The wild birds of Salineño

Who knew in the middle of nowhere, Texas, there would be an amazing bird sanctuary staffed by a retired biologist who knew every thing about every bird?!

Wild Javelinas in our campsite at Falcon State Park

We stayed for a couple nights at Falcon State Park, close to the Mexican border, and one of the rangers recommended we ride our bikes the 10Km or so to the Salineño Wildlife Preserve, right on the Rio Grande. We were told you can see all sorts of birds here, that you cannot see anywhere else in the USA. We arrived at the wildlife preserve, parked our bikes and sat in plastic chairs at the ‘viewing area’. In hushed tones, Bob the caretaker (retired whale biologist and birdwatcher)  described all the birds we were seeing. There were hundreds in the trees, feeding form the oranges and other fruit that had been strategically placed in the trees. The sound was almost deafening, but breathtakingly beautiful.

Roadrunners don't look anything like the one on Bugs Bunny!

That's a Cardinal

And another Cardinal

Please don’t ask me to name off all the birds we saw that day. Needless to say, it was a spectacular afternoon! (Drew did mention in our journal that we saw red-winged blackbirds, cardinals, and even an Anna’s Hummingbird, which is quite rare for that area.)

Standing on the bank of the Rio Grande, with Mexico on the other side