Anzaldus Park on the Rio
/Anzaldus Park is not far from the National Butterfly Center in Mission TX. It was used as a COVID quarantine area and is sometimes closed by ICE, but when we were at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival it was open and we walked around looking for birds. Our guides that had been there over the years reported that there were not as many bird as before the quarantine/ICE usage years. There was considerable noise from an airboat stuck on a sandbar (trying to get back in the water) and then the boat roaring around in the water after the finally managing to get free); it wasn’t clear if the boat belonged to Border Control or ICE…they appeared to be unfamiliar with their equipment and the area….just out for fun on an air boat.
Common Gallinule
Great Egret
Hybrid Muscovy ducks
Terns (probably Caspian)
Scarlet Tanager
I couldn’t resist a feather photo. I wondered if the feather might have been from a cattle egret.
Soft Shelled turtle
Powderpuff (Mimosa strigillosa) and Mexican Ash (Fraxinus berlandieriana) So far, the Emerald Ash Borer has not attached this species…but it may only be a matter of time.
We got back from the morning field trips in time of a late lunch. I remembered to take pictures of two murals on the façade of the Harlingen Convention Center near where we exited the van!
