Other World Birding Centers in the Rio Grande Valley

This installment of my time in the Lower Rio Grande Valley is a about 4 other World Birding Centers.  Three of them you’ve seen before in web pages I’ve already done.  They do not have captions.  The last, Estero Llano Grande State Park, is captioned.  This state park has large open areas of not very deep water.  The ducks can go along the edges and scoop up food.  There is a pond which is natural, not supplied by man with water.  It has a very large alligator that lives there.  The cormorants are just like the ones we have in the UP, complete with their hooked beaks.  Cormorants dive deeper than other birds under water to catch fish.  Thus, they often are seen with their wings outstretched to dry. 

One of the interesting ducks I saw at Estero was the Shoveler.  Look carefully at it’s beak.  You’ll know then why it’s called a Shoveler. 

There are two photos from Estero that you may want to pause.  They ask you to find birds. Bird watching is rather like meditation.  You sit or stand for quite a while just watching and looking and waiting.  Sometimes you’ll see a bird, sometimes you won’t. I have found that during the waiting I am present in the moment and a waft of breeze, a ripple on a pond, the song of a frog, and perhaps a bird or two come by.