Our three favorite places to take a walk with the birds in the Rio Grande Valley

While staying in Mission, Texas, our home is just 4 miles from the Mexico border.  It's warm in the winter and birds literally flock to spend their winters here. Over the years, we have found our three favorite places to take a walk with the birds in the Rio Grande Valley. Warning: be prepared for way too many pictures of the birds we spotted this January.

Just three miles from Bentsen Grove Resort is Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park--also known as the World Birding Center. We enjoy going to the state park, and we know the areas where they feed the birds. So we always head to our favorite.

The brightly colored orioles hang out near the fresh oranges. In an area with an abundance of citrus trees, oranges are cheaper than bird seed.

 

This oriole was protecting his territory when a green jay approached.

Green jays are beautiful birds, and this is the only area we have ever found them.

The coloring on their face and wings is some of the most striking among the birds.

This day we also found a woodpecker, with his bright orange neck . . .

and red on his crown.

Rails always seem to look grumpy,

while kiskadees sound like a kitten in trouble.

It's a good time when you find a green jay, a red cardinal, and a yellow kiskadee in one tree.

In case you think that we only see birds in south Texas, we included a collared peccary that was nosing around for the bird seed tossed out of the feeders.

Another day we took a trip to our second favorite place to take a walk with the birds in the Rio Grande Valley--Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. We like walking through the forest sections of this park with the Spanish moss draped from the branches.

Another cranky rail was hanging out in the forest here.

It was lunch time at the wildlife refuge!

Besides walking at the bottom of the trees, visitors can walk on the suspension bridge for tree-top views.

Once again, we were blessed with beautiful blue skies as we wandered through God's wonders.

The trees are home to the tiny tit mouse,

and more of the bright orange orioles. This one was just enjoying a tiny piece of citrus . . .

when the bees started arriving. We have the same problem when we juice oranges and grapefruit outside. The bees show up for their share of the orange juice as well.

You can almost see the disgusted look on his face, as more bees show up.

With all the lakes and rivers in this park, the water birds love to spend the winters here too.

It's fun to find the many types of ducks and water birds that winter in the Rio Grande Valley.

In case you should think that we only see birds in South Texas, we took a picture of the raccoon foraging at the edge of the water.

Yep, Santa Ana is one of the favorite places of these two love birds.

Our third favorite place to take a walk with the birds is in South Padre Island. Every time we make the 84-mile trip to the island, we take the board walk that starts near the convention center.

The trail leads all the way to the bay side of the island, but we often see just as many birds in the shallow water near the board walk.

It was especially fun to watch this green heron enjoy a surprisingly large fish in one big gulp.

Just in case you think we only see birds in South Texas, you should know that there was something else in the water with the birds.

We took several pictures of this alligator as he sidled through the shallow water close to the bay.

He seemed to be looking right at us.

We spotted a family of four turtles near the boardwalk.

Turtles always seem snobbish with their noses in the air.

We certainly wouldn't call ourselves birders, and we struggle to remember the names of even the most common birds. But we always enjoy a walk with the birds in three of our favorite places in the Rio Grande Valley.

What do you do when the RV is winterized so you can't travel in it?

Until a year ago, we were used to traveling in our motor home year-round. The secret was staying in the warm south in the winter so we didn't have to worry about winterizing it. But living in the Kansas City area, we had to winterize the plumbing system in the fall when the temperatures started dipping below freezing. That left us months without our RV to use for vacationing. But you shouldn't think that we stayed at home during all those months. We still went south to the tip of Texas this winter!

We spent the entire month of January in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Denisa's Mother sold her mobile in Mission, Texas, last winter. But at 94, she's still in good health to travel. So we rented a mobile for the month, and the three of us stayed at the same park where she had been for the last 40 winters. While in South Texas, we took the annual trip to Padre Island for the beach and to see the latest sand castles.

Preserved with a mixture of glue, you can even sit on one of the sand sculptures.

We enjoyed visiting some of the ocean-themed murals . . .

and tourist-store entrances.

