Edinburg Scenic Wetlands

 The Edinburg Scenic Wetlands is a 40 acre park in the middle of the small city of Edinburg near McAllen, TX. This park was the first of the nine World Birding Center sites to open in Texas back in 2003. Surrounded by a city park with baseball diamonds and swings, the wetlands is built on reclaimed farmland and is bordered by Edinburg's effluent and floodwater ponds. These waterways attract migrating waterfowl as well as some of the Rio Grande specialties like the green kingfisher, my nemesis bird, and the least grebe, pictured above.

In the center of the park there is a beautiful interpretive center that includes exhibits, a classroom and gift shop. Looking out, one of the many windows that helps to fill the interpretive center with natural light, you can view the 3.5 acres of native plants that surround the center. With 180 different species of plants and flowers, that are native to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, these gardens are designed to attract the numerous hummingbirds and butterflies, like this little yellow, flitting about. There is also a dragonfly pond to provide habitat for the underwater larval stage of the dragonflies. Two and a half miles of walking trails let visitors get a good view of this oasis in the city.

Hugh Ramsey Nature Center

 The Hugh Ramsey Nature Center is a city park located in Harlingen, TX. Much of the 55 acre park was once a landfill.  It was designated a park by the city of Harlingen in the 1970's but sat unimproved for twenty years. In 1994 a parking lot and loop road were added and a project began to restore the vegetation back to what it would have been prior to becoming a landfill. Revegetation continued off and on through the 1990's and into the 2000's.

 In 2005 Hugh Ramsey was combined with the Harlingen thicket to become a World Bird Center location. The entire park is called the Harlingen Arroyo Colorado after the Arroyo Colorado waterway which runs through both parts of the park. Although it is a World Bird Center Location I found it a great place to photograph butterflies, dragonflies and spiders. The numerous gardens, including two butterfly gardens, and water features help to draw in both birds and insects and make it a very beautiful place to visit.

Laguna Atascosa NWR

 The Laguna Atascosa is a refuge that is located along the Gulf coast in south east Texas. It is the largest refuge in the south Texas Rio Grande Valley with around 97,000 acres. The refuge is bordered on the east by the waters of the Laguna Madre which flow out into the Gulf of Mexico. This area was primarily coastal prairie habitat until Spanish settlers came in the 1700's and converted much of the land to grazing land for livestock. In the mid 1800's Texas became a part of the United States and portions of the land were developed for agriculture. During WWII the U.S. War Department acquired portions of what is now the refuge and used it as an aerial gun and bombing range. Some of the bunkers still exist with in the refuge.

 In 1941 the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed protecting the area because of the large number of waterfowl that wintered in the area, particularly the redhead duck. In March of 1946 the refuge was established by Congress. It has been designated as a "globally important bird area" by the American Bird Conservancy. It is an important migratory stop for numerous species of birds. There have been 417 species of birds recorded in the refuge which is more then any other refuge into the United States. A number of endangered species can also be found in the refuge including ocelots, jaguarundi, Kemp's ridley sea turtle and the Aplomado falcons, which were reintroduced by The Peregrine Fund in the 1980's,

Bahia Grande Restoration Project

 The Bahia Grande is part of the Laguna Atascosa NWR in south Texas. Located between Brownsville and Port Isabel the Bahia Grande was once a 20,000 acre coastal wetland ecosystem. Up until the early 1900s this ecosystem supported a variety of wildlife including fish, crustaceans, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects. In 1872 a railroad line was built to connect Brownsville and Port Isabel. This was the start of the death of the Bahia Grande. In 1936 a shipping channel to Brownsville was constructed which further restricted the tidal flow into the Bahia Grande. In 1951 State Highway 48 was built which completely isolated the Bahia Grande from the Laguna Madre. With no tidal flow the water began to evaporate turning this wonderful wetland ecosystem into a barren dust bowl. The Bahia Grande no longer supported much life and winds whipping across spread clay dust into the neighboring towns.

