Ken Cross in Canada 2012 - birds, nature & birds: February 2013

New Mexico and Mexico

Lunch time serenade

mwee bien sombrero senorita

Tom looking every inch a local

Megan changing her name to Margarita Megsy

The cacti at Pancho Villa State Park had seen better days

Pancho Villa State Park

Sandhill Cranes

Crane habitat?

Texas is a pretty big state to drive across so we decided to punctuate our journey by heading for stae parks as we found them excellent, interesting and economical. On this occasion we landed in the Balmorhea State Park.
From their website; "Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the early 1930s, Balmorhea State Park is located on 45.9 acres in the foothills of the Davis Mountains southwest of Balmorhea in Reeves County.

San Solomon Spring, which flows into the park's pool and through the canals leading to the restored ciénega (wetland), is the largest in a series of artesian and gravity springs formed by subsurface geologic faults in the Balmorhea area. After leaving the pool, spring waters ebb slowly through the cattails, rushes and reeds of San Solomon Cienega. This desert wetland serves as a home for abundant aquatic life including two small, endangered desert fishes: the Pecos Gambusia and the Comanche Springs Pupfish. Occurring at no other place in the world, the sole remaining population of the pupfish relies upon the springs and canals of the Balmorhea area for survival. Other animals, including resident and migrant birds, depend upon this water and lush vegetation for food, water and shelter. Local farmers rely on San Solomon water to irrigate crops that would otherwise not survive the blistering desert summers. Wildlife observation opportunities at the park include deer, javelina, hawks, barn swallows, waterfowl, ground squirrels, fish, roadrunners and more.

The Balmorhea State Park Cienega Project, which recreated a desert wetland in West Texas, has won a 1998 Texas Quality Initiative Award for "innovation" from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and its cooperative partners. Described as a "classic win-win situation by organizations ranging from the Texas Organization for Endangered Species to the Cotton Council, the Balmorhea Cienega Project conceived by the Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPW) was awarded the TQI award for its unprecedented cooperative effort among the local farming community, and a host of state and federal agencies. The pacesetting project spearheaded by TPW fisheries biologist Dr. Gary Garrett brought together such diverse interests as the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Environmental Protection Agency with the Texas Department of Agriculture, TxDOT, Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Reeves County Water Improvement District #1. Special acknowledgment goes to TPW staff David Riskind, Delton Daugherty, Kelly Bryan, Michael Young, and Tom Johnson.

Cienega underwater viewing area.

The cienega now serves not only as an attractive habitat for endangered fish and other aquatic life, birds and other animals, but also as a tourism draw for Balmorhea State Park."

Pied billed Grebe among the weed

Hooded Mergansers

South Llano River State Park

A stunning Northern Cardinal male

From San Antonio we aimed for a state park – south Llano River. It was a terrific little park and I enjoyed very much our look around. They had a number of viewing stations set up which provided numerous species with seed and water – both useful commodities in this semi arid region. The stations had Cardinals, Field, Chipping, Black-throated Sparrows, Spotted and Canyon towhees [the latter a lifer], Mourning, Inca and White-winged Doves. Enroute I saw another Armadillo plus deer – White tailed and Chital [an introduced species]. We had seen a herd of blackbuck on the way in…

The kids had a great time collecting a few sticks for kindling for a fire. For Matthew the fire and all connected were pretty much the highlight for any trip to the United States. The fire was useful as we cooked and ate out of doors for as long as we could until the cold drove us back into the RV. That night the temperature raced below zero, catching us a little unprepared. The morning’s light though quickly drove the temperature up and over the zero mark.

A good stop overall and a real bonus was seeing a large flock of turkeys making their way across country.

The park's description from their website;
The park has two miles of river frontage, a large pecan bottom, and typical Hill Country areas. The 523-acre, wooded bottomland is home to white-tailed deer and the Rio Grande turkey. The bottomland represents one of the most substantial and oldest winter turkey roosts in the central portion of the state. Observation blinds are provided to offer visitors a glimpse of the turkey moving to and from the roost. Other animals include wood ducks, white-tailed deer, squirrels, jackrabbits, javelinas, foxes, beavers, bobcats, cottontails and armadillos. Several exotic species such as axis deer, black buck antelope and fallow deer are often spotted in the park.

A White-winged Dove

Strolling

A Verdin

A Field Sparrow

Megsy the birder

Turkeys

Black-throated Sparrow

Female Cardinal

Western Scrub Jay

A Field Sparrow

San Antonio, Texas

A Flag coming out of a cat's head? No but this is a picture of two things that one sees quite a lot of in the states; flags and pets

Matt and Millie strolling down the pathway towards San Antonio's and Texas' biggest tourist draw card..

The Alamo, although not necessarily with me in front of it.....

The other major attraction is the River Walk although Millie's 'Yeah, right" expression demonstrates she's less than impressed....

Millie with Yellow roses of, naturally, Texas

Falcon

We left the lower Rio Grande and went a little further north west to an area adjacent to the Falcon dam. This was an area again that was identified as a good birding location.

Enroute we saw another World birding Site and we stopped for a quick investigation. Not many birds there however it was interesting stop nonetheless. Butterflies were a highlight buzzing the many flowers and it was interesting architecture in the surrounding streets.

We stayed at the Falcon State Park. And it was excellent. Good facilities, power and water for $20. We saw Javelinas [Peccaries] almost straight away so this was a good omen.

The following morning I marched to the main feeder area to try to get a few good birds easy. I had been told that Bobwhites were easy here and that Scaled Quail were a possibility. The Bird host warned that the Scaled quail had not been seen for a while but admitted that the bobwhite were a little temperamental however a pretty good bet – usually arriving about 8am.

I staked it out for a few hours from 7 until 9. However no quails! Slightly annoyed I went for coffee. Literally arriving at my RV I heard the call of ‘Bob-white’. Now this was not someone announcing that they had arrived it was the birds themselves. I raced back to be told that the birds had indeed arrived just after I left and had subsequently left. I never saw them. And there would be no opportunities as we travelled further west. I contemplated staying another night but I thought that it may be pushing the friendship if I further extended at a place that lacked fast food, bowling alleys or amusement parks.

Now I did see some excellent birds here. I got my lifers of Pyroloxia, Cactus Wren and some mammals, Desert Cottontail and Javelinas. The feeders also hosted some of the other regular Rio Grande specials; Green Jay, Kiskadee, Thrashers, Olive sparrow, Golden fronted and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers. Cardinals were abundant here as were Orange crowned Warblers and Kinglets of the Ruby-crowned variety. Red-winged Blackbirds were abundant and among their droves was the odd Brown-headed Cowbird. Roadrunners ran around the road impressing even those with no interest in birds whatsoever.

The night was beautiful here. And in the early evening the moon was full and rose bloated and yellow against the darkening sky. Holidays are good.

Another spot just south of Falcon State Park had us visiting another little village xxxx. They had a sanctuary area between the village and the Rio Grande. Feeders, which are the norm here attracted a host of species including a particularly special bird and a lifer for me, Audubon’s Oriole. It is a beautiful yellow Oriole with a black head. It was wary too and I was unable to get a photo. Still it was great to add another life bird to my list.

It was here too that while we were birding we heard the none-so-subtle noise of the Border Patrol boats cruising by. While we were parked we were visited by a 4wd Border Patrol vehicle and, perhaps ironically, they were very welcoming; urging us to enjoy our visit to Texas. Perhaps they knew as we did that we didn’t really want to stay forever.