South and West Texas Trip ~ April 30, 1991

Our second day in the Lower Rio Grande Valley began at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. We walked to Willow Lake until the wildlife tour road opened at 9:00 AM. We had heard the rattling calls of kingfishers there but had not gotten good looks at any of them. Finally, a Ringed Kingfisher flew past the platform. After the tour road opened, we drove down to the old manager's residence. We headed down the Pintail Lake Trail where Babe spotted our first Groove-billed Ani. It sat very still as we studied every detail at no more than 15 feet away! We showed it to a nice couple from Florida whom we had met before at Willow Lake.

Groove-billed Ani at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Texas.

On the way back to the car, I noticed two birds at the top of a snag. The one was a Mourning Dove, but the other one seemed darker and almost twice its size. I also noticed a light spot on the tip of its bill. I was pretty sure what it was, but I wanted to be certain. We watched it for a few minutes before it flew down on a glide into the surrounding trees. On the glide, I noticed the two-toned pattern on the wings---purplish in front and grayish behind. There was no doubt; it was a Red-billed Pigeon!

We left Santa Ana and headed for Bentsen State Park to a spot that Kim Eckert had told us about when he had run into him again at Willow Lake. We stopped at the suggested spot and found four Least Grebes feeding along with Pied-billed Grebes and Double-crested Cormorants in a vegetated pond.

Back on Route 83, we drove through Rio Grande City and followed directions to the Santa Margarita Ranch. The Lane Guide told us to stop and pay the $1.00 fee at the small group of houses. What it didn't say was that the one house had free-roaming dogs, one of which attacked Babe when she got out of the car, biting her through her sneaker. Luckily, it had not punctured her skin, especially with the fear of rabies running through the back of our minds. After some assurance from the owner that her dogs had all of their "shots", and carefully bypassing cattle, we reached the Rio Grande River's edge. Unfortunately, water had been released upstream at Falcon Dam and the river was way above its normal height. Instead of being able to walk along the river, we could only observe from the point where the road disappeared under the water. We heard an Audubon's Oriole singing its whistled song a short distance away, but we were never able to get a good look at it. It was here that we again ran into the three Canadian guys. As the one was talking with us at the top of the hill, the other two down at the river yelled, "Muscovy Duck!" We never made it down in time to see it, but they consoled us by telling us that it had flown down the Mexican side of the river. Still, it would have been nice to see. We also saw another Green Kingfisher fly down the Mexican side.

We stopped at Salineno, finding the same high river conditions, but no Audubon's Orioles or Brown Jays. We went to the spillway at Falcon Dam looking for Olivaceous Cormorant or Muscovy Duck but could find neither. We then went into the Falcon State Recreation Area where we found Forster's Tern, Curve-billed Thrasher, a Harris's Hawk, and a Great Horned Owl on a nest shading a down-covered owlet from the hot afternoon sun.

We headed back to Rio Grande City and got some much-needed shade and sleep at the Fort Ringgold Inn.

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