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Published: March 28th 2021
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Friday was another full day of birding, birding, birding. But we started in a most odd place – Brownsville Landfill!
We were hoping to find 3 rare birds: the Crested Caracara, the Chihuahuan Raven, and the Tamilapas Crow. Sadly, we only found thousands of gulls and long-tailed grackles and the Crested Caracara – phew, not a complete waste. The man who checked us in (usually weighing the vehicle upon entering and exiting) advised David to not leave his wife up there. And David was pooped on within minutes – a very lucky event? And one that was fortunately not repeated.
Then we drove about another 45 mins to South Padre Island. This very long and thin island (3 roads wide) has many high rises and fancy accommodations, but the birding center was on the lagoon side near the water treatment plant. It was indeed a little stinky, which I mistakenly attributed to their vast collection of alligators, including Big Padre, who evidently weighed in at 800 #!! And is currently on a diet.
We walked along the boardwalk with a volunteer guide – a tremendously knowledgeable lady in her late 70s who carried a heavy scope and saw
5 new birds and many old friends. We enjoyed our lunch – surprise – chicken salad – outside on a park bench watching a green heron fishing, and returned to the fray. We walked the neighboring boardwalk at the Convention Center and then drove a few blocks to an “urban” park. That’s where we got the recommendation to dine across the bridge in Port Isabel at a local seafood café. Their fried oysters and grilled flounder were amazing. We got in just before the rush – when we left the line was maybe 10 families long. We brought home a pound of huge locally-caught shrimp to saute tomorrow night.
We’ve been doing well to avoid too much sun – in fact it’s been hazy/cloudy for a few days – but we did pick up lots of chigger bites yesterday around the ankles and sleeping was a problem. Hopefully the hydrocortisone cream helps tonight.
Saturday, another busy day of nothing but birding. We drove an hour west to Santa Ana National Wildlife Preserve, but sadly it was not really open in full swing. Evidently the State Parks are doing better. Good news – it was free. Bad news –
only portapotties and no shopping possibilities.
We met a nice older gent named David who showed us around. We saw 4 NEW birds: scissor-tailed flycatchers at last (we had seen one fly over but too fast for the photo), a Verdin (a tiny bird with a big voice – so we kept looking for the voice), a tropical king bird, another good singer, and a Harris’ Hawk. All 4 of these are only here in S. TX so we are excited.
Because the temp rose to the low 90s today, we ended at a late lunch, which we ate in the a/c car!! We drove the Military Road both ways – the freeways can be race tracks indeed. Tonight’s dinner was asparagus (only $1.99 a #) and the shrimp we got last night – and they were amazing. Probably never frozen and straight off the boat.
Interestingly, everyone we see continues to wear masks, even when outside like on the boardwalks. And we have met a tremendous number of snow birds. Wisconsin, Michigan, Cleveland Heights!
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