Harlingen, TX (12/20 thru 12/23/2017)

The weather has been somewhat improved in recent days, allowing me to get back into the hunt for new birds.  Temperature certainly hasn't been the problem, with daily highs in the mid-80s most of the time.  It's the overcast skies and high winds that have been bothersome.  At any rate, I feel that I've made the most of  my time here, having visited the major parks that were on my list.  More importantly, there have been lots of birds, including sixteen "lifers". 

Some people may be getting bored with all the bird photos, so I'm going to include some other things that I hope will be of interest.

Sabal Palm Sanctuary is a former plantation located on the Rio Grande River, once covering more than 20,000 acres.  Only a small fraction of that has been set aside as a sanctuary to protect birds, mammals and plants.  Among the animals on the sanctuary grounds are two rare cat species, the ocelot and the jaguarundi.  If you look closely at the tip of the spire on the roof, you may see a small dot that is the American kestrel shown in the next image.

After visiting a state park one day,  I went to a local taqueria called Nana's.  The place is so colorfully decorated, I just had to share it with you.  And the food was pretty good, too.

The state park known as Estero Llano Grande provided a huge number of photo ops, far too many to show here.  Some of my first time sightings were pintail ducks and green-winged teals.

The park also has numerous reptiles and amphibians.

 Although I've seen them many times, belted kingfishers are a real challenge to photograph.  They are small, fast and extremely wary when they see a camera coming their way.  This one was too far away when he was perched, but he soon flew like a rocket across the lake, coming a little closer.  I feel very fortunate to have been able to catch a few shots of this guy in motion, even though the quality is a little below par.

I used to see the occasional yellow-crowned night heron in Florida, but this park had about seven or eight of them perched around the lake, along with quite a few other herons.

Another familiar duck is the blue-winged teal, much prettier in flight when the blue wings can be seen.

One of my favorite photos from this park shows the vermilion flycatcher going after a bug.  Look closely and you will see the bug he is about to gobble up.

An earlier travelogue showed an altamira oriole, but the bird was partially hidden.  Here's a photo that shows the full beauty of this bird.

During my stay here, I had seen a couple of the Texas indigo snakes, but they get out of sight very quickly and I had no photos.  This one was partly in the deep grass when I got the first shot, yet the snake was too long to fit in a single frame.  They are a protected species, and loved by Texans because this snake is said to kill rattlesnakes.

 One of the birds that can be seen in the U.S. only in Texas and Florida, the crested caracara is a raptor that also eats carrion.  Known as the "Mexican eagle", it will chase vultures away from roadkill to have it for himself.  Most of the ones I've seen are a darker brown, almost black, as in the first photo.  Some others are a much lighter shade of brown.  Yes, the one on the ground was in a cemetery.  Kind of creepy.

To wrap up this part of my trip, here's something I spotted while driving around today.  I know that Texans are comfortable with guns, and that everything is bigger in Texas, but I was puzzled when I first saw this huge pistol.  Turns out is is at the entrance to the gun club, which has a hidden drive, so the big gun is very helpful.

I'll be driving for the next few days, so I want to wish everyone a