Along the Rio Grande River - first half Feb 6 - 12

Cactus, mesquite, and all kinds of forbidding dense brush border every trail and road in Laredo, Texas.  We’re camped at Lake Casa Blanca State Park on the outskirts of Laredo, on the eastern edge of the Chihuahuan dessert.  High and dry – and they’ve had a drought here for the last several years, so things are extra dry!  Our campsite is right on the edge of the lake so we’ve been watching the egrets, herons and cormorants come in by the hundreds every night to roost.  We’ve been looking for the elusive road runner, with no luck so far! 

 

Mom and Jay spent a fair amount of time birding (so what else is new, eh?)  It  just so happens that the Laredo Birding Festival is going on this week.  They ran into a tour group at one of the birding sites they were visiting, so they got to tag along to a few stops overlooking the Rio Grande River and Mexico.  After they left the group, they climbed to the top of a bluff overlooking the river and saw another bobcat!!!  They also ran into someone on the Border Patrol (there are A LOT of Border Patrol folks around here….) who was born in Jamestown NY… small world I guess. 

They did find a golf course nearby that was extremely inexpensive and discovered that the saying “you get what you pay for” is right on.  They couldn’t decide whether the course was a left over bombing range or a toxic waste dump.  Regardless of the course conditions, Mom was beaming from ear to ear having just shot the best scoring game of golf in her life (she shot 100!!!) And the goal for the winter is to break 100 so she’s on the edge! 

 Our next stop was Falcon State Park - with more cactus, mesquite, and brush.  I like it here cause there are some really strange smells from animals that come into and around our campground.  Mom and Jay can sit in the shade at the picnic table, (cooler than in the sun with its 90 degree temperatures), enjoy the breeze, and watch birds.  There are some birding blinds set up where you can spend the afternoon relaxing in the shade, feeling the breeze, and watching the birds fly back and forth.  The elusive roadrunner (hah!) made an appearance (again, and again, and again). 
 

 

We’ve made a number of stops along the Texas Birding Trail.  Some of them are just amazing – with many different birds flitting about to view.  The stop range from overlooks along the highway, to National Fish and Wildlife Service locations, to state parks.  One of the favorite stops so far is a place called Saleneño.  Located at the edge of the Rio Grande River, and at a NFWS site, volunteers keep feeders, oranges, and peanut butter stocked with food for the birds.  People come and go (in a pretty steady stream) to see the Altamira, Audubon and hooded Orioles, the Green Jays, the cardinals, the chachalacas, the doves, (and so on and so on and so on….)  The palette of colors was so beautiful…. 

STOP THE BLOG PRESS!!!!!  Here’s a special report!  I saved the day and protected Mom and Jay from a heard of javalinas that entered the campsite!!!!!  (and earned extra dog biscuits!)

Jay was spreading bird seed and corn around the edge of the site to try to attract birds (yeah, he knows better than to do that, but it was too tempting not to do it).  We were enjoying a quiet happy hour, relaxing at the end of the day when we saw a family of javalinas enter the campsite.  Mom about jumped out of the chair yelling at them, I started to lunge at them, and Jay sprung out of his chair and starting chasing them away.  My collar snapped so I was free to chase them away.  Mom really got worried then – but being the very good dog that I am, I only chased them to the edge of the campsite as they retreated back into the brush.  Phew…… good thing I was along to protect my people!!!!!  Bet those nasty critters will stay away for a while!

Guess that’s it for now – I’ll let you know more about the Rio Grande adventures in the next blog entry! (and lets hope there are no more nasty javalena encounters!