Birder Sam

Well after all he is a bird dog. Here he is with us while we bird the SPI birding center…

That was Wednesday, 2/21. We tried to go to Sabal Palms yesterday, it was closed but we did see “The Wall”, and Space X …

I’ve wondered how the wall was positioned relative to the Rio Grande. Sable Palms, our intended destination, is an old plantation a few hundred yards from the river. The wall is a little more than a quarter mile from river and as you can see there’s a gap for the road to Sabal Palms. The gap is guarded 24/7 by army personnel. They were friendly and very bored. That’s the levy on the other side of the wall.

Why Space X chose the coastal plain 2 miles from the border and the mouth of the Rio Grande is a mystery to me. Maybe someone can explain it. We could drive right past it, within about a 100 yards….

These are two separate sites about a mile or so apart. The one on the left is a launch pad, called Starship landing pad on google maps, the right is called Starbase.

Today, Friday 2/23 I went to McAllen to bird. Two excellent places, Estero Llano State Park and Edinburg Scenic Wetlands. Both, but especially the first, were filled up with birders. Some intermediate level, like me, some novice, and some that can tell you the feeding habits of the long-billed vs. the short-billed dowitcher. There was probably a quarter million in optics in that park. Cameras with lenses the size of small canons. Both trips were successful for me. Life birds Tuesday to today. Least Grebe, Neotropic Cormorant, Tropical Kingbird, Green Kingfisher, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Plain Chacalaca, Inca Dove, Verdin, Long Billed Curlew, Aplomado Falcon, Pauruque.
Going to try Sable Palms again tomorrow, then eat at Vera’a Backyard, a road food place in Brownsville.