Least Grebe

 The least grebe is the smallest grebe in North, Central and South America. Its range extends from south Texas in the north, south through Mexico, Central America, and down into South America. The southern part of their range extends down into northern Argentina. They are largely non-migratory staying within their breeding range through out the year.

 They spend most of their time on the water living in wetlands such as ponds, lakes and rivers. Since they are so small they can also inhabit temporary wetlands such as water filled ditches. They are a diving hunter that eats primarily small fish, tadpoles and aquatic insects.

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.

Least Grebe

Least Grebe

The smallest member of the grebe family is the least grebe. They are found in a variety of wetland habitats from southern Texas, through Mexico and Central America and down into parts of South America. Like other grebes they eat a variety of aquatic prey, including small fish, tadpoles, frogs, crustaceans and aquatic insects, which they catch by diving under the water. Least grebes will sometimes nest in temporary wetlands, this helps them to avoid losing chicks to some predators such as large fish. When a predator does show up the least grebe is more likely to dive under the water to escape then they are to fly .  

Tuesday Tweets

The least grebe is the smallest grebe in the Western Hemisphere. An adult is usually only 9 to 11 inches long and weigh 3 to 6 ounces. They are found in Mexico , Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Their range does extend up into the southern portions of Texas where I took this Pic. 

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Edinburg Scenic Wetlands

After spending about half a day at Bentsen State Park we headed up to Edinburg to stay the night. Edinburg is basically a suburb of McAllen, Texas and was near to the park where we had planned to spend our Thursday. Edinburg also had a small park that was a part of the World Birding Center, The Edinburg Scenic Wetlands.

The Edinburg Scenic Wetlands was the first World Birding Center location to officially open back in 2003. It is a forty acre park set in the middle of residential Edinburg. The majority of the park consists of two roughly rectangular holding ponds. Trails and viewing blinds are situated around the ponds.

These ponds draw all sorts of birds to the park. We saw numerous different types of shorebirds, such as spotted sandpipers, willet and black-necked stilts, as pictured above.

There was also plenty of waterfowl like northern shovelers, cinnamon teal, and least grebe. The least grebe is a south Texas specialty, the only place in the US that you can find these birds. We had seen them at a couple of other locations earlier in the trip but we got our best looks at Edinburg. This was a life bird for us.

In between the two ponds they have a large butterfly garden and a dragonfly pool. I was eager to check out the dragonfly pool unfortunately it was not dragonfly season while we were down in Texas.

They also had a beautiful state of the art visitors center. Inside they had a gift shop, exhibits, learning areas, and plenty of windows to look out at the park. I noticed that the windows were not very reflective and they had wires and other objects placed over them to help keep birds from flying into them.

They also had several hummingbird feeders at the visitors center which attracted another south Texas specialty the buff-bellied hummingbird. This was another life bird for us.