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Posts tagged ‘bird watching’

Rio Grande Valley to the Gulf Coast of Texas


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Been away from the blog world for a while due to the lap top pooping the bed; that and poor connectivity on the road. This post feels more like a generic update, catching up, rather than commentary with a flow.

Falcon State Park Texas sits on the Rio Grande River below Zapata and Laredo and above the McAllen/Edinburg congestion. Water was very low in the reservoir. Below the dam there was more water in the Rio Grande River than we have seen the entire trip.

Nice folks staffing the park. New Park Superintendent, Carlos Rivas gets high marks. Personable, professional and involved; he was willing to extend himself.

Birders or Fishermen: Either one type of fanatic or the other at Falcon SP. We all have our passions.

Met a number of proud Canadians who have taken offense at our politics. They feel slandered over our treatment and portrayal of the Canadian health car system. I take offense and feel slandered by our politics quite often myself.

Did some bird watching / bird photography within the park and at a site outside of the park. Two very different experiences: The nearby Salinenos site was ‘industrial’ birding – the number of birds brought in by the vast amount of feed and feeders was unnatural and overwhelming. The Falcon SP site maintained by a husband and wife park volunteer couple was well done. There seems to be a marked difference between bird photographers and birders. Birders are pleased to see the bird whatever the environment or background while as a photographer one is as interested in the quality of the environment and background as the bird. Looking for natural bird behavior as well. ‘Industrial’ feeding doesn’t make it.

Route 83 south and east out of Falcon became more and more congested with strip development.  Needed to drive to Donna, Texas to access Jerry Cook, the Computer Doctor: great service, great prices and he knows what he is doing! I did not realize the age and how out of date my workhorse of a computing machine (an HP) was until I spoke with Jerry. Windows XP will no longer be supported by Microsoft and my machine’s Intel Centrino processor is not hearty enough to run Windows 7 as an operating system. Time to update when we return home. Jerry got me back up and running for a reasonable price in a reasonable amount of time. Thank you Jerry Cook; enjoy your retirement!

Makes me wonder what about the rest of me is out dated and has not kept up?!?

No matter where I have been in Texas or how fast I drive, Texas’ drivers always seem to drive faster and pass me at will.

All the above bird images were captured at the viewing site out back of the Rec Hall at Falcon State Park Texas.

We are now on the Lamar Peninsula  just above Fulton/Rockport at Goose Island State Park Texas.

God Bless Public Libraries ~ connectivity life savers!

25 Jan 2012