We almost always stop at the birding boardwalk that starts right by the South Padre Island Convention Center.

While we were walking towards the bay, we saw a green heron had just speared a fish for lunch.

It was like a National Geographic nature special as he struggled with the reed that he also speared, and was now in the way.

That sizable fish seemed too big for that little green heron to eat. But this was the last picture before he swallowed the entire fish whole. Wow! That was a fun walk to the bay!

Even though Kansas City was "enjoying" a record-breaking snowfall that stayed on the ground an unusually long time, we were enjoying warm weather in South Texas. Because we arrived shortly after Christmas, the full-size nativity decorations were still up in the Catholic Basilica we visited with friends.

We've driven by this massive tile mosaic on the outside of the Basilica many times. Good friends Tom and Arlene offered to take us to a church service to see the inside of the church as well.

While enjoying the warm January weather, we also made a trip across the border. 

The tiny town of Progresso, Mexico, was an easy border crossing. But we hadn't made that short trip in several years. Not much had changed, as the town streets were still crowded with vendors and pharmacies and dentists.

We did all the usual things that we enjoy at Bentsen Grove RV Resort. We played pickleball, and Denisa made lots of greeting cards. She also enjoyed the jewelry classes where she made ear rings and necklaces out of polymer clay.

We enjoyed the oranges and tangerines again this year. Mark was good at climbing the trees and picking the fruit from the top that might normally be wasted in a park for people over the age of 55. Denisa's job was to stand on the ground, catching the ripe fruit that he picked. Who knew that we would make such a good fruit-picking team in our retirement?

This might have been the best grapefruit harvest we have ever seen. The fruit was huge and sweet and we ate at least one every day. There are few things that taste better than a tree-ripened grapefruit fresh off the tree.

This tree was so loaded that the fruit hung in clusters like grapes. That was a lot of weight on those branches, and the owner was happy for us to pick them.

A dear friend made us a unique local dessert that we have only seen in South Texas--grapefruit pie.

That same dear friend loves to bake almost as much as we love to eat desserts. In the course of a month she made us a cheesecake, blueberry pie, banana cake, pineapple angel food cake, a delightful German apple dessert, hummingbird cake . . . If that wasn't enough sweets, Mark also has ice cream most evenings at the rec hall. On special evenings they serve banana splits. He's found that if he knows the people scooping the ice cream, his serving is especially big.

We enjoyed seeing friends from past years and making new ones. We especially enjoyed a class that is new to the park this year. Tony brought his woodworking tools, and taught us how to make wooden bowls!

We started with a piece of wood that Tony also provided. The one Mark chose had a stripe of red wood from Africa called padauk. That will make an interesting design in this bowl.

Using the ring cutter, the students were instructed on how to carefully cut circles into that flat piece of wood.

The circles are then glued together and clamped to make them into a wooden bowl.

That's when the real work begins! Using the sanders that Tony also provided, it was time to spend hours sanding that bowl smooth.

Mark chose the more difficult thin-walled bowl, while Denisa chose the design that needed less sanding. But we were both thrilled with the opportunity to try such a unique craft this winter!

Tony also held classes that allowed us to make wooden ink pens. They were almost too pretty to use, but he assures us that the ink cartridges are re-fillable for a life-time of writing.

Tony asked us to send him a picture of us with our finished projects. We're smiling because we thought this was a fun new class and we appreciated all his help. 

While we went south to get out of the cold, that doesn't mean that the cold didn't chase us. We were picking grapefruit when it was 40 degrees outside, to get them off the tree before it froze one night in January. We were staying in a unit without a heater. Who needs a heater when you're way down south anyway? We hate to complain, but it was a little nippy for a couple days of our January in the Rio Grande Valley. Before we knew it, the month was over and it was time to head north again. We obviously didn't stay south long enough, because this was a picture of our street in early February.

That snow hung around for an unusually long time this winter in the Kansas City area. But once it melted off the trails, we were back outside enjoying a hike. That's just something else you do when the RV is winterized so you can't travel in it.