Hot fudge sundaes with the locals. We got to know some of the regulars here at Split Rail RV Park.  I could do without the traffic noise but overall it’s been a great home base for our couple weeks down here.

We spent some time at their bazaar. I mostly window shopped enjoying beautiful clothing, hand woven and embroidered fabrics, jewelry, pottery, pewter work and artwork.  Our only purchases were food.   Lunch was home made tamales, chicken, chicken and cheese, and pork.  All were delicious.   A number of booths had traditional sweet treats like candied vegetables/fruit so we got dessert too.  We went for the combo pack: sweet potato, cassava melon, watermelon-like melon (except it’s white), and guava.  Not bad but I think I’ll stick with ice cream.

Binoculars and spotting scopes. Worldwide birding trips.  Clothing, pictures, paintings, and beautiful jewelry all sporting birds, birds and more birds.  Cities from across South Texas had booths with naturalists and marketers vieing for every birder’s attention.  It was a fun walk through.  A raptor recovery group showed a group of fantastic birds: golden and bald eagles, screech, snowy, and eagle owls, falcons and the lovely turkey vulture.  The talons and beak of a Golden Eagle just a foot or two from my face set my heart racing just a bit.

Static electricity, what creates it and what it can do. Induced magnetic fields and what they can do and can be used for.  The amazing affects of lightening and power arcs.  The McAllen International Museum of science and art, IMAS, has a whole section dedicated to electricity…designed for kids but we tried every exhibit!  Plus, a gigantic wall-mounted piece of art that you play by touch, it senses body temperature and emits all sorts of sounds.  Fun.

Building 2 of IMAS is a fine arts museum…. beautiful pieces and thought provoking works, enjoyable and very grown-up. The science side was more fun.

Chocolate, peanut butter, s’mores dessert. Decadent and absolutely delicious.  Thank you BJ’s Brew house.

A fellow joined a guided bird walk at Quinta Mazatlan and within minutes pulled his detailed matrix matching regional birds with dozens of sites in the area. At one time he and the guide launched into a conversation about exact locations for a particularly rare bird; through the entry gate and just beyond the yellow bathroom by the big mesquite tree.  Yes, that specific.  You can hire a guide here that will take you exactly where a specific species can be seen on a given day: they pre-scout.  You can down load all that info from ebird too.  Some of these folks are really serious about their birding.  We try to hit the hotspots but tend more to meander around in some great outdoor spaces hoping to spot something new.  Good thing we have lots of time to work on our life-list.

Today we visited Estero LLano Grande State Park.  Before we even left the parking lot we encountered a pack of intent birders.  Yesterday there was an unexpected sighting of a blue throated hummingbird so they were out in force to find it again today.  We got caught up in that for a while but soon headed out to see what we could see.

How about this cool screech owl? Looks stuffed doesn’t he?

Or this fellow, a common pauraque, his camouflage is fantastic.

Edinburg Wetlands Park is a World Birding Site.  It is also part of the town water treatment facility.  It sounds ickier than it really is.  They don’t send the water directly to the river.  Ponds retain the treated effluent and it slowly releases through surrounding wetlands.  The birds don’t seem to mind that its part of that process.  Hummingbirds darted around the thick flowering vegetation.  Butterflies too.  Egrets, heron and cormorant, Kingfishers and some really big turtles checked out the ponds.  Woodland birds and warblers flitted all around us.  We spent a beautiful morning strolling and relaxing outdoors and added four “only in Southmost Texas” birds to our list.  Check it out if you are down here.

It is a beautiful cool clear morning. We set of for day 2 of birding; The Santa Ana NWR.

I was excited to see the dainty tracks of Javelina. We saw signs of foraging too but not even a glimpse of the cute critters.  No problem.  They are all over down here so we will keep looking for them. No new birds today but some nice looks at familiar guys.

It is butterfly festival here so I am trying to be more conscious of those fragile fliers that swirl around anything blooming. These of course have some big Latin name but I’m still working on bird names and just not up to learning a whole other set.  Let’s just go with “beautiful”.

We did not loll about on any of the many benches along the trails. We were spurred to move on by the roar of millions of mosquitoes held back only by generous and frequent application of DEET.  A gentle breeze helped some but refuge came only on the observation deck high above the tree line.   We both made it home with only a few welts but hoping that a day or two without rain will cut back on that pesky, buzzy population.

Wow, November already

Weather is improving. We actually have the windows open and AC off for the night.  Alright!