In 1999 the US fish and Wildlife Service acquired almost 22,000 acres of land in and around the Bahia Grande and began a project to restore the land back into the wetland habitat that it used to be. A series of channels have been dug to flood the area and provide it access to a consistent tidal flow. The main channel is 225 feet wide, 2400 feet long, and 9 feet deep. It stretches to the Brownsville Shipping Channel to provide tidal access to the Laguna Madre and Gulf waters. Several smaller channels have also been dug to assist in the restoration including a channel in the northern portion designed to catch freshwater run off to help with problems with too much salt. Even though they have been at it for almost 12 years this project is far from over. It usually takes much longer to fix nature then it does for man to destroy it. However progress has been made. Wildlife has begun to return to the area. As we drove through we saw brown and white pelican, shorebirds, oystercatchers, gulls (like the laughing gull in the first pic), osprey, herons, and egrets (like the reddish egret above). Since these birds were feeding hat means that there is also probably fish and other water creatures present also.

South Padre Island

Padre Island is a barrier island located off of the east coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. The island is named for Padre Nicholas Balli who built the first permanent settlement on the south tip of the island. Today South Padre Island is a tourist city located at the south tip of Padre Island. Most people associate South Padre with beaches and spring break but for nature freaks like me South Padre is a paradise of photo opportunities.

On the west side of the island, in between South Padre and the Texas coast sits Laguna Madre Bay. This shallow bay provides a protected habitat to many different species of waterfowls, waders, and shorebirds. The South Padre Birding and Nature Center is located on the western shore with access to the Laguna Madre Bay and a variety of other managed wetlands. Besides waterfowl and shorebirds, the island is also a good place to look for migrants during migration. Some species, such as the scarlet tanager above, often cut across part of the Gulf of Mexico on their way north. During the long flight over the water they burn up a lot of their fat reserves and need to find food to replenish their energy. South Padre is usually the first bit of land that they hit. So in the spring it is quite normal to find migrating bird hunting on the island while the birders and hunting new birds to add to their life list or photo portfolio.  

Bentsen State Park

Bentsen State Park sits in the middle of the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas. The park is named for the Bentsen family which donated the original 586 acres to the Texas State Parks Board in January of 1944. The  park was set aside for public recreational use, such as picnicking and camping, until 2004 when the World Birding Center chose the site to put their headquarters. In 2004 the roads into the park were closed to the public. All traffic into the park is now either pedestrian or the parks tram.

Over 325  bird species have been recorded in the 764 acre park. The park sits in the middle of the Central flyway and it is a stop over for many different species during migration. Some species end their migration at Bentsen spending the winter in the warm south Texas weather. Other species like the Altamira Oriole above, nest and raise their young inside the park .Bentsen is also a good place to see butterflies with over 250 different species of butterflies. The habitat is so rich for butterflies that the National Butterfly Center is adjacent to the park. There are also dragonflies, spiders, lizards, snakes, javelina and much more wildlife in the park. In 2010 I snapped my first pictures of a bobcat in the wild running across the road in Bentsen. Maybe next time I will get real lucky and get my first picture of a wild ocelot. 

San Miguelito Ranch

One of the new places that we visited when we went to Texas earlier this year was the San Miguelito Ranch near Raymondville, TX. The San Miguelito Ranch consists of 591 acres of land in the Rio Grande Valley. It borders the famous King Ranch, which we visited in 2010, on one side. It is in a natural migratory path for numerous species of birds but what is really special about the San Miguelito Ranch is that it is the number one site in the United States to see the ferruginous pygmy-owl. Ferruginous pygmy-owls can be found from Arizona and south Texas down through Mexico, Central America, and into South America. They are separated into several subspecies. They are cavity nesters usually nesting in cavities in trees or cactus but also nesting in man made boxes. This was one of a pair that nested near the dwelling on the range.

