Thursday 7 November 2019

November 7

Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park has a tram that runs on the hour and also offers guided park tours.  This is a great way to get between birding sites and trails.  Yesterday I walked out to a few blinds and then caught the tram out to another and then later again back to the visitor centre.   The park has been quiet and generally only one or two other people around to ride the tram.







Texas Spiny lizard

I sat at one bird blind for quite awhile and watched the Green Jays and Chachalacas try to feed while a Cooper's Hawk kept scattering them all trying to nab one for breakfast.  A flock of about 15 Wild Turkeys were drinking from a resaca near another blind but all ran off when I got there.




Wild Turkeys






Bird blind


Great Kiskadee and White-tipped Dove


Eastern Fox Squirrel


Golden-fronted Woodpecker


Blue Spiny Lizard


Ebony Tree

Ebony, Retama and Mesquite are the most common trees.  The Mesquite have amazing ground trunks.



 Mesquite


 Just as I was leaving the park a bus load of birders arrived.  Good timing!  The National birding Festival is on this week and they are touring all of the Rio Grande birding hotspots.



 When I got home Cam and I went for a ride to Las Penitas and its hotspots.


1 comment:

Ophiella said...

That tram car looks so cute!