Cactus Creek Ranch

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Our last field trip of the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival was to Cactus Creek Ranch – thorn-scrub woodlands and coastal prairie.

As we entered the ranch, there was a big pond to the left of the road…..and it had a resident alligator!

I took a few macro pictures of cactus as we got out of the vans near the house. The public rooms of the house are full of art and Cactus Creek Ranch conservation signs.

Around the house are bird houses and feeders…pots and sculptures…structures covering ant hills to protect the horned toads feeding on the ants!

A little further away from the house – there was a Vermillion Flycatcher and deer.

We drove around in the vans and the host’s golf cart. There were several good views of Belted Kingfishers.

I made a video of a female eating a small fish! It is handheld so not great – but it captures the 17 seconds of action!

A pair of Crested Caracaras were in a treetop – turning their backs to us!

There was a snake in one of the ponds. My picture is not good enough to determine the type although others in the group saw rattles!

We stopped at another place and I did some macro photos of a dragonfly, a succulent, and a busy wasp nest.

In the distance there were Wood Storks and an immature Little Blue Heron….3 sandhill cranes flew overhead.

At another stop, our host spread some corn on the ground, and we stood back to watch the Bobwhite.

On the way back to the house, there was a road runner beside the road! It was the only one I managed to photograph this trip!

We enjoyed the barbeque at the end of the trip and headed back to the Harlingen Convention Center and headed out on the first leg of our drive home. We stopped in San Marcos TX before driving the rest of the way home the next day.  

Sunset at South Padre Island

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On the last evening of the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, we drove ourselves to the South Padre Island mudflat where we met our tour group for photographing the sunset. We drove out onto the mudflat – trying to avoid puddles.

It was well before sunset, and I enjoyed the antics of a Reddish Egret in the late afternoon light. The bird seemed to be finding tidbits in the small pool. It was a windy afternoon which caused the head and neck feathers to move about.

I was using my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) on a monopod (so I only had one thing to clean mud/sand from at the end of the evening). I kept trying to get a bird in flight flying across the sun…failed, but it was still fun trying.  I always like to see the color change and the sun gets lower. The mosaic below is in the order the images were taken; click on any of them to see a larger version.

I made a movie of the actual setting of the sun!

We headed back to our hotel afterward…wanting an early evening since we had a last early morning field trip before we started home the next day.

Edinburg Scenic Wetlands

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Our fourth morning at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival required us to be at the Harlingen Convention Center by 7 AM for the bus; we were glad it wasn’t earlier! There was an odd cloud or smoke plume that obscured the sunrise; tt was moving rapidly and seemed to have an origination point so I think it might have been smoke.

We headed to the town of Edinburg TX and their wetlands oasis – the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands & Birding Center - about 40 minutes on the bus.

I often revert to taking botanical pictures…and there were a lot of interesting plants ranging from dessert plants to lush riparian type plants.  Click on the image in the mosaic below to see a larger image.

I even enjoyed some artsy pictures!

There were quite a few birds: Black-bellied Whistling ducks (and a mixture of hybrid domestic/wild ducks/geese)

Northern Shoveler

American Wigeon (and a Ruddy duck)

American Avocet

Herons: Great, Snowy, Green

Ladder-backed Woodpecker and Inca Doves

House Sparrow near the feeders

Crested Caracara

Neotropical cormorant

Curved-billed thrasher

There were turtles in a lot of places too – even crawling up the dam abutment! There were Texas spiny softshell turtles on a concrete pad near the boardwalk.

 We weren’t still long enough to do much butterfly photography – but I did manage three!

The trip had been advertised as a place to see Kingfishers, but the banks where they had frequented had been cleaned up (i.e. bushy vegetation removed) and the Kingfishers had moved elsewhere.

Zooming – November 2025

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The week at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival was a big one for photography. It was hard to choose from almost 5000 images for the month. I finally managed to select 26 favorites…birds dominate but there are a couple of dragonflies and three reptiles (a lizard, a snake, and tortoise). I’ve included a picture of Reunion Tower in Dallas as my husband drove us through the city (I opened my window) and a tiled bench at one of the rest stops. We had our first frost at home.

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2025

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A lot happened in November…a birding festival and my first visit to my dad’s new memory care place…and then Thanksgiving…so many little celebrations! Here are my top ten for the month:

Laguna Seca. My husband insisted on a photography-oriented field trip and I acquiesced. It was great. I celebrated seeing a coachwhip snake….and lots of cardinals…at close range with great background.

