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.