Winter comes to the RGV

Cold Weather is coming back to Texas.  After being hot and sunny yesterday, rain, wind, and falling temperatures greeted us today with a possible ice storm tonight.  We drove to South Padre Island to see the new World Birding Center there and eat at “Dirty Al’s.  Birding and photography was going to be limited.  The Birding Center was impressive.  The entry fee is $5/person allows one to enter the extensive boardwalks.  I find it hard to believe that the entry fee pays for the beautiful structure and boardwalks-especially since there is an older boardwalk structure right next to it where there is no charge.  The old one is next to the Convention Center and is where I have photographed in the past.  In the beginning they were linked but now you cannot move from one to the other.  I am sure there is a lot of politics involved here and doubt whether the Birding Center will ever allow freebie birders to park at the Convention Center and move into their area without paying. 

World Birding Center on South Padre

One of the many interior displays

View from the top

View from the bay

I walked the boardwalks alone in my winter gear thinking this was a lot better than winter birding the pier at Holland State Park in negative wind chill numbers.  The locals, however, probably thought these Michigan people were crazy.  There were a few large wading birds braving the wind, a Northern Harrier hunted low, and some Wigeon in the bay but smaller birds, except for the hardy Yellow-Rumped Warblers were all hunkered down.

We had peel-and-eat shrimp at Dirty Al’s along with a fried shrimp poboy.  This is one of the few restaurants that can match the shrimp at Skinner’s although today I think Al’s shrimp were even bigger.

 

On the way back we braved the potholes and drove to Laguna Atascosa again in the hopes that the high winds would keep the hawks low and perched.  A Crested Caracara seemed to prove this hypothesis right.  It seemed reluctant to leave its fence post.  Our first White-tailed Kites appeared but remained out of camera range.  Later a Harris’s Hawk disappeared down a gated service road.  I turned in and in the distance saw a Sandhill Crane being harassed by the Hawk.  The stately Crane did not seem to appreciate the attention of the Hawk who repeatedly dove at it. 

Crested Caracara

Unappreciated Attention

American Kestrel

The next morning felt a lot like Galveston last week.  We are on the southern border of another ice storm.  The palm trees are iced up but the pavement is just wet.  North of us the electricity is out.  Their wires cannot take much ice loading at all.  The ice did knock out the hotel's tv and wireless.  We waited several hours until everything cleared and then drove to Resaca de la Palma State Park.  The park was completely empty so I walked the tram road loop but didn't turn up anything new.