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.
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.