Tuesday Tweets - Santa Ana NWR

 The area around the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas is known as one of the best birding areas in the United States. Sitting in the midst of the Rio Grande Valley is the 2,088 acre Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. Santa Ana was formed in 1943 to protect habitat for migrating birds. The refuge has perhaps the most biodiversity of any area in North America with a bird list of about 400 species and a butterfly list half the species in North America.

There are numerous species of birds that are not found any where else in the United States then in the Rio Grande Valley. For most it is the most northern portion of their range. This adds to the spectacular birding opportunities that can be found at Santa Ana. Birds like the Fulvous whistling duck, top photo, and the golden fronted woodpecker, above, can often be seen on the refuge. Other species rare species that you might get a look at are hook-billed kites, groove-billed ani and the colorful green jay.

 Welcome to Tuesday Tweets! To join in the fun just post a photo of a bird and then link it by here by using the handy dandy link below. Then make sure you visit other sites to do a little bird watching.

Hugh Ramsey Nature Park

After spending our first couple of days in Texas down in the South Padre/ Brownsville area we headed north on Monday, March 1st. We were spending the night in Kingsville, we had reservations at the King Ranch the following day, and decided to stop at the Hugh Ramsey Nature Park in Harlingen on our way.

Once part of a landfill, this 55 acre park was reclaimed and replanted with native foliage by local environmental groups. Trails now run through the Texas ebony woodlands and around the arroyo waterways. Part of the park, the Ebony Trail has been developed as a series of themed botanical gardens, this includes medicinal plants, hummingbird and butterfly gardens just to name a few.

The Hugh Ramsey Nature Park along with the 40 acre Harlingen Thicket combine as the Harlingen Arroyo Colorado, a satellite of the World Birding Center. At the time that we visited we did not see a lot of birds however we did see some interesting ones, including a black-crested titmouse, two different types of thrashers, a great kiskadee and the inca dove pictured above.

Even though we did not see that many birds we did see more butterflies at this location then we did at any other that we visited in Texas. Most of the butterflies that we saw and photographed are not found in Minnesota so it was exciting. I have photographed the pipevine swallowtail at the butterfly exhibit at the Como Zoo but this was the first time that I have seen one in the wild.

We had a total of 5 lifer butterflies that we photographed in Hugh Ramsey. One was the gulf fritillary that is in the photo above.

One kind of strange thing that we found in the park was this sculpture. I am not sure who did it or what its meaning is. There were 7 egg shaped rocks in the sand and then a skeleton of what appears to be a bird on the wall behind. It was certainly different.

Port Isabel

Each of the days that we stayed out on South Padre Island we traveled through the small town of Port Isabel to get there. Port Isabel was settled back in 1554 making it one of the earliest settlements, that has been continuously inhabited, in North America. The center piece of Port Isabel is the lighthouse, which was built in 1852 to help ships navigate the low lying Texas shoreline. With the emergence of railroads the amount of ship traffic diminished and in 1905 the lighthouse was decommissioned. In 1947 the state of Texas purchased the lighthouse and surrounding land, about 1 acre, and in 1952 it was dedicated as a state park. In 2000 the lighthouse was restored and it now appears as it did back in 1880.

As a nature enthusiast the thing that interested me most about Port Isabel was all of the wild life that was hanging around the port. Each day we would see several different types of birds perched on the piers right off shore. Like this osprey that was enjoying his morning sushi.

There were also cormorants as well as several different types of gulls. I think that these were neotropic cormorants which have a smaller head and longer tail then the double-crested cormorants that I typically see around home during the summer.
The most exciting birds that we saw in Port Isabel were the endangered brown pelicans. Here in Minnesota we can white pelicans, especially the north and west parts of the state, but brown pelicans are extremely rare visitors to the state. In the background of this picture you can see the beginning of the Queen Isabella Causeway. The bridge was built in 1974 and is the longest bridge in Texas, at about two miles. It is currently the only bridge connecting South Padre to the the main land, though they are looking at building a second bridge. In 2001 a tug boat pushing several barges ran into one of the bridges support columns which took down a 240 foot section of the bridge and killed 8 people. Needless to say I kept one eye on the water while we were crossing the bridge after all we have enough problems with falling bridges here in Minnesota.

