Mission, TX

I finished spending a great month in Mission, TX a couple of weeks ago, but am just getting around to the blog.  I stayed at the Bentson Palm RV Park which is right next door to Bentson State Park.  Some of you may remember that I stayed at this same park last year. 

While there, I walked, biked and watched birds (and a few other animals).  As I have mentioned before I don’t really know much about birds, but I am learning and it’s fun to meet bird watchers who really know what they are doing. 

I learned that a big black bird, might not just be a Blackbird or a Crow.  One day while at the Hawk Tower in the State park, I saw some black birds and the volunteer told me that they were Grove Billed Anis and that it was a good sighting (they aren’t too common).  Well, my pictures didn’t turn out too good, but a few days later I saw them again.  Below is my picture of a Grove Billed Ani. 

While there, a very rare bird to the U.S. happened to be visiting the State park.  I heard that he was 200 – 300 miles further north than where they typically live. According to the park, it was only the 6th recorded time it has been in Texas.  The bird was a Black-vented Oriole.  For several weeks, it was a very famous bird.  I meet several people who came from out of state just to see this bird.  I didn’t realize how serious some birders are.  I meet people from New York and Michigan who came to Texas and this park just to see this bird.  The bottom picture is the Black-Vented Oriole and a woodpecker, I think it’s a Sap Sucker.

Because I was in the park so much, I saw this bird many times and talked to people who sat for 8 hours and never saw him.  There was also a rare Blue Bunting and I saw the male and female once, but when I took a picture they flew off.  

I saw the Vermillion Flycatcher a few times.  It was interesting watching him catch bugs.

If you are also a reader of  Life's Little Adventures(fellow Lazy Daze Rver’s – Jim and Gayle) it may seem like you have already read part of this blog.  When I read their blog a few weeks ago and they had a picture of the Vermillion Flycatcher, I thought it was a bit funny that we had seen the same type of bird(their March 9 post).  In the next blog, they talk about people flying in from around the world to see a rare bird that they saw.  They were in Arizona, but I was beginning to feel like I was copying them!  (Note – if you love the outdoors and hiking you will enjoy their blog.  I’ve made many notes for future trips based on their travels.)

Other pictures -

Ringed Kingfisher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green Kingfisher -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Altimira Oriole -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once I left Mission, I stopped in Victoria, TX for an overnight stay and took a picture of some fellow campers -

I am now in Louisiana and will be headed out tomorrow, I have spent a couple of weeks touring South Louisiana.  I will blog about this soon.