Rio Grande Pontoon
/The first morning of the festival was an early one; we were at the Harlingen Convention Center by 6 AM to board the bus that would take us through the border fencing to the dock where we would board a pontoon boat. I took a few pictures of the plants growing at the edge of the parking lot as the guides talked about the trip and what we would likely see.
The boat was large enough to provide space for everyone plus our gear. There was a lot to see during the whole trip. The birds that I managed to photograph and that are in the slideshow below are:
American Coot
Caspian tern
Ducks (hybrids)
Egrets: Snowy, Reddish, Great
Golden-Fronted Woodpecker
Great Kiskadee
Herons: Great Blue, Tricolored, Yellow-crowned Night
Kingfishers: Green, Ringed
Osprey
Pied-billed grebe
Roseate Spoonbill
The river was clean – almost no trash. There were some houses on both sides and parks. A small group of people were picking up trash along the river in a park on the Mexican side; they must do it frequently enough that there isn’t a lot of trash to pick up. Border control was evident on the US side. It was a quite weekday morning on the river…great for birding.