Trekking poles.  Hurray for trekking poles! They help me avoid back pain while I am hiking. 

Chachalaca. I celebrated seeing the pink neck/check pouch come/go in the one video I took of chachalaca drinking from a water puddle…and listening to the flock for warnings.

Sunset on the mudflat. The last evening of the birding festival we were on a South Padre Island mudflat photographing the sunset. It was a great way to celebrate the winding down of the festival. I will post about it soon.

Bobwhites. We had been expecting to see bobwhites on several of our field trips in the Rio Grande Valley….celebrated when we finally saw them when we were on the last field trip!

Dark chocolate. I am celebrating the season with specialty dark chocolate first thing in the morning!

Aurora. I celebrated my small collection of pictures of the Aurora as seen from the Springfield MO area.

Cooking a big pumpkin. There was one pumpkin left from son-in-law’s pumpkin carving event and I celebrated it multiple times: that the flat side made it an easy fit in my oven to cook whole, that the seeds were large (great for roasting and then used to top salad and soups), and that there was a lot of pulp and I made custard, a cake and a frittata!

Seeing a great blue heron from my hotel window. I celebrated seeing a great blue heron on the pond below my hotel room window when I first opened the drapes on my second day in Dallas. What a great way to start the day!

Thanksgiving at memory care. The memory care facility held a special meal for the residents the Friday before Thanksgiving. My sister and I enjoyed it with my father. He cleaned his plate and enjoyed the live music. It was wonderful to celebrate with him.

Bentsen- Rio Grande Valley State Park

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It was a very hot afternoon (after our visit to Santa Ana) when we arrived at Bentsen- Rio Grande Valley State Park – about 90 degrees. On the plus side – we saw turkeys before we got to the visitor center!

We opted to take the tram to get an overall view of the park and then get off at the bird feeding station closest to the visitor center. The tram stopped long enough for me to photograph a feeding station dominated by turkeys.

When we got off the tram, the green jays and great-tailed grackles were at the feeder.

A golden-fronted woodpecker was on a post and then a roof.

A great kiskadee was on the same roof striking a vulture-like pose.

I was sitting in a swing and watching the plain chachalacas when I managed a short video which became the highpoint of my Bentsen visit. One of the birds started drinking from a puddle a few feet away from me. It was aware of calls from the other birds in its group….and showed its red bare skin patch!

We walked back toward the visitor center over the canal. Next time we visit, I’ll want to go in the morning!

Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge

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We visited the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge on the third morning of the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. The visitor center was not open (it was during the government shutdown), but the restrooms were. I knew the morning was going to include some hiking, so I brought along my trekking poles and they worked great – I got tired, but my back didn’t hurt!

There was a lot to see. The highlights in my photographs were:

Altamira oriole and a nest created by the species

Eastern Pondhawk (dragonfly)

A bee on the ground mimosa - Powderpuff (Mimosa strigillosa)

A preening Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and a preening Great Kiskadee

A Great Egret in the wind

 A Green Heron – very hard to find among the plants

A Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Of course there were lots of plants/landscapes to note as well. Somehow a leaf on the ground full of holes looked interesting to me as I rested midway through the hike. Turks cap grows wild at the refuge. There are a lot of legumes in the area…many with thorns! And there is enough moisture for Spanish moss to thrive.

And now for the rest…mostly bird pictures that are mainly for identification…many of the waterbirds were almost out of the range of my camera or there was vegetation between me and the birds. The largest insect was on an awning near the tower.

I used the Deet spray on my lower legs but got bites (mosquito) through my leggings above my knees and on my arms through my sunblock shirt sleeves! Fortunately, they did not itch too much (after I put baking soda water on them); so far, I am not feeling any ill-effects; next time I will be more careful and spray myself more thoroughly.

Parrot Palooza!

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There are red-crowned parrots and green parakeets in Harlingen TX. They are native to Northeast Mexico and might be to the area just across the Rio Grande River which is where Harlingen is located. Both species have adapted to an urban lifestyle. The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival field trip involved getting on a white van in the late after that slowly drove through Harlingen looking for sites the birds routinely come to before dusk.

We went to a Whataburger parking lot first….and the green parakeets showed up to sit on the nearby wires about 5:45 PM! They sat in groups – preening each other.

The red-crowned parrots were more elusive. We heard them in the air before we saw them. The van was parked in a church parking lot. There were a few parrots on a nearby line. I got bored enough to take a picture of a flowerbed with a bird of paradise plant!

Just as we were about to give up at 6:45 PM, a large flock few overhead (very noisy) and many landed on the lines at the end of the parking lot furthest from where we were. We walked down and took a few pictures even though the light was not very good. The sound the flock made was worth the wait!

And that was the end of our second day at the festival….

Anzaldus Park on the Rio

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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!

National Butterfly Center

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Our second morning at the Rio Grand Valley Birding Festival started with a walk around the National Butterfly Center in Mission TX. It was a pleasant morning for a walk round the place. My husband and I stopped by the last time we went to festival in 2017, but it was a rainy and cold day….so we didn’t go past the visitor center! This time it was a beautiful sunny day, and we enjoyed walking around the space behind the visitor center with our guides. At one time there was a lot of anxiety that the border wall would cut through the center…but evidently the land for the center was preserved and there is still a lot to see there.

I saw a lot more than I was able to photograph! It was an interesting walk. I started with some plants near the entrance.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Spiny lizards

Neotropic Cormorants in flight

Northern Mockingbird

Green Jay (including an interaction with red-winged blackbird)

Bronzed Cowbird

Plain Chachalaca

Great-tailed grackle (including a picture that makes it easy to see the size difference between the grackle and the chachalaca)

White-winged Dove

Black-crested Titmouse

Inca Dove

Hummingbird

Queen butterflies

A rescued tortoise (not native…shell damaged by a fire)

Logs with beer, banana, brown sugar mix painted on daily) that attract insects

Olive sparrow (I saw several during the festival but these were the only photos!)

Nest of an Altamira/Audubon oriole hybrid

An adult and juvenile white ibis flying

By the end of the walk, I was ready for a rest on the bus while we headed to another birding hotspot.

Laguna Seca Ranch

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Our first afternoon at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival was spent at the Laguna Seca Ranch doing songbird photography from a blind. We met our guide at a Love’s near the ranch and caravaned on better roads to get there and through the gate. We stopped at an area for facilities and to sign in…then went to the area where a blind was set up. There were folding chairs and we all had a space to look through the curtains at a small pool with enhancements to make more interesting photographs: logs, freshly cut branches with green leaves, a tree near the pool, a branch rigged to drip water into the pool from a few feet above the surface. The guide spread nut butter on the logs (out of direct line of sight). I used my Canon Powershot SX70-HS (bridge) and my monopod.

The first picture I took was while the guide was putting out the nut butter – a dragonfly on a nearby branch. It was pink! I think it was a Roseate Skimmer.

A green jay made an appearance.

And then there was a coach whip snake that came for a drink. I made a short video.

Over the course of the next few hours, I took a lot of northern cardinal pictures.

The queen butterflies frequently enjoyed the mud at the edge of the pool.  

The pyrrhuloxia were around as well but not as numerous as the cardinals.

A couple of female red winged blackbirds stopped for a drink.

The black-crested titmouse was a new bird for me. They are only found in far south Texas. Hybrids of this bird and the tufted titmouse (the one I see in Missouri) are found in the San Antonio area.

The golden-fronted woodpecker thoroughly inspected the branch that was rigged to drop water into the pool!

Just as we were losing the good light on the pool, a couple of crested caracaras arrived. It was a good finale for our time at Laguna Seca.  

Quinta Mazatlan in McAllen

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After our Rio Grande Pontoon adventure, we boarded our bus to head toward Quinta Mazatlán, a park that is a birding hotspot in McAllen TX. The park is expanding and there is construction associated with that; a car had to be moved to allow our bus to pass through the reduced parking lot!

The only bird photograph I took was an Inca Dove high in a tree!

There were insects – a praying mantis, a moth, a butterfly.

The pods of Texas Ebony…palm fans…trees blooming in November – looking at plants we don’t have in Missouri.

Lichen looks about the same everywhere!

Looking back at my pictures – or lack of pictures – I realized I must have been tired and just focusing on keeping up with the group!

Next time we are in the area, Quinta Mazatlán might be I place I would like to go on our own…taking our time to see things and looking at the restored adobe hacienda that is there. The expansion should be finished by then!

Rio Grande Pontoon

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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.

Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival

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We spent the first week of November at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival headquartered at the Harlingen (Texas) Convention Center. We had enjoyed the festival back in 2017; in the intervening years we moved from Maryland to Missouri and opted to drive rather than fly this year. My husband did the driving.

The fall foliage as we started out was at its peak…but muted because of our dry summer.

The segment of our trip through Dallas was, as anticipated, the worst part of the drive. We were going through in the early afternoon on the way down.

On the way back, there was a decorative mosaic in one rest stop south of San Antonio

And a window reminiscent of a water wheel in another.

We drove through Dallas about 9:30 AM. The traffic is never ‘good’ going through Dallas.

The railroad bridge over the Red River and the Jersey wall makes it hard to see much of the river from the bridge. It didn’t look as ‘red’ as usual – or maybe it was just the light.

In Oklahoma, there was a little fall color, and I managed to take a picture of the art along Interstate 44 in Tulsa. The hill with sparse trees along the turnpike not far from the border with Missouri always draws my attention; it is a natural hill or something that was constructed?

Most of the fall color was past peak in Missouri – too late to collect any new leaves to preserve for my tree presentations.

More posts about the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in upcoming days…

Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

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The day after the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival ended and before we headed back to San Antonio for our flight home, we visited the Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park. Our original plan had been to spend the morning at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas but the morning was cold and wet…not conducive to butterfly activity. So we changed our plans. It was still cold and wet but some birds in the park didn’t care. This Northern Mockingbird called attention to itself with is song(s).

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There was an area near the nature center with paved walkways – some of them intermittently covered. We walked around the area – everything was very wet.

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We took the tram into the park and got off at the first stop. There was a small butterfly garden near the bird blind (where there was no action) and the rain held off for long enough for there to be a little activity. I spotted a Painted Lady,

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A Skipper (not sure what kind),

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Queens in abundance, and

We hiked a little further and came to another bird blind…and there was plenty going on there. A Golden Fronted Woodpecker enjoyed the suet.

The Plain Chachalacas were also coming in to the feeders for a snack.

Green Jays were around as well.

It started raining harder do we found a dry place to stand until the tram came bay again. There were more people on the tram for the return visit, so we got the seat on the back of tram…riding backwards. It was a good way to end our visit. I want to go back again on a day when the weather is better!

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The Inn at Chachalaca Bend

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Our main activity for the last day of the Rio Grande Valley Birding festival was breakfast (sumptuous) as the The Inn at Chachalaca Bend followed my a walk around the grounds looking at birds. We started near the Inn’s deck on the bank of La Resaca de las Antonias. We saw a Belted Kingfisher on the electrical wires crossing the Resaca almost immediately!

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A Great Blue Heron and Great Egret had a little conference in the distance.

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There was a broken tree trunk (or old telephone pole) near the water….a perch for an Altamira Oriole.

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Directly across from the Inn an Anhinga dropped down into the water to capture a fish then walked back up a palm that was slanting over the water.

Nearby on a snag, a Golden Fronted Woodpecker searched for breakfast.

There was a ruckus and then a larger bird flew toward us over the water and sat on the electrical wire nearest us: a Ringed Kingfisher.

There was Great Kiskadee on the wire further away

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And a Black-crowned Night-Heron in the vegetation across from where were standing.

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The kiskadee flew away and we notice a kite (probably white tailed…but hard to tell for sure).

We left the Resaca to hike around some open field areas. We saw an American Kestrel looking at the meadow.

As we headed back almost to the edge of the path through a forested area, we looked up and saw masses of migrating American White Pelicans! There were several groups…maybe as many as 1,000 birds.

The path branched off to the edge of the Resaca again and we saw a Snowy Egret (note the yellow feet which is a distinctive feature for this bird even if the focus is not very good for the picture).

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As we got ready to leave, we gathered back at the Inn and saw a hummingbird at the feeder (probably Ruby-throated).

There were a few plants I took pictures of…but they were secondary to the birds!

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2017

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More than half the ‘little celebrations’ I’ve picked to showcase in this post are from the first two weeks of the month – spent in Texas.

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During the first week there was a big birthday celebration for my Mother (with three kinds of cake!) and visiting Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge for the first time.

In the second week, the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival was one long celebration that include seeing two kinds of Kingfishers on one field trip!

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I still am working on a post about the San Antonio Botanical Garden – it was the first time I’d been there and a place to celebrate.

I got to eat excellent Texas barbecue in three different restaurants during the trip too.

