We had missed the Audobon's Oriole the day before and being there early gave us a better chance. We thought we had missed it again, but eventually not one, but two, showed up again, and we got great shots of it.
We found the World Birding Center at Roma Bluffs!
It's about the only place in the US to get reliable looks at it, and one of the few places in the US you would see it at all. Here's what it looks like:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Audubons_Oriole/id
I went to the car and got a fleece blanket we had there, came back, wrapped it around myself, and settled in. In addition to the three types of orioles, there were all the usual suspects -- green jays, great kiskadees, golden-fronted and ladder back woodpeckers, crested titmouse, plus a bunny and a squirrel.
A juvenile Cooper's Hawk would swoop through and all the birds would scatter, providing opportunity to refill the feeders.
I pet Jake as much as he would let me.
A trip down to the Rio Grande didn't produce anything new, and when we hit the mid-afternoon lull we decided to head out.
Between Rio Grande City and Salineo is the town of Roma. There is an International Bridge at Roma, to the sister city of Ciudad Aleman. Although Roma is hanging on, it is a city of many vacant and derelict buildings and closed businesses. We have been stopping there for years at the overlook at the Roma Bluffs.
We have watched the banks of the Rio Grande on the Ciudad Aleman side as it went from busy with people fishing and picnicking to the desolation after the river flooded to people returning and salvaging wood debris from the floods, to today.
There were people fishing, and as one man fished on the banks his young son played with his Tonka truck on the sand spit. There was the lone horse staked out on the shores, and all the debris has been cleared out. We could see into the back yards of the homes where people were rebuilding and had gardens, chickens, and pigs. It looks like it is coming back.
In all this time, we could never find the World Birding Center they told us was in the area. There was supposed to be a really nice butterfly garden as well. This time we found it! At last someone had thought to put up a large banner identifying the location.
On this cold gray day there were neither birds nor butterflies, but now we know for the future.
Back to the Edinburg Wetlands, then Falfurrias
We had decided that with the upcoming weather, we might as well cut the valley time short and head up to our friends on the upper Gulf Coast of Texas for a few days at the end of this road trip. We decided to go back to the Edinburg Wetlands for the rest of the afternoon, where Steve birded and I read a book. Then we drove backto Falfurrias to the Holiday Inn Express we had stayed at on the way down, with plans to go back to the rest stop for the Painted Redstart again in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment