Sunday, I was awaken by the sound of a Red-shouldered Hawk and hearing Lauren easing the camper door open to get a picture. Lauren got an early start to nature chasing this week.
The wind was howling all day long. We went browsing at Bass Pro Shop and Academy, then walked about a mile and a half getting in a little bit of nature chasing in our gated community.
The wind slightly died down and we sat outside for a bit, seeing a few birds and a couple of bunny rabbits.
Monday, we waited for the howling wind to settle just a bit before heading to Resaca de la Palma State Park. The visitor center was closed and the bird feeders were not filled. The birds were mighty fussy about no feed.
We stayed near the visitor center today, getting some pretty good shots of critters.
We got a new species for us today a Nashville Warbler.
While eating our lunch under the oaks, a Javelina came to check out the feeders.
We sure had a good time and are glad the wind calmed a bit for our outing.
Tuesday we took a road trip to Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. We were welcomed by Rio Grande Valley Wild Turkeys.
It has taken over a week, but we finally got to see Chachalacas.
We walked to the boat launch and found quite a few birds there.
We kept hearing a hawk and finally spotted the noisy bird across the water, a Red-shouldered Hawk.
We made a stop at Green Jay blind then continued on to Hawk Tower. The names were true, we saw Green Jays and Gray Hawks.
We saw lots of flitting birds as we continued on our trek. A couple of notables were a Verdin and a Rose-throated Becard.
We stopped for a bit and watched at a bird feeding station. Not only did we see birds, we saw a Javelina. It looked straight at us then checked out the feeders.
We had our picnic lunch in the parking lot then headed back to camp after our 3 1/2 mile stroll.
We headed out around 9 am Wednesday in the hopes of getting a little bit of birding in before the big blower started. We managed for about an hour of walking at Hugh Ramsey before the big blow. We saw a lot of cool plants, birds, and butterflies.
The Wilson's Warbler was our prized bird of the day.
After we got back, we did the chore of washing clothes. We got in about a mile and a half of walking.
We were very surprised to find White Ibis hanging out at the recreation building. Pretty cool!
Thursday Lauren proclaimed that he was heading to Laguna Atascosa NWR to find a Road-runner. We didn't find a road runner, we found 5 of them. The first was very photogenic.
About the time we arrived at the refuge visitor center, we saw a Texas Indigo snake crossing the road.
We saw another road runner as we were heading to the lake overlook.
We hiked the 4 mile Prairie Trail today. It was a nice hike with nothing around except for lots of Nilgai, birds, butterflies, and other critters.
We must have seen about 20 Nilgai. One of them was a big ole bull.
We made it back to the parking lot, had a nice picnic lunch then walked to the bridge where we saw 3 alligators hanging out along with a Northern Harrier.
We took anothe looksy along wildlife drive then headed back to camp. This has been another fabulous day of being winter Texans in this 80'ish weather.
Friday we went to Estero Llano Grande State Park. We hiked about 4 miles on this breezy, but hot day. We saw the usual stuff at Alligator Pond plus a Common Pauraque.
We explored the levee area, one of the places that still has water for the water fowl.
After lunch, we went looking for the other Pauraques and Screech Owls. We found the pauraques and and one of the owls. We will be back for another look.
It was a cloudy, but windy Saturday. We hiked a couple of miles at Palo Alto Battlefield. It was a nice, paved hike. We saw a few sparrows, some fiddler crabs, a few pretty blooms, and lots of humans.
We went several miles out of the way to check out the Aplomado Falcon perch near Laguna Vista. We didn't find any, but did see a Northern Harrier.
We stopped by the South Texas Ecotourism Center. We saw our first rattlesnake, although it was a fake one. They had all kinds of fake critters in their fake natural habit. Quite enjoyable.
We saw a very different looking House Sparrow.
We spent a few hours checking out the birding at Resaca de la Palma State Park then made our way back to Haney Haven Lane.
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