After every long trip – I celebrate getting home again; that was true for the November travel too.

We had company for Thanksgiving this year (daughter and son-in-law) so it was a shared celebration –something to savor.

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And then there was the pre-staging of December activities that actually started in November: volunteering at the model train exhibit and

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Garden of Lights at Brookside Gardens. I celebrate the season with every child that looks with awe at the trains or giggles with delight at Nessie blowing steam.

South Padre Island and Bay Cruise – Part 3

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The last part of the field trip was a cruise on the bay. The first ‘sight’ was a lighthouse with scaffolding around it as we neared the dock on our bus.

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Then we were off and looking for Peregrine Falcons under the bridge. We spotted several but there was only one that was positioned for pictures.

There were mud flats with Laughing Gulls,

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An Osprey surveying the scene, and

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A Great Blue Heron walking awkwardly in the mud.

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There was an island that provide roosting sites for Great Blue Herons (7 of them in the foreground) and Roseate Spoonbills (8-10 of them in the background).

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This is the best picture I got of the Roseate Spoonbills as we cam around their side of the island.

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Brown Pelicans, Double-crested Cormorants, and laughing gulls were groups on the sandy beach.

What birds to you see in these two pictures? So you see the Green-winged teals (2 males and a female), Black-Necked Stilt (2), Great Egret, Laughing gulls.

As we headed back to the dock, there were Double-Crested cormorants on pilings we were passing

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And a Laughing Gull settled on the highest point of our boat.

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There were so many Brown Pelicans. It’s thrilling that their numbers have recovered from the brink of extinction caused by pesticide pollution!

South Padre Island and Bay Cruise – Part 2

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Our second stop was the South Padre Island Convention Center. There are boardwalks on one side of the building for birds (and other wildlife) viewing. My best pictures there were: black-necked stilt,

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An alligator that was still at first but then headed toward the shore…stalking

A Common Gallinule that was making its way close to the shore (fortunately it wandered further upslope…no drama),

And a Green heron.

We walked to an area where there was a small area of planted vegetation. The small birds there were too hard to photography in the vegetation, but there were quite a few monarchs roosting…a little rest before continuing their migration.

We continued around the convention center buildings. There was a Little Blue Heron on an abutment,

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A pelican almost too far out in the water (I didn’t notice the grebe until I looked at the image on the larger screen of my computer),

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A Great Egret (not the black legs and feet),

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And a Reddish Egret.

At the front of the convention center, I took some pictures of the facades. These must hold up to coastal storms.

There were mud flats on the other side of the convention center….mostly drying since the tide was out. There were White Pelicans,

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Black Skimmers (in the foreground), and

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A strutting Tricolor Heron.

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As we walked back to the bus, there were some White Ibis walking across the parking lot with us. The underside of the bill was different than I expected!

Closer to the bus were some laughing gulls in the parking lot. One seemed to yawn….a good ‘last’ picture for this segment of the field trip.

South Padre Island and Bay Cruise – Part 1

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Back to the posts about our experiences at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival…Our fourth day field trip was to South Padre Island and included a bay cruise. The first stop for our bus was at The South Padre Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary. The place is two woodlots across the street from each other and surrounded by hotels and condos on South Padre Island. There are bird feeders and baths…plantings... a ‘rest stop’ for birds. It was very quiet when we first arrived; a Cooper’s Hawk had just caught breakfast and was feasting near the back. The Monarch butterflies were still active.

Eventually the birds became active – since the hawk was busy with its prey. There was a Couch’s Kingbird eating monarch butterflies: posing on the wire for photos. One of the guides had seen the birds eating Monarch’s the previous day as well. Was it the same bird? Supposedly Monarch’s taste bad and make birds sick (chemicals they absorb from the milkweed they eat at caterpillars); something is different about the butterflies or the birds.

Orange crowned warblers shared the space in the bushes and water with the Couch’s Kingbird. These are smaller birds but share the yellow color.

There was a Great Kiskadee as well…more yellow.

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One has to look hard to see the Yellow-rumped warbler.

A Ladder-backed woodpecker posed on a telephone pole.

There was a Hummingbird on an agave…too far way for an excellent image but the bill is dark so probably not a buff-bellied hummingbird. Maybe a Ruby-throated hummingbird female?

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Last but not least – a butterfly. Maybe Great Southern White?

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I have two more posts from this field trip…coming out tomorrow and the next day.