One of my highlights while visiting Salineno and Falcon Dam/State Park was viewing the Rio Grande River—

This “Welcome to Mexico” sign and seeing Border Patrol vehicles accompanied our birding group experience on February 18.

Brown jays rarely fly out of Mexico – the only place they have been sited has been in Salineno – I was lucky to get this photo of the elusive brown jay.

brown jay

The golden-fronted woodpecker and ladder-backed woodpecker were also good finds.

ladder-backed woodpecker

golden-fronted woodpecker

Happy to have caught this red-winged blackbird in flight. 

Unlike the northern cardinal, the pyrrhuloxia (in the cardinal family) is grayer overall with rosy highlights and a yellow bill.

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February 21 - Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Alamo was my second sighting of a kingfisher—the first one I saw was a ringed kingfisher with a red belly; whereas this belted kingfisher has a white belly. Kingfishers are fun to watch because they patiently perch on branches and then plunge-dive headfirst to capture small fish.

Within this flock of northern white-breasted shovelers are white-breasted males.

I stayed on the trail...wouldn't you...?

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Since my last post, this ruddy duck and I have been in a “nature” mode.  


Ruddy’s home is Estero Liano Grande State Park in Weslaco along with this snowy egret and yellow-crowned night-heron.  


Lucky to have the bird book from Phyllis to identify the multitude of birds/ducks found in this area.

Snowy Egret

Yellow-crowned night-heron

In an earlier post, I raved about the interior and exterior of McAllen’s beautiful Quinta Mazatlan.

Great Kiskadee

Last month, I returned and identified these birds plus came across Mac's favorite.

White-winged dove

Plain chachalaca

Yes, there are squirrels in Texas

After learning that the green jay is only seen in southern Texas, 

I  was thrilled to see three of these beautiful (green, yellow, blue, and black colors) jays while visiting Bentsen State Park in Mission. 

 An oriole and junco share space with the green jay

 Couldn’t help but be reminded of Hitchcock’s “Bird” movie with this scene.

The variety of water fowl at Edinburg’s World Birding Center provided opportunities for me to identify this American coot and black-bellied whistling-duck individually and in a flock.

American coot

black-bellied whistling-duck

Prickly pear cactus with new growth and flowers

February has been a bit rainy (much needed), so the Kite Festival was cancelled earlier this month; hopefully, I’ll be able to go to the Falcon Dam area on Saturday where birds are said to fly up to where birders are sitting (because of food placement).