Stromboli's Rolling Log: Still in Mcallen,TX, Day 18-- muggy, but a nice breeze.

Two more days to be here and tomorrow will be the last day to do some birding, as Saturday will be a travel day. Seems strange not to be involved in some of the Holy Week activities , but we will rejoice with the world on Easter Sunday and celebrate the Resurrection once again.

Oh, We DID find the "Texas Roadhouse" tonight as Ruth had recovered from the 75 minutes looking for it and wanted to try again. It was a short drive after all. More below..

Jim at the entrance to the Edinburg Municipal Park

We visited a Park in the next town.

One of the trails in the well planned park for birds and other wildlife.

The Edinburg Municipal Park has some water spots in it, as it was the Waste Water and Sewage plant for the city of Edinburg. Two large ponds on either side of the Park attract birds. In Michigan the Muskegon Waste Water Faciity is an excellent birding spot most times of the year. These ponds are excellent birding.
We did spot a few birds in the ponds and were especially excited to see the Yellow Crowned Night Heron, the Green Heron, and the Couch's Kingbird. There were many Elementary students on field trips and they were very well behaved and quite quiet when needed.

We ate lunch, but the heat (88 F) was getting intense by 2:00 PM so we tried one other site north of town and in the area where more crops are grown. The site evidently was abandoned as there was a locked gate, and evidence that the Fish and Wildlife Service had at one tme had a site there (old kiosks and bulletin boards that were empty). We asked the truck drivers coming in and out from the orange and grapefruit groves , but in the Spanish/English exchange we did not make much headway. Finally, we saw some workers in the onion fields and went there to ask. A man named Hector Gonzalez who spoke good english, told us that he beieved that the site was closed, but Mr. Wallace who lived on that road could tell us. The road was named Wallace after the family. We looked again at the former site and determined that it had been closed some time ago.

Curved Billed Thrasher

So we gave up on that . We did see two hawks by the roads there, and headed for the nearest DQ. There are 17 DQ's in the area surrounding Mcallen, TX. Kid you not! They are everywhere and on this 5 mile stretch of FM 107 there are three of them. Go Figure! I tried a banana split that I had not had in years.

We did end the day after getting back to the trailer by finding that Texas Roadhouse. I had the half rack of ribs with potatoes and applesauce, while Ruth had the Rib Eye with baked potato and a caesar salad. Excellent .We got a free "blooming Onion" as a first time visitor. Wow that was the best we had ever tasted of the Blooming onions. Fine food it was, and there was plenty to bring home for another day.

Melon rows surrounded by rye grass, which keeps the nematodes
down and also adds nutrients to the soil when it is plowed under.

The day was a good one and tomorrow we will do one more "foray" to seek more birds . Ruth stated that we have identified 147 species at this time. See ya tomorrow.