Texas Road Trip
A few weeks ago, Andrew and I decided it was time for another road trip. Originally, we were thinking we would just take a weekend trip down to Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge in South Texas. Then, while Andrew was out running errands one afternoon and I was doing some trip planning, somehow that weekend trip morphed into a 10-day birding trip to 6 different refuges and State parks across Texas! Andrew came back home and I nervously pitched him the new itinerary. He of course immediately agreed to it, and a few days later we were on our way!
Most of the parks we wanted to go to were clustered down in the southern tip of Texas, where there would be many birds that you don’t see any further north, and where there would also be a lot of fall migrants.
Our first target park was Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. We made the ~7 hour drive and camped on the outskirts, then headed into the Refuge early the next morning. We had just purchased a spotting scope, and took it out at the first opportunity.
On the second day we made a day trip out to South Padre Island for some beach time. We had planned to try and camp out there on the beach (which is usually permitted) but there was an 11pm curfew due to COVID restrictions so we ended up going back to our spot from the first night. The beach was lovely though, as was walking the boardwalks of the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center.
From there, we headed to Pharr, Texas, where we spent 3 nights in an AirBnB. Pharr is not a place that many people would choose to vacation, but it was the perfect spot for us because it is close to several different parks and refuges that we wanted to visit! We first went to Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, where we saw so many birds and had such an incredible experience that we returned later that day for another round.
The next day we went to Bensten-Rio Grande Valley, where we were slightly less successful in terms of birding, but we met a nice older man on a hawk-watching tower who gave us a mini-lesson on identifying raptors. A couple of days later, we were watching a Netflix documentary called ‘Birders’, and that same guy was featured on the documentary! It was pretty exciting… it made us feel like we’d met a celebrity.
Anyway, on our third day in Pharr we went to a much smaller park called Estero Llano Grande State Park. It was a beautiful place, well set up and well maintained, and we saw a hummingbird that was new to us. We were also luck enough to spot a butterfly that I was really hoping to see (a Mexican Bluewing), so it was a very successful outing!
We were rather proud of ourselves for waking up very early several days in a row to visit these places during prime bird activity… we do not wake up early with ease. It was so nice though to get out there when it was cool, and then to be back at our AirBnB by 10 to just chill for the remainder of the day!
So after many delicious tacos in Pharr, many new species of birds, and a quick meet-up with a friend of mine down there, we headed on towards our next destination: Rockport. And along the way, we stopped off for a few hours to see Tootsie (my grandma) in Corpus Christi, who I had not seen for quite a long time!! It was so great to spend some time with her, despite the strange circumstances that COVID has imposed on us!
We were hoping for some good seafood and beach time in Rockport, but there wasn’t too much going on, since it was kind of ‘off season’. We were primarily aiming to see Whooping Cranes, which migrate down there every year around this time, but didn’t manage to. On the bright side, we saw a very big tree (called, ‘Big Tree’), quite a few new birds (including Roseate Spoonbills), and did a lot of relaxing. One morning we woke very early and went to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge, which was spectacular. We saw several alligators (one rather closer than we liked), deer, hog, and of course, birds.
After a few days in Rockport, we headed to Houston to spend an evening with Brock and Adrienne and their kiddos and to celebrate Andrew & Adrienne’s recent birthdays. A night at their house means lots of games, swimming, snacks, and catching up!
From Houston, we headed to our last stop: Bolivar Peninsula. There is a birding ‘hot spot’ there called the Bolivar Flats, which was our primary target. We took the ferry from Galveston, seeing many dolphins, pelicans, and cormorants on the short ride over. We really enjoyed the ride, though Ladybird was rather confused about it.
The Flats were positively overwhelming; there were thousands of birds. Pelicans, Gulls, Terns, Skimmers, Spoonbills, Willets, Sandpipers, Cormorants… the list goes on. Our scope came in very handy at this stage; we basically just set it up and slowly scanned the masses, looking for birds we didn’t recognize. It was such an enjoyable challenge for us!
We camped on the beach that night. The mosquitoes were absolutely vicious and the nearby barges were loud, making for a challenging night of sleep. We packed up quickly the next morning after a quick jaunt over to the Flats, then headed for home.
And now we are back at the farm. We saw 90 different species of birds on our trip and really got to explore some interesting areas of Texas along the way. We will definitely be back in South Texas for the spring migration! Now the question is, where to go next?
