Made a quick visit to the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge. It is listed as an Arizona refuge, but it’s along the Colorado River and the border with California. I stay on the California side, below Blythe.

Saw some sandhill cranes, but most of them were out of range of the refuge tour route. The visitor center said they start to leave in March when the winds pick up. There were lots of Canada geese and other assorted waterfowl. They know they are safe on the refuge, but can be hunted when leave that sanctuary.

The American kestral above has to be one of the calmest I’ve seen. They usually are gone by the time I point my camera in their direction.

A huge ball of yellow-headed blackbirds were in a cleared corn field.

The Salineño Bird Refuge (aka USFWS Kepler Tract) is next to the Rio Grande River a few miles from Falcon Dam. There is a caretaker on site who puts out food for the birds. It is a place where you can see three different orioles at the same site.

Above, an male altamira oriole on the left, and a female hooded oriole on the right. The altamira orioles are the largest of the orioles.

Male hooded oriole

Male, juvenile hooded oriole.

Audubon’s oriole with a mealworm.

The altamira oriole on the left kept hissing at the great kiskadee on the right, until the kiskadee responded.

One green jay try’s a mealworm, while the other one sticks to peanuts. Mealworms have to be a rare treat. The kiskadees were really going after them. They have never seemed interested in the regular bird food I put out.

Random musings: The central Rio Grande Valley between the towns of Weslaco and Mission seems like a unique mix of people. You have a large population of winter Texans, mostly older and white, and a large population of young hispanics. A lot of the winter Texans come from midwest farming states. Many of the rv parks offer a lot of social activities. I talked to a man when I took my truck in for an oil change who has been coming here for 20 years. He and his wife love to dance, and there are lots of dances here. He also has a mobile home in Maine. They spend summers in Maine and winters in Texas and fly between the two sites.

The rv park I stayed at in Alamo charges around $2,000 for 6 months occupancy and 6 months storage. If you put a mobile home on the site, you are kind of stuck, as it is not easy to move a mobile home. The man I talked to said he owned the land his home is on, but that is probably rare.

Heard a lot of sirens this visit, at least one every 2 or 3 hours. All I saw were ambulances, no police cars. This may reflect on the large number of older people here and some large hospitals in the area.

Below, an orange-crowned warbler and a singing black-crested titmouse at the Frontera Audubon site.

The bird above is a common poorwill. It may be common, but it’s the first one I’ve seen. A volunteer at Estero Llano Grande State Park pointed it out to me and several other people. It was not more than 5 feet away with 4 or 5 people standing around it, but it didn’t even open it’s eyes! Someone had tried to point one out to me last year, but it was 15 or 20 feet away and I couldn’t see it.

A little closer look.

I was afraid I was going to have to leave the area without getting a picture of a great kiskadee. They, and the green jays, are my two favorite birds in the area. The kiskadee isn’t great at posing, but finally got a picture on an overcast, rainy day at the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge.

Red cardinal at the Santa Ana Refuge on a sunny day.

Northern shovelers at Estero Llano Grande State Park.

Above, either a broad-tailed or a buff-bellied hummingbird. It, and the chachalacas below were seen at the Frontera Audubon site.

Below, chachalacas. There seem to be more of them this year. Not sure what predators they have.

Drove inland 60 miles from Arroyo City to Alamo, before a three-day cold spell hit. I’m staying at the same rv park I stayed at last year, right next to the expressway. It is hard to find a nice and affordable place to stay in this area. I arrived in about 4 layers of  clothes, because a cold wind had been blowing when I hooked up that morning. The clerk at the rv park asked me if I was cold. It was in the 60’s here, with no cold wind, so I was able to remove 3 of the extraneous layers. In Arroyo City there was very poor internet coverage, so I’m thrilled with the great coverage in a regular city like Alamo.

Was pleasantly surprised on visiting Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge to see a number of birds. There were a large variety of birds in a small lake and marsh. I don’t recall seeing such a variety of birds intermingle before. There were white pelicans, roseate spoonbills, black-necked stilts, egrets, both great and snowy, white-faced ibis’, sandpipers and others. Wonder if it was because of the expected cold spell or maybe strong winds near the ocean pushed them inland. One pelican had a green tag with number 398 on it. So far, no luck in finding its’ origin.

Although it had often been cold since I arrived in South Texas, the three-days of hard freezes at night here in Alamo were the first time it has gotten down to freezing. You can see it damaged some tender plants. Workers were busy in a lot of farm fields harvesting crops before the freeze arrived. It appears to back to the 60’s in the day and 40’s at night now. Texas came out better than Florida.

White-faced ibis’

There were a pair of Altamira orioles eating something in the bark of trees…sap?

Green-tailed towhee An olive sparrow

Long-billed thrasher

Below, picture taken on a rainy day, several days after the others.

