December 2022. South Texas

 We are beginning the month with clouds and a bit of rain.  

We went to Palo Alto Battlefield and Boca Chica on a foggy day.  the battle field was preparing for a reenactment with men in both US and Mexican Uniforms.  on the way into the park we found a huge rattlesnake!  

Needless to say we stayed on the middle of the walking paths! One new year bird here and 2 at Boca Chica.  the beach was pretty quiet and still foggy.  We did drive to the mouth of the Rio Grande where we could barely see Mexico for the fog.  Space X is on the road to the beach and has grown by leaps and bounds since last year.

Such colorful birds

We finally got great pictures of the Hooked Billed Kite!  We usually see it flying at a distance, there was 2 males forging for food in the wooded area!  

Beautiful butterfly

the weather in the first week of December has been perfect!  Sun and heat, plenty of pool time.  On Wednesday there was entertainment at the pool.  A nice surprise for us.  Lots of dancers in and out of the pool.   A night trip to Brownsville to get some parrots.

Dec 9: We finally made it to Laguna Atascosa (our final volunteer location).  the mosquitos were horrible!  we put spray on but got eaten alive!  We don't recall ever having that much issues with mosquitoes on the refuge the two years we spend there.  But they have been getting lots of rain and still water was everywhere. 

A Golf Cart Christmas parade passed by our house twice!  Music, lights and Mr and Mrs Claus bringing up the rear!  

Dec 10 we went to Estero Llano Grande SP where we ran into Mark and Joanie.  They are the people that introduced us to birding in 2011!  We worked with them at Santa Ana NWLR for 2 years and run into them from time to time.

A two hour drive to Salineno to look for the Murrelet Seedeater and Audubon Oriole.  Success!!  

Dec 13 off to South Padre Island for two nights.  We volunteered to help with the Tip of Texas Christmas Bird count which will be held on Wednesday. 

View from our room at the Hilton Garden Inn

Fun afternoon at Clayton's

Wednesday Dec 14, Christmas Bird Count on the Island was cool, windy and very overcast until the late afternoon when the sun came out.  We actually did pretty good considering the winds, we ended up with 69 birds, including one new year bird!  We were with the same people as last year at eh Birding Center. 

Eric and Dave scoping the Piping Plover on the Mud Flats

Sunrise from our room

After a few wonderful days on SPI we must go back home.  Which is about an hours drive west.  We stopped in Port Isabel for a wonderful lunch at Joe's Oyster shack.  The grilled fish melted in my mouth.  Oh so good. Of course we stopped