Went to Hidalgo pump house- we were on our way to Estaro Llano in Weslaco, but when we went through Hidalgo decided to stop and see the old pumphouse. It was on our want list of things to do, and this seemed to be a perfect chance. When we arrived we were just in time to join a bus tour of the old historic town, the new pumping facilities, and then a tour of the old restored pumphouse. It was well worth the $10 entry fee.
The Old Hidalgo Pumphouse-World Birding Center was built on the banks of the Rio Grande River in 1909. Located in Hidalgo, Hidalgo Co., TX, this WBC site is fantastic for both birds and butterflies. The Pumphouse used Honey Mesquite to fuel huge steam-driven boilers that drove massive pumps, which pumped water from the Rio Grande River into agricultural irrigation canals. This maze of irrigation canals runs throughout Hidalgo Co., and they are still in use, today.
The Old Hidalgo Pumphouse-WBC is easy to get to. From US-281 (Coma Ave.) in downtown Hidalgo, turn south on Bridge St. and go six blocks to Flora Ave., turn left (east) On Flora Ave. and go two short blocks to 2nd St., and turn right (south) into the Pumphouse park. It is easy to just follow the signs to the Pumphouse.
On special occasions, the City uses its trams to bring tourists to the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse.
Before crossing the bridge that goes over the "Old Swimming Hole" and taking the path to the Pumphouse, go slowly and watch for birds and butterflies as you meander. This walk is excellent for Golden-fronted and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, Long-billed and Curve-billed Thrashers. During migration, you can find numerous Neotropical passerines. Watch for Tropical Kingbirds (that prefer a "golf-course" type habitat) in the Pumphouse Gardens inside the fence on your left
As you are walking down towards the Pumphouse museum, check out the numerous butterfly species you should see in the beds that border the Gardens. Again, go slow and watch for the many species of flycatchers that can be found in this area.
The high smokestack at the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse can be seen from almost anywhere in the City. The very tall smokestack helped, with winds that almost always prevail from the south, carry the dense, oily, black smoke away from the City and towards its northern neighbor, McAllen. In the winter, it dumped its smoke onto Reynosa to the south.
The entrance into the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse-World Birding Center is just below and to the left. Notice how even the old galvanized siding has been preserved and actually make for a pretty effect.
The long walk from the Pumphouse entrance to the Museum gift shop/restooms/offices has loads of interpretive displays on both sides of the walk. Whether or not you are into old tools and heavy machinery, you will enjoy all the displays.
Offices, a gift shop, meeting room, and restrooms are on the right. Downstairs are the enormous pumps and boilers that visitors can view. Just imagine what working conditions were like, below, in the poorly ventilated vast basement of boilers. Heat and fantastic noise had to make for miserable work hours
The tiny City of Hidalgo has invested millions of dollars, developing the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse-WBC. Unlike the other 8 WBC sites, the City utilizes the park differently, with numerous events for its citizens. The amphitheater is used for talks, performances and during the summer, free movies.
The Pavilion, located in the center of the fenced Gardens, is a great place to sit, cool off and up-date your checklists. Many weddings have been performed under its roof; the Pumphouse Gardens are especially pretty at night, when the trees are accented with lights.
Several water features, fountains, and streams are found both outside and within the Pumphouse Gardens; and, wow, do the birds use them.
Birds, odonates, butterflies and frogs, many of which are unique to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, can always be found in this large pool. You crossed over the Old Swimming Hole when you took the bridge from the parking lot. You can access this large pond from the trail that leads under the bridge to the east end of the Old Swimming Hole.From the west end of the Old Swimming Hole pond as you look back towards the Pumphouse, watch for the many species of birds you can see here.
One of the numerous streams that course throughout the Gardens. One of the truly unusual landscape architectural features of the Pumphouse Gardens is that all these streams that are found here (and there are many) simulate the Rio Grande River as it actually exists along the southern border of the City, separating the U.S. and Mexico.
The average annual rainfall in Hidalgo is only 23"/year. Fortunately, the several water features at the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse are of great benefit to the birds.
The bubbling sound from these moving streams bring in the birds. Be sure to watch for odonates around these features, because there are numerous species of dragonflies and damselflies that can only be found in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and many of them can be found at the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse-WBC.
All of these water features have been planted to attract butterflies...and they do.
