Moving On

Hey, I guess its time to up date the old Blog again, as I have not filled in anything for the last week, so here goes. 
Feb 13th
Second Day of Birding in the Rio Grand Valley. Headed on over to Bentsen State Park south of Mission, Texas today, The bird Denice has been itching to get is a Green Jay, and they tell us the are plentiful at this park.

 

The Green Jay

It was only a dozen miles from our park so did not take too long to get there. As soon as we checked in, it was obvious that birds here were very plentiful, as they seemed to be everywhere. Remember a blog I did a year or so ago where I said that as far as I was concerned every bird I saw was either a sparrow or a crow. I knew no others! Well now, after all these visits to these birding places with Denice, the picture taking, and the studies of the newly purchased National Geographic Complete Birds of North America, suddenly I have become some what of an expert. Well not really, Certainly not to the extent of those we have been hearing with phrases such as "Oh that's a female double breasted chicadee warbler" or "that's a rare something of something bunting". But now I do know a few of them. Green Jays, Kiskadees, Chachalacas, Orioles, Cardinals, and  Vermilion Fly Catchers. We spent a great day at the park just wandering the trails and photographing the various ones at the well placed feeding stations. 

 

An Oriole

We even stopped at a picnic grounds an had a tasty lunch that Denice had prepared. Then after boarding the shuttle back to the headquarters, we drove another mile or so to a Butterfly Viewing area. The cold weather had almost eliminated all the lowers, and so the butterflies as well. However they also had a bird watching area, with all of the same birds as the park, so we took another batch of shots before returning home at dusk.

Feb 11th

Finally a nice day, so we headed over to Quinto Mazatlan

This is an eight-acre estate and one of the largest remaining hacienda adobe homes in the state of Texas which was built in 1935.

La Quinta was purchased in 1968 by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Shultz.

In 1998, the City of McAllen purchased the beautiful historic estate to serve as part of the World Birding Center network. Many special events and gatherings have been hosted at the estate, which has also provided the public an opportunity to enjoy the unique wildlife and vegetation that abound the property. Over 110 species of birds have been identified and over 150 different species of exotic trees, flowers, and plants can be found throughout the eight acres of native thicket. Quinta Mazatlan is a distinct and unique part of the history of McAllen, Texas.

We wandered around the grounds  for a couple of hours and took some shots of hummingbirds, Chachacalacas, a merad of various kinds of sparrows, kiskadees, Cardinals, thrashers, blue-grey gnat catcher, mocking birds and fly catchers as well as many others names unknown. 

Feb 10th

Waited until afternoon and then took a drive down to Harlingen. Denice found a stitchinig store that she wanted to go to. She had also found on the web one in Edinburg, so we went there first and found it closed. Good thing cause it looked like a dump, We then continued the 30 miles east to Harlingen. I had reservations about that one as well, but might as well give it a shot. Once there was pleasantly surprised to find a very well laid out store filled with all the thread and gadgets that a stitcher might want. Denice was thrilled!!!  I was thrilled too to the extent of $------.  Oh well, as long as Denice was happy! Oce that done returned home with a happy wife, but decided to eat out so just typed in O-L-I-V-E G-A-R-D-E-N into the jeeps GPS and followed her instruction, and with in about 6 miles arrived at one of our favorite eating establishments. As always it was great. I had the Seafood Elfredo Pasta, Denice, the Parmesan Crusted Bistecca and Veggies, with all the salad you can eat as well as a Calamari Appy and a Zeppoli Desert to take home as we had no room for it at the time, but could not pass it up. At 9:00PM at home we had tea and the Zappoli Desert.

Feb 9th

Nice in the morning, but a cold Canadian front blew in by 10:00AM and the temperature started to drop from 66F down to 44F by noon and down to 35F by dark. Another do nothing day!

Feb 8th

Wait at home for Propane Truck - we are down a little due to the cold weather the last few weeks - after he came and filled us, we just never felt like doing much, so we didn't!! But in the afternoon we took a spin over to Best Buy. With too much time on my hands, I had been looking at electronic e- readers. Since I am into reading so many books lately, we are starting to get much too large of a library within the motor home, so it seemed to make sense to be able to download them onto one of these reader thingys. I had looked at several differend kinds, but I defaulted to the one that Shannon, our daughter, boght. It is the Amazon Kindle. Connects to wifi for downloads that cost somewhat less than actual books. The book has a 4 GB hard drive that will holds about 3500 books. Anywat, the long and short of it,  bought it, nd it seems to work great. 

Feb 7th

After that hard 150 miles of a traveling day yesterday, we needed a rest, so that is just what we did.

Feb 6th

Today was moving day after a full month here in Rockport. We were in no hurry but we were on the road by about 10:00AM. Went sligtly north and west to Sinton, then on 77 down through Kingsville to Riviera, and west on 285 over to Falfurrias, then south on 281 to McAllen. Arrived at McAllen RV park at about 2:30PM and checked in and set up. Park is nothing to write home about, but the grapefruit and Orange trees are nice to see for us Northerners. I tried a grapefriut and it was great. I also tried an Orange, but a lemon had nothing on this one for sourness.