Birds At NABA

Sunday, it's Texas so everyone was in church and we had the world to ourselves. We rolled out onto the empty racetrack road and headed to the McAllen Nature Center for a first time vist. Overall we found it to be beautiful, possibly virgin woodlands that were rescued when the city fathers in their wisdom thought it would be quite a good idea to bulldose it all and put in tennis courts to make it more "useful". Not many birds yet. It has been abused. Give it time to heal; they have added some water features and in time more critters will find it. The volunteer who was filling feeders and putting out half oranges on sticks claimed they had a Jaguarundi. I have very, very serious doubts. Likely a large feral cat, possibly even a bobcat, but I think I would have to see a Jaguarundi pelt nailed to the shed to be convinced of that. Doubter that I am.

Next we went to the National Butterfly Center. This association obviously got a huge endowment to jump-start it. They charge too much admission and are spending money like drunken sailors on the facility and grounds. We swallowed hard, paid the price, and rented their birds and butterflies for a few hours. Nevertheless it kind of turns my stomach to see incredible amounts of resources spent like this when  people in the area are homeless. 'Nuff said. Bleeding heart.

White Checkered-Skipper

Great-tailed Grackle

Altimira Oriole

Kiskadee

Khaki-skirted Lorna

After we left the NABA center we swung by Bengsten State Park which is just down the road. It was in the 80s and by then we were dragging a little so we took the tram ride. Ain't much to see and we saw most of it.

Be well, enjoy the tram ride, - Gunnar