This "bend in the River" stream is exactly as it occurs just south of the City. The huge, paved, circular patio is an exact representation of the City streets as they exist just north of the "bend".
Map of the City as you face east.
On the west side of the Pumphouse building, the Observation Deck overlooks a large resaca (ox-bow lake). The resaca is the former intake channel that was at the Rio Grande River. Before flooding of the River caused the River to move and to change course and isolate this bend in the river as a resaca, the Old Pumphouse lifted the water out and pumped the water into the irrigation canals.
In the top-right corner of this photo (just above the interpretive sign), you can see the flags that mark the border between the U.S. and Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Be sure to check out the resaca for Ringed and Green Kingfishers, numerous waders and ducks and many flycatchers.
The large, mowed lawn just to the left and below the Observation Deck is a great place to watch for Long-billed Curlews.
The cool, shady Pavilion is an example of how all nine of the World Birding Center sites in the Lower Rio Grande Valley are appreciative of the fact that we all need to find some shade when running around chasing critters.
Fishermen really like this covered deck. Catfish, bass, and perch are caught here. This is another spot that birders can use to search the resaca and its banks.
Directly behind the Pumphouse Gardens, the Border Patrol truck is parked at a break in the Border Wall. This gap is where the soon-to-be-completed Border Gate will be. Once the Border Wall is finished here, the Dept. of Homeland Security has promised that the Hidalgo Bend Tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlfe Refuge and its 900 acres will be re-opened to hikers, bicyclists, and nature observers from the Pumphouse. A neat feature of the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse-WBC is that they provide FREE use of their many bicycles to Pumphouse visitors (just have to leave your Driver's License at the Office).
This is the north side of the Border Wall that is immediately behind the World Birding Center. The Border Patrol truck is almost 6 ft. tall. It is on top of a 16 foot levee road. On top of the levee road is an 18 foot fence. It is a straight drop down the other side of the fence, making the total Wall on the south side ~34 feet tall. The Wall separates the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR Hidalgo Bend Tract from the Old Hidalgo Pumphose-WBC, and cuts off the National Wildlife Refuge tract from the entire City. An ugly site to most Valley residents.
Directly behind the Border Wall which is directly behind the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse-WBC is the start of the Nature Trail into the 900 acre Hidalgo Bend Tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. This trail leads all the way to the Rio Grande River. We have found both Elf Owls and Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls, here. This is absolutely the best location in the entire Lower Rio Grande Valley to see Groove-billed Anis. Hundreds of these birds nest here and are easily seen....as long as access is given back to the birders, as promised.
Mar 27th (Tuesday)
Went for a short levee drive. Drove a couple of miles down along the levee so Denice could take some pictures of birds, specifically, a yellow fly catcher. Then when we came bck continued up the levee towhere I could see the sugar cane fields that had been harvested recently. Now this Sugar Cane growing is a whole new experience to us. I am including a bunch of photos in my blog to hep explain the rotation and gowing of it.
Yup, thats what we did!!!!
Mar 29th (Thursday)
Waiting at home for my anchor seal to be delivered. We find the FedEx, or UPS process for that matter, quite amazing that either of them can keep track and deliver to you, so fast from anywhere in the USA in 5 to 7 business days. Here is the report that this product of mine has shown to the present time. It should be delivered here this afternoon some time so we are staying home waiting for it. Here is the report:
(Read from bottom up) It has been delivered
Date Time Location Event Details
March 29, 2012 03:42:24 PM Mission TX US Delivered
March 29, 2012 07:54:00 AM Edinburg TX US Out for delivery
March 29, 2012 05:51:00 AM Edinburg TX US Arrival Scan
March 28, 2012 10:01:18 AM Fort Worth TX US Departure Scan
March 28, 2012 01:16:00 AM Fort Worth TX US Arrival Scan
March 27, 2012 04:16:47 AM Grove City OH US Departure Scan
March 27, 2012 12:57:00 AM Grove City OH US Arrival Scan
March 26, 2012 10:20:53 PM Cambridge OH US Departure Scan
March 26, 2012 08:14:00 PM Cambridge OH US Arrival Scan
March 26, 2012 12:00:00 AM Cambridge OH US Shipment received by carrier
March 26, 2012 11:38:00 AM US Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit
Amazing eh!!!
