We had the blog written for Monday thru Saturday. On Sunday, I accidently deleted the 6 days. So here is the rewrite.
Monday as we were drinking our coffee, we saw a Cooper's Hawk with his kill. "Murder at Park Place"
We have been debating on buying the yearly pass for the Texas State Parks. We decided to go ahead and buy it today when we went to Estero Llano Grande State Park.
We were greeted by plenty of birds and pretty blooms on the way to the office.
The Harris's Hawk was gathering sticks for his nest.
As we were bird watching under the Sacred Fig Tree, we noticed a Red-shouldered Hawk, bird watching as well.
We talked to a fellow birder at the park. He showed us where a Common Pauraque was roosting for the day. It camouflaged itself with the ground clutter. We probably would have never seen it without assistance. Thanks Eddie!
After lunch, we walked around the lakes. There were several Black-crowned and Yellow-crowed Night Herons at Alligator Lake.
A little further down the trail, we found not only alligators, but water snakes.
We got another 1st iNaturalist species as we were heading back, a Black Phoebe.
As we were walking along the boardwalk, we got an opportunity for an up close and personal photo shoot of a Red-shouldered Hawk.
We strolled around for 3 1/2 miles today, taking in all the nature we could. We are definitely glad we went ahead and purchased the yearly state park pass.
Tuesday, after the fog lifted, we took a ride to Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. A stop at the Nature Center feeders, was quite entertaining. There was plenty of bird feed, but not a lot of sharing going around. The battle for the feeder was on.
There was plenty of birds feeding along the woods as we trekked down the paved road.
We made a stop at Kingfisher Landing and a couple of bird feeding stations.
We saw 3 Harris Hawks as we continued on the paved roads. Two of them were banded. One of them was flying around with his meal in his talons.
I inadvertently found a lizard behind the toilet tank, when I went to flush the toilet. You never know what kind of critters are around.
We had our tail gate lunch, then went back to the Nature Center for more bird watching at the feeders.
After resting a bit, we hiked 2 miles to the Hawk Overlook. We found waterfowl, but no hawks.
We were almost back to the Nature Center, when we saw 9 Wild Turkeys. A Gobbler, a Jake, and 7 hens. One of the hens was white. The turkeys strutted around in the road until a bicyclist came riding through.
The battle of the feeders was still on when we came back by the Nature Center feeders. The Great Kiskadee was quite perturbed, showing off it's yellow feathers standing up on it's head.
We had a Gray Hawk flyover on the way to the truck.
We pounded the pavement for over 6 miles today. The nature sightings were nice, but we prefer trails that meander through the woods over walking on paved roads.
A nice sunset at camp and we were done for the night.
Wednesday, Resaca De La Palma State Park was our destination today. We hiked a few of the trails meandering through the woods and along Tram Road.
We saw more species of butterflies today than when we went to the National Butterfly Center. Including the one we have been looking for since we got here, the Blue Metalmark. It is a small butterfly that is only found in the U.S. in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Another ChaChing for us!
Lauren happened to stumble upon a Common Pauraque on the Mesquite Trail. When the nighthawk woke up, he flew a few feet, showing off his impressive wing span.
We walked for a while along the tram road before getting back to the parking lot. After our 4 1/2 miles of hiking, we sat down at one of the tables for our picnic lunch.
We meandered around the butterfly gardens for a while before heading back to camp.
Today being Wednesday, afternoon RC Racing is on the venue. As we were walking back from the race track tonight we watched a Kestrel flying from his perch.
Thursday, we waited until after lunch to get out and about today. While eating lunch, we had a great view of the resident Kestrel on Kiss-A-Me Lane.
Although it was cold and rainy, we had a 3 hour outing at Estero Llano Grande State Park. We saw plenty of waterfowl and other pretty birds. The temperature dropped over 22 degrees from the time we got up and 3 pm. We sure are missing those mid 80 degree temperatures.
Friday, Old Man Winter is upon us. We did not even unlock the door to go outside today.
Saturday, we took a ride to Laguna Atascosa NWR in this cold, misty, weather. We spent a little bit of time outside, but mostly did our the critter watching from the comforts of the truck.
We got out of the truck long enough to check out the birds at the feeders.
We saw a couple of deer, and a rabbit as we were driving along Lakeside Drive.
The rain stopped on our way back to camp, so we checked out Hugh Ramsey Nature Park. There were plenty of birds feasting at the feeders.
There is one thing for sure, the pretty birds in this area definitely are a welcome sight on such a gloomy day. All the birds were quite chunky looking today, sporting their fluffed up feathers in an attempt to keep warm.
Sunday, the cold weather continues. We layered up and went to Estero Llano Grande State Park. We looked as chunky as the birds with all the layers of clothes. We needed these layers with the light rain, wind, and temps in the mid 30's. Except for the birds, we almost had the place all to ourselves.
As we were leaving, we saw a Red-shouldered Hawk perched on 1 leg and the other leg tucked inside his feathers. This trying to stay warm thing is quite a challenge.
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