Birds & Battlefields

Because Brownsville is on the Gulf, it was bitterly fought over by Mexico & the U.S.  It is also the site of the last battle of the Civil War.  There is a very nice bike path from the Veterans Memorial in town, past old and new cemeteries, ending at Palo Alto Battlefield, where a smaller group of U.S. soldiers drove back the Mexican army.

 

There is a trail through the battlefield site, with replica cannons and Mexican & U.S. flags flying at various locations to indicate how the battle was fought.

 

Illustrated markers explained what happened in each area and information about the weapons, uniforms and people.

It was very interesting and a great bike ride!

 

Another thing that the Rio Grande Valley is know for is bird watching!  Because of its mild temperatures, many birds winter in the area.  Also, birds that migrate to Central and South America will stop in the valley to rest and eat before the long flight over the Gulf.  One day we drove out to the Sabal Palm Sanctuary.  Sabal Palms are native to Mexico and only the lower Rio Grande Valley.  At one time there were over  60,000 acres of palm forest - now there are less than 100.  This sanctuary was at one time part of Rancho San Tomas, now known as the Rabb Plantation.  Its visitors center is this beautiful Plantation house.

This type of architecture is very unusual in this part of the country.

There was a fireplace in each room for cool winter nights.  The windows were original and reached from floor to ceiling.  No kitchen - cooking was done in a separate building.

There was a great set of trails through the "jungle".

This moss hanging off the trees was amazing.

Of course, the palm trees were beautiful.

Overhead, the vultures were circling.  There were hundreds of them, just floating around, looking for dead stuff!

Here are some of them sitting in a tree.

Part of the trail was a walkway through a wetland.  Here we saw a Green Kingfisher and our first Great Kiskadee.

These are such cool birds to see.  They are a little bigger than a robin with bright yellow breasts and kind of a rusty color back, tail and wings.  All topped with that black & white head.

In one area of the sanctuary there were feeders and fruit to lure the birds. I was shocked to see these large birds up in the palms.

They look a little like a cross between a female turkey and a female pheasant.  They are game birds here, so they didn't stick around when we walked up.

 

One of my favorites was the Green Jays.

They are really this brightly colored!

 

Next, we took a trip out to the newest Texas State Park, Resaca de la Palmas.  It is located on what used to be ranch land and agricultural fields (lots of vegetables & sugar cane grown in this area).

They are working very hard to bring the area back to what it would have been, by removing invasive grasses and trees. 

Funny to see these cactus growing in amongst the mesquite.

Lots of prickly pears.  I'm not sure what the green tree is though.

Sabal Palms grow here too.

Loved the bark on this tree.

Of course, we were looking for birds. We saw two Altimira Orioles right as we started down the trail.  They are a little bigger and have more orange than Baltimore Orioles.

 Resaca de la Palmas is also home to the World Birding Center in Brownsville, so there are lots of birders in the park.  We met a couple on the trail by the Resaca. (A Resaca is a what is left of what used to be a small river running off of the Rio Grande.  In Minnesota we would call it a lake.)

There were 3 Cormorants on that dead tree.

We caught the tram for a ride back to the visitor's center.  There were more birders on it, and the driver was very well versed in birds and where to find them.  Everyone was really excited to see this Anhinga.

They look kind of like the Cormorants, only lighter in color and more streamlined.  I was excited to see him dive into the water and catch a fish!  When they swim, all that sticks out is their heads!

The tram driver pointed out this grassland.  It looks very much like an African savannah.  He said this was native grasses.  He pointed out quite a few other birds - more Kiskadees, Green Jays and lots of LBB (little brown birds).  (Honestly-that is a birding term!)

 

Back at the visitor's center they have these areas where you can hide and watch the birds through the holes in the fence!  We saw more Green Jays, lots of Cardinals...I tried to take pictures, but can't get nearly close enough.  Of all of the bird photos in this blog, only the cormorants & the vultures are mine - I had to get photos off the internet to show what we saw.

 

It was a fun day, we learned a lot, and if we decide to come back to the Rio Grande Valley, we will make it a point to visit other birding destinations - there are more than 30 listed!