March 25th

This morning, we headed over to the west side of Brownsville to check out an RV Park closer to some of the birding sites Nancy wants to check out.  While we were over there, we went to Resaca de la Palma State Park.  A resaca is a remnant, a cutoff oxbow, from when the Rio Grande River went freely meandering across it's flood plain.  This park has a 4 mile resaca, a globally threatened plant community, the Ebony-Anaca thorn forest, and alotta birds.  We did a three mile tram tour, with Richard, the amazingly knowledgeable state park interpreter.  He had the birds down cold, by sound, knew his history, and also the vegetation, down to the specific grass that Nancy was testing him on.  Here's the rip that's happening with water in this state park. The Falcon dam on the Rio Grande created the Falcon Lake reservoir.  It stopped the river from frequently changing course (it's the boundary between the US and Mexico) and also stopped the seasonal floods that filled the perched lakes, ie, resaca's.  In order to periodically put some water into the resacas, the park now has to buy water with money from it's small budget!  They cannot afford, nor is the water available, to fill the resaca as a spring flood used to, so they dribble some water in from time to time over the summer, to prevent it from completely drying out.

A Hawk Wasp (very Large)

The Screech Owl

On a brighter note, Kirk got to go for the tram ride; he's been missing his Ranger rides. Nancy bagged a Green Jay, a Screech Owl, and a Hooded Oriole. We heard plenty of Chachalaca's (great name) but never did lay eyes on one.

I had a snooze in the afternoon, while Nancy made a grocery/liquor run.  She came back with two prizes, Kim Chi Noodle soup, and Appleton's rum (a fine score, albeit, at a a painful price compared to the $10.95 for the 750 ml. of the cheap gold rum we had been forcing down). 

After supper, we headed downtown to Ringgold Park, to try to see some Red-Crowned Parrots and Green Parakeets.  While we did see some Mallard and Muscovy Ducks, we were largely disappointed.  (to be totally honest, there were also a Tri-coloured, Green, and Black Crowned Night Herons, and Snowy Egrets hanging about)  A cold front passing through tomorrow is rumoured to bring thundershowers noonish, and drop the temperature to a chilly 23 C.  The northern Snow Bird Migration has begun (although not for us, thank the Lord, I've been watching the weather reports back home), so there's plenty of room to camp in the parks.