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| Female Harris' Hawk |
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| Laguna Atacosa (the Lake) |
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| Many Birds on the Lake. IT is a 65,000 acre Lake. |
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| Green Jay |
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| Curved Billed Thrasher |
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| Thrasher again in bath. |
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| Altimara Oriole |
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| Road Runner in your face! |
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| Bird feeder in the wild. (note wire protection) |
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| Scarlet Tanager |
Aside from the four days birding with Jim Stevenson, today was the best at finding and identifying the birds. We selected Laguna Atacosa , a 100,000 acre NWR along the Gulf of Mexico about 30 miles south of Harlingen. as our place to find the birds. We did that and more. Although there are Ocelots in the Reserve we did not see one, but did see some rabbits and deer along the roads. At this time of the year (Slow time) maintenance is on the schedule there, with what monies are available, for the Reserves to do the "fixing' that is necessary. The main attraction here is a 15 mile auto tour around a fresh water lake that borders on the Gulf, an ideal pace for all kinds of wildlife from amphibians, flora, birds, fish, trees, bushes and other forms of living organisms. This auto route was closed however, due to the maintenance that was being performed there. So driving was limited to one 3 mile long road.
One town, Rio Hondo, on the way to the NWR, had a bridge under repair, and so a small detour gave us more opportunity to see the back roads. (There are always are some birds or wild life on them.)
We had a good start and arrived at about 9:30, which allowed us to still catch some of the birds feeding in the vast forests and feeding areas.(Some have water available from the birds.)
THIS SOUTHERN USA HABITAT HAS PLANTS, TREES, AND SHRUBS THAT ARE XERIC-ADAPTED That is... able to adapt to the harsh desert like conditions, especially the lack of water.
Ruth was extremely excited as we were able To see the beautiful Green Jay that we did not see at Santa Ana yesterday. She was ecstatic! She has talked about that bird for a long time and looked forward to it and getting some good photos. (see pics) . There was one road that led to the Lake (Laguna Atacosa) and we spent about an hour on that one alone. At the end where the lake is located, there is a kiosk above the lake where there were hundreds of birds feeding on the shallows of the Lake. The Lake is about 65,000 acres and very shallow. About half of the NWR is water and that is not included in the size of the NWR.
We ate lunch overlooking that Lake and enjoyed sharing with folks from Nevada and New Hampshire who were seeking the birds as well. The Nevada folks lived at Lake Tahoe where bird watching is altogether different. (Deep water lake and high mountains.) He said he skied just last week as the snow pack late in the season was heavy.
We delivered our list of 50 birds to one of the interns at the Visitor's Center and she was appreciative to have it for the "bulletin board". She is a graduate of U of Texas, Rio Grande Valley in Environmental Science.What a time to be in on that discussion and working to improve our environment. Good luck Katherine. (Climate chage,pollution, recycling, etc.)
The afternoon was more of looking and watching for the birds along the side of the road and in the brush and undergrowth. I would drive at about 5 mph and listen for birds while using our eyes . If something seen or heard we would stop and wait them out. Some times taking photos if the opportunity was adequate. We did see another of the GREEN TAILED TOWHEE'S, that we saw yesterday. This one Ruth said had excellent and clear field marks. Each bird has a few field marks' that help to identify it's specie. Size, overall color, specific colored parts, movement, stance, flight pattern, head shape, wing and tail shape, and of course the song, all are possibilities, There are more subtle ways to ID, but those are a few. One example would be to discern the Black Vulture from the Turkey Vulture. The latter has a dehedral in its flight pattern of the wings, where the Black does not.
Near the Visitor Center we saw that GREEN JAY, the ALTIMARA ORIOLE, WHITE TIPPED DOVE (Mexico), while on the road drive we saw ; CHESTNUT SIDED WARBLER, ALDER FLYCATCHER, WESTERN WOOD-PEEWEE, and the ROADRUNNER. There were 50 species in all, that were seen today.
A very good day of watching for the birds. We will go back there tomorrow to seek a few others..
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