Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley is for the birds!

 

While we were visiting south Texas, one of our favorite stops is the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. It's just four miles from our campground, and it's a great place to go bike riding. Car traffic is not allowed inside the park, so we only have to dodge an occasional state park tram or border patrol pickup.

We always head to our favorite bird blind, were the volunteers keep the feeders loaded. They also leave oranges, and that perch was a bird magnet this day.

Denisa had a good spot inside the bird blind to snap pictures of the different birds that came to snack on that orange.

Green jays are very common here, so we often forget that they are a thrill for birders to see if they have not visited the southern tip of Texas before.

The resident squirrel was also interested in that orange, and we were afraid that he was going to take it with him. But a jay chased him away, and the birds continued feeding.

The cardinals were more interested in the bird seed.

With our Texas state park pass, our trip into the park was free. We planned to visit many times, but the month flew by and this turned out to be our only bike ride around the park.

We always take the hike to the hawk tower, even though we didn't see any hawks this year. We also noted that the stream of water that we usually see from here is dry. The drought has stretched down to the tip of Texas as this whole state needs some rain.

We also wanted to see the changes in the border wall next to the state park. Last year we took the picture below, with the construction vehicles working on the border wall

This year the construction in this area seems to be completed. The main difference we see is that the big vehicles are now gone, and large lights have been installed along the length of the wall next to the park. 

We biked the entire loop inside the park, which takes us very close to the Mexican border. This state park is actually south of that border wall. We checked another good birding spot inside the park to find more cardinals. 

This state park is called the World Birding Center because of the large number of birds that winter here, or that fly through this area on their annual migration. It's a good picture when you can take a colorful shot with a blue headed green jay and a bright red cardinal in one photo. Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley is for the birds!