Cactus Creek Ranch
/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.