Mar 30th (Friday)
This is Denices interpretation of events ---
WELL!!!! What a night we had.....at about 6:00PM park management came to warn everyone about bad weather coming our way and if necessary, where to go in case of a tornado (club house basement). 6:30, power went off, neighbour Ruth comes over with an update......Tornado Watch......packed my purse (money and passports) pills and camera (of course) ready to head up to shelter if necessary. 7:00PM, Dennis decides to put the awning up..dead calm outside ( calm before the storm) and just in time...starts to rain. Neighbours are staying put..so I watch next door neighbor, Rosemary calmly knitting........torrential rain!!!! Sheet lightening, high winds...Rosemary still knitting....bang on the roof (debris?) that was our weather station blowing over...last recorded wind speed.....54mph...unbelievable lightening (now taking video). Rosemary still knitting. We still have lights, battery power . Storm continues for about 3 hours, Rosemary knitted the whole time...if she had left her Motorhome, I would have been right behind her!!!! No tornado!!!! thankyou God!
Damage, this beautiful morning, trees down, fences down, palm bark all over,neighbors window blew out of his golf cart, one 5th wheel had their large back window sucked out.....lots of devestation in McAllen. Power on at 11:30 this morning. But, we survived! NO HAIL!!!!
Mar 31st (Saturday)
Went on a riverboat tour today on the Riverside Dreamer. We see it going past the RV Park all the time, but never joined them until today. It was a very enjoyable ride for an hour. It docks only a half mile from us. The boat is a cataraman pushed by twin 135 HB outboards.It will take about 25 people in great comfort with air conditioning and very comfortable seating. We went up the river for a few miles enjoying the scenery , both in the US and in Mexico. We had a chance to view a lot of the devastation from the 2010 flooding of the area. I am not sure that I had previously explained that flooding, but in July of 2010 huge rainfall was reported in the southern central part of Texas and Mexico. The huge Falcon Dam suddenly reached its capacity and someway commnication was lost between the Mexicans and and the Americans and Mexico opened the gates to the dam without American notification. The result was a huge flood all the way from the dam to the Gulf. Waters were reported up to 10 and 20 feet above normal. The RV Park we are in was flooded right out, with only a few sites on high land avoiding damage. This trip on the Riverside Dreamer allowed viewing a lot of those areas most effected. Soon we turned back and returned and went down the river the same distance before returning to dock and the restaurant. As it was now 1:00PM we decided on lunch there. It was very good. Denice had the shrimp basket, I, the pork sandwich that was huge!!
Apr 1st (Sunday)
It’s going to be an uplifting Sunday in Calgary.
An incredibly rare sequence of celestial events will see residents of Calgary and the immediate area briefly experience the wonders of weightlessness.
The out-of-this-world phenomenon will allow Calgarians to briefly levitate in almost zero gravity.
It’s an occurrence that hasn’t happened since 1925, with the epicentre in the small town of Shymkent, Kazakhstan. At the time, panicked citizens blamed the bizarre incident on witchcraft and mass hysteria.
“This is literally a once-in-a-lifetime event,” said Dr. Lyle Upshot, of the University of Santa Monica, who pointed out that scientists only confirmed the cause of the Kazakh event in the late 1960s.
“And Calgary is so, so lucky to win Mother Nature’s lottery.”
Upshot said the current solar flare acceleration, a full global aurora and the fact an asteroid, B3NHD1420, will pass directly between the moon and Earth will lead to the so-called Lunar Molecular Astro-solar Oscillation levitation event at exactly 10:15 a.m. Sunday.
To take full advantage of the gravity deficiency, people are urged to lay on the floor at 10:14 a.m. in preparation.
Standing during the slight window of opportunity, which may last as long as six seconds, displaces body mass and results in only slight tremors and flesh quivers.
When all the celestial factors collide, people can expect to levitate 3 to 5 inches above the ground, depending on weight, bone density and housing/shelter factors.
People are best able to enjoy the moment outside, where they may also witness a darkening of the sky and atmospheric ripples akin to heatwaves on a hot day.
While being gravity-free for a few seconds could be thrilling, Upshot warns there can be slight dangers involved.
“When this happened in 1925, hundreds of people suffered concussions, so we recommend you wear a helmet,” said Upshot.
You can report your experience to the Calgary Solarium at 403-250-4308.
April Fools !!!!!
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