South Padre Island Birding and Center

On our second full day in Texas we decided to visit the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center which is located on South Padre Island near the Convention Center. This is a pretty new park and facility which is associated with the World Birding Center. The center focus of the park is the visitors center which is loaded with interactive exhibits, auditoriums, classrooms, gift shop and topped off with a five story observation tower. The tower provides a great view of the entire park as well as parts of the island and the Laguna Madre. Just be careful or you might find yourself stuck like I did. I decided to go out on the balcony to get a better look only to find that no one had unlocked the doors yet, we got there right at opening, and so the door locked behind me. Thank goodness Michelle finally rescued me.

The park consists of 43 acres of various types of habitat including freshwater ponds, island scrub brush, brackish and saltwater marshes. Winding through the different habitats there is 4800 linear feet of boardwalks and paths as well as 7 different blinds.

The main subjects to photograph here were waterfowl and wading birds. We spotted six different types of herons and egrets, including the great egret, snowy egret, reddish egret, great blue heron, tricolored heron and the little blue heron, which is pictured above.

They were also some wading birds that we do not often get to see here in Minnesota such as the black-legged stilt, white ibis, endangered brown pelican, and the roseate spoonbill, which is pictured above. We were excited about the spoonbills, even though we have seen them on most of our trips to Florida, because this was the closest that we have ever been able to get to these spectacular birds.

Besides the waterfowl and waders there were also quite a few shorebirds including log-billed curlew, American wimbrel, least and semipalmated sandpiper.

However this park is not just for the birds. We spotted this turtle, which I believe is a red-eared slider swimming around one of the fresh water ponds. Red-eared sliders are often used as pets.

There were also a few predators hanging out in the park. At one point a northern harrier, sometimes referred to as a marsh hawk, flew lowly over the grass in search of prey and in the water there was an even larger predator. The American alligator often floats motionless on the top of the water, looking a lot like an old log, waiting for prey to get close enough where it can spring its trap.

South Padre Island

We spent our first couple of nights in Texas on South Padre Island. South Padre Island is a small tourist town located at the southern tip of the South Padre barrier island. South Padre Islands was first discovered by the Spanish explorer Alonso Alverez de Pineda in 1519, although there is evidence that Native Americans inhabited the island as early as 2700BC. Pineda named the island Isla Blanca which means White Island.

In the early 1800s Padre Jose Nicolas Balli received portions of the island in a land grant from Mexico and began to raise cattle, horses, and mules at his settlement which he named Rancho Santa Cruz. In the early 1900 most of the island was under the control of the National Park Service and was closed to the public. In 1962 new access to the island was opened up and the city of South Padre began to grow. Today the beaches are lined with condos and hotels, like the Best Western that we stayed in.

People come from all around the country, and sometimes even further, to enjoy the beaches of South Padre. Many retired people spend the entire winters in the area living in trailers and mobile homes while young people invade the beaches for spring break.

Fortunately we were there the week before spring break so the beaches were calm and peaceful. I spent my mornings walking up and down the beach looking at shells and anything else that was washed ashore during high tide. On a couple of occasions I found starfish on the beach. I was worried that they would not survive marooned out on the sand but a local woman told me that they would probably survive and would wash back out to see when the tide came back in that night.

Stranded jellyfish are not so lucky. Each night new jellyfish would wash up on the shore and each morning the gulls would eat their favorite parts for breakfast, leaving the dead gelatinous bodies to litter the sand.

On the inward side of the island, the side that does not face the gulf, the habitat is somewhat different. There is still plenty of sand and beach but there is also streches of vegetation which provides food and shelter for many birds, fish and other wildlife.