It did rain hard last night and the lightning is “King” size. So for about an hour it was a noisy evening.
Our start was a bit earlier today in order to get to the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) some 30 miles down the road on the Rio Grande River. . The first tram that takes folks around the Refuge (It is NOT a Park), runs at 11:30 and we made it with a few minutes to spare. We took our lunch as we would stay through the early afternoon.
The Santa Ana NWR is not a huge Refuge at nearly 2,000 acres, but because of the way the land was divided (See photo) it is narrow and somewhat long. The drive to the park was quite straight, with one turn toward the Rio and that was it. About 30 miles. We took the “local”roads through the towns , also could see the crops growing along the way. That way you get to see the local businesses and activities in the towns. This is a predominately Hispanic settled area and most businesses are the same. History would show that the Mexican influence here is strong and there is still a hand operated ferry that plies across the river every day.
We were on time for the tram (a long, sleek vessel run by Propane gas.) and Randy and his wife, Fran were the drivers and guides (She drove) . They are retired Air Force personnel, are “full timers” (RV) and that kept thing pretty light on the trip when he spotted my “Army” hat right away. They were both knowledgeable and as there were only 6 of us all “birders” on the tram, we concentrated on the birding while we moved and stopped from time to time. There were a number of “new”birds we could put on the trip list. This included the ALTIMARA ORIOLE (which we saw even before we had started onto the 11/2 hour tour), SWAINSON’S HAWK, (Randy stated that there have been many of them this year), BROAD WINGED HAWK, BRONZE HEADED COWBIRD (new) , GRAY HAWK (new), TROPICAL KINGBIRD (new on life list), BROWN CRESTED FLYCATCHER (new on life list) and a GRAY CHEEKED THRUSH. In all we identified 42 birds today. Eating lunch and watching the birds at the many feeders there is a relaxing way to spend lunch. A short walk along the Mexican/USA Border found a few more birds. (This was on a road that the Border Patrol uses.). (We missed the 100 White Tailed Kites that they saw earlier in the AM.)
N.B. During a short walk off the tram down one trail to the Rio Grande, we ran across a group of 4 young men (20-24 years of age) who were also walking the trails. Randy told us later that they are “contracted” to perform some function for the Border protection , but he did not know what that was. The young men carried nothing except the clothes on their back. They were alert , briefly polite and about their business. We saw them 2-3 times that day.
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| Mesquite tree with "sugar" dripping |
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| The Original land owners cemetary |
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| Javalina (pigs) footprints are one on top of the other. |
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| The Rio Grande River has a current of 5-7 mph. (Mexico over there) |
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| One of the trails in Santa Ana NWR |
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| A Yellow Billed Cuckoo |
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| The trees that have been flooded to their tops. View from levee. |
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| The layout of Santa Ana NWR. |
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| We saw these from a far off. Crops of some sort? |
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| Up closer . They were onions just picked recently . Ready to ship. |
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| Onions have been pulled to dry some. Then sorted and put in crates. |
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| Beans up close. Believe they are string beans/ |
Another side story is a ‘tool’ that the border patrol uses now that they know how valuable they are. It is a long story but here is a short version. One of the men (Border Patrol) had a Mustang horse that he rode and always seemed to be able to find the illegals more than the other men on horseback or not. It seems that the Mustang horses, have very special senses that allow them to be alerted to danger (intruders) with such subtle signs as, moving their ears in a certain direction, or just walking to the place where the illegals are hiding. So the Department went to the Mustang Preserve and purchased 50 of them and sent them to Oklahoma to be trained and 20 of them made the cut. They are now finding illegals at a significantly higher rate than was seen before. This may not be appear on the internet! Animal technology!
The history of the Refuge is vast, as it gets flooded every few years and the flood comes to the top of the dike that surrounds the Refuge many times. We rode on that road today and looked down on the trees that it would have covered just as recently as 2008. The flooding wipes out many of the native trees, and invasive trees come in quickly. One of these trees is the Rotana. it grows 20 feet in two years. Other trees seen in the Reserve are seen below. Other trees seen were: Texas Ebony, Mesquiite (see pic), , "Christmas Tree", and the Yacan,
Randy mentioned that Teddy Roosevelt started the idea for the Reserve but I am not clear on if that was correct, as the Reserve wasn’t started until the 1940’s.
Finally a mention of Ocelots. There are very few of them, but they are on the increase as a result of a huge habitat improvement program that is attempting to avoid predators and to provide food . There is a narrow band of land that they are working to continually improve conditions. It seems to be working as the population in the last 20 years has gone from 2 up to 20.
Some last minute stops after the Refuge were at an onion field, a pharmacy (see yesterdays notes) and the H.E. B grocery. Ruth says it is the cleanest and best supplied store she has been in. (Of course the many fresh veggies and fruits from the valley, helps get that vote.)
I’ll add a few photos of some of the crops, already picked and now growing.
See you tomorrow, as of this time, I cannot sure be where we will go.
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