nicely, thank you!

This is especially true on the weekends. Over the last few years, we have learned that planning only a few things for weekends is best. Families fill the parks and attractions during the school year on Saturdays and Sundays. Even when the schools are not in session, working people claim the weekends to be "party hearty."  Weekends tend toward noisy, crowded streets and venues, so we take it easy. Last weekend was no exception. We had a chill couple of days with reading, playing games, watching movies, and smoking a pork butt on the pellet grill. It was a relaxing break from our nice, comfortable pace of life. I suppose that is why we retired!

On Monday, we had planned to get out and about to some of our favorite birding spots. But the weather had a different idea. The forecast called for sustained winds of 30 mph with 50+ mph gusts. The skies were cloudy but dry. But birds do not like that much wind. So, we took our lead from our avian compadres and hunkered down until the winds died down. We stowed away our outside furniture and gear and settled in for a breezy day in Koko. I continued working on our routing for 2025 and decided that the trip had had started outlining did not excite my joy. So, I began cogitating on the elements of travel planning. I knew I needed to come up with a better way to develop our trips. So, I put it away and let it bubble on the back burner for the week.  

Tropical Parula

By Tuesday, the winds had died down a bit, and we loaded up our hiking, birding, and photo gear for an afternoon at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. After arriving, we discovered it was a Bow and Arrow Hunt Day, and most of the trails were closed to birders. We did walk a few trails and made a short drive to see Laguna Madre, but the freshwater Laguna Atascosa was surrounded by people armed with Bows and Arrows, so we had to leave the waterfowl to them. We also discovered that the staff no longer supplied birdseed and water for the birding blinds, so the birds were scattered throughout the brush. We found one mud hole, and I was able to photograph a few birds that came by for a drink. It was a lovely day to be out in the sunshine but a flat day on the trails. Here are a few of the shots from our day. The highlight was picking up a "lifer" species, the Tropical Parula.

Curious Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Black-Crested Titmouse

Orange-Crowned Warbler

Yep! That's a Yellow Rump!

Red Wing Blackbirds and a Green Jay

Narcissist Green Jay

Greater Roadrunner

The winds started picking up a little on Wednesday, and we decided it would be a good day to see the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville. This fella welcomed us to the Zoo in his usual, relaxed manner. This small, world-class zoo never fails to delight the animal lover. It is in the heart of Brownsville and is well-curated with the comfort of the animals and the guests in mind. The zoo was built in 1971 and quickly established itself as a world leader in providing care for hundreds of species while offering a unique experience to visitors. We have been coming to the Zoo since the 1990s and have watched them continue to delight new generations of future naturalists.

I have been taking pictures at Zoos since I was 10 years old and visited the San Antonio Zoo on school trips. While the photography is relatively easy, I still get much satisfaction from capturing images of these exotic creatures. Here are a few of the shots from our day.

Surveying his kingdom

Letting it all hang out!

Just Showing Off!

Mom!   MOM! Are you sure about this?

A Tortoise Tete-a-tete

A Majestic Bald Eagle

Look at this little cutie. Especially those teeth!

Pondering Primate Possibilities

I know that look!

Watching the antelope next door.

Crested Crane

Giraffe Gossip

Scary Eyes

Jabba the Hutt's Little Cousin

A little too close!

The Warthog

Look closely at the eye lashes!

 

We drove to South Padre Island to bird along Laguna Madre on Thursday. Two boardwalks wind through the Mangroves on the Island's bay side. South Padre Island Bird and Alligator Center and the South Padre Island Nature Center at the Convention Center allowed us to get up close with many of the shore birds that winter in the warm, hyper-salty waters of Laguna Madre. (The world-renowned Sea Turtle, Inc. sits next door, but that will have to wait for another day on the Island.) Here are a few photos of these other winter Texans enjoying the sun and warmth of SPI.

 

 

Red Eared Turtle catching a few rays!

Mottled Duck Feather

Egret Ballet

Skimmers looking for food!

White Egret Posing

A Brown Pelican in the middle of a dive. They actually flip over when diving at too slight an angle.

More Egret Ballet

Spotted Sandpiper

Hannibal Lecter the Tortoise

Two little cuties

"Let us pray!"

Tri-Color Heron snags a snack!

One Handsome Tri-Color

Pair of Redhead Ducks

White Morph of Reddish Egret doing some modern dance.

And you thought you had bad hair days!

Two Piping Plovers. The one in the rear used a bit too much beach!

Under the watchful eye of the Redhead.

American Oystercatcher

Tricolor Heron

Pintail Ducks

Roseate Spoonbill: "I know I'm cute!"

An egret grabbing a little brunch.

The Narcissist Spoonbill

Somedays I just do not want to deal with it!

Black-Necked Stilt on reflection

Spotted Sandpiper

A Ponytail on a Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron in Profile

Green Heron

Unfortunately, the high winds returned on Friday. When the rest of the country gets winter storms, we get the winds that sweep up Gulf and Caribbean moisture and deposit it into those deep lows that pummel the Midwest with heavy rain and blizzards. Once again, we hunkered down in Koko. It became a good day to return to the questions that bubbled up last Monday. It began with a simple question that soon transformed into a BHM, Big Hairy Monster of a question. What is the best way to choose a destination when you have a whole year and country ahead of you? Here are a few of my preliminary ideas.

When exploring options for traveling, I have several choices: weekly, monthly, or seasonal stays. There are also the options of combining two of these into a particular year of travel. We have been doing the weekly for several years. Since going full-time, we have booked mostly weekly stays with a monthly stay for the winter. We enjoy the rhythm of weekly travel, but it can be very expensive and only sometimes leaves little time to explore an area thoroughly. Weekly visits limit our exploration radius to an hour or two. We have used monthly stops primarily for Wintering in Texas and saving a lot of money on gas and site rental. It also expands our exploring radius and allows us to stay overnight away from Koko as we do when we go into Houston for our medical appointments. This is the first year we are doing a genuinely seasonal stay here in Brownsville. It expands the options and benefits of the monthly stays. It offers an even greater opportunity for a wider radius of exploring to include cruises or extended excursions. These are just the surface of the options and ideas I want to explore as we prepare for our 2025 trip. Fortunately, next month, we will begin taming this BHM and start seriously planning our 2025 adventure.

 

A Fan-tailed Warbler

Before closing out this week's blog, take a sneak peek at an extraordinary bird and another lifer for us, a Fantail Warbler. This bird is so rare in Texas that it is not even listed in Sibley's Guide as being rare to Texas. It is listed as a native of Mexico, Central, and South America. He has put on quite a show here in the Valley. It is recorded as a vagrant to Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. I would love to say that we camped out in the howling wind for three days to wait for this bird to appear. But frankly, when we saw its location posted on Facebook, we went to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley site. We saw people standing around with cameras and binoculars as soon as we left the parking lot. This little creature was holding court under a bush beside the Resaca. Several people stood around, talking and looking at him. At the same time, the bird flitted from branch to branch, giving us his repertoire of poses. It was as simple as that! Thanks, little bird. You made a lot of people very happy today!

We will continue exploring the Rio Grande Valley for the next 6 weeks. There are so many winter birds from Mexico, Central, and South America in the area that we will have our work cut out to see and photograph them all. Please hang with us as we while away the winter here on the tip of Texas.

If you want to see the complete set of pictures from our travels, please go to my Flickr page. You can find it at https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobdees/.

Enjoy!

Bob