Have been in this area for three weeks now. It has been cool, in the 50’s and 60’s most of the time. Weather Seattle would love. There are some positive things from it—less people and bugs. From the early cold weather in Socorro, New Mexico, the snow in El Paso, and the cold all down Southern Texas, it has been a cooler season than usual. A cold spell is supposed to arrive Thursday, with strong winds. Hope it doesn’t hurt the grapefruit crop. Love the 5 lb bags of grapefruit you can get here.

Above, a male kestral with prey (top) at Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge and a female kestral (bottom) seen near the refuge.

Another white-tailed kite seen near the refuge. Have seen three pairs of them. They are striking with their dramatic red eyes and white and silver color.

An osprey with a fish coming out it’s rear.

A caracara. He’s only the second one I’ve seen here. Saw a lot of them on the drive down through South Texas.

A kingfisher (top) and a black skimmer (bottom) both seen on another visit to South Padre Island Birding & Nature Center. It’s the first black skimmer I’ve ever seen.

A golden-fronted woodpecker on a telephone pole.

Two new sightings to start the new year off. A white-tailed kite with prey (top) and a white-tailed hawk (bottom). Both seen at or near Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge. I saw the kite flapping it’s wings and staying in place and then swoop down to the ground. Later saw it had a rodent in it’s claws.

There were a dozen or more reddish egrets along the beach at the refuge. This bird is listed as threatened.

A meadowlark and a roadrunner, both seen at the refuge.

Walking near my rv, saw a couple of kingbirds chasing a juvenile mockingbird. When I stopped to take a picture of the mockingbird, it flew closer to me, which is very unusual. Think it knew the kingbirds would not come near him with me standing there. I stood there with him for about five minutes. The next day he was back, but there was also an adult mockingbird nearby.

Went to put some trash in a large bin at the campground one day and screamed when I saw two eyes looking at me from the container. Felt silly then, as it was a pair of raccoons. There was a cold wind blowing and they looked warm and cozy in the container.

Red tailed hawk (top) over a farm field. An osprey and a brown pelican near where I’m staying.

At Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge saw an osprey eating a fish on the beach. A ruddy turnstone was walking in figure-eights in front of him and occasionally getting a bite. There was also a seagull around 15 feet away waiting for the osprey to finish and leave him the leftovers. Last year when I was here I saw the same configuration of three birds and thought the turnstone had a  lot of nerve. The osprey could easily kill him. Don’t know if the trio this year are the exact same birds, just thought it was interesting to see it again.

Above, a loggerhead shrike with some kind of sea creature. The shrike was acting cat like, letting the creature crawl a short distance before bringing him back. The loggerhead shrike is a small bird of prey. The only other one I’ve seen has also been here at Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge.

Ferral hogs at Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge. Had never seen them before. The refuge considers them a problem and holds special hunts for them intermittently.

One day leaving the park where I’m staying, saw a kingfisher slapping a fish back and forth against the railing. It’s throwing it up in the air in the picture above.

When I was Falcon State Park last year heard about a mascot roadrunner who, when given a hotdog, would slap it back and forth on the ground like it was a snake.

I enjoy feeding the green jays by my rv. Recently saw a Harris’s hawk perched near me (below). Have to be careful that I don’t provide him with a meal.

Have been in the Socorro area for three weeks now. Had planned to stay in the area a few more days to avoid some of the Thanksgiving crowds, but it has gotten cold here again. Weather Underground is saying it could get down to 19 degrees tomorrow night, while weather.com has it 10 degrees warmer. Who to believe? I’ve had a single propane tank filled three times since I’ve been here. That’s more than I’ve done in the last six months! Went out and got a ceramic heater today. The furnace needs to be kept on to keep the pipes from freezing, but the portable heater can be useful to quickly heat an area. The downside is the ceramic heater draws a lot of power.

Have seen a number of sandhill cranes sitting down this visit (to the right of the standing one). Maybe the ground provides some warmth and/or they are really tired after a long flight.

A “ball” of black birds above cranes eating in a corn field.

Mallards surrounded by geese.

Lesser scaup (top) and Northern pintail (bottom).

A male (upper) and female (lower) Gambel’s quail.

Kestral

Heading into my third week in Socorro, New Mexico. Had a cold spell this past week with it getting into the 20’s at night. Had to get out the long underwear. It’s warming back up now, in time for the Festival of the Cranes at the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge. A lot of work has gone into spiffing up the refuge. For one, they watered down the dirt auto tour route, so you can ride a bike on it without getting covered in dust from passing cars.

Sandhill crane with a mouse. He didn’t seem to know what to do with it. Another crane eventually took it from him.

Northern harrier

Poor owl was trying to sleep, but was surrounded by people taking its’ picture.

Mallard ducks taking flight.

At Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge people gather at locations where they can see sandhill cranes and/or geese either come in for the night or fly out in the morning to find food.

The first thing the cranes do on landing is to get a drink of water (they hold their heads up to swallow). Water is scarce, that’s why the refuge is important. They then walk or fly to where they want to roost. Some take a short nap before doing anything else (it’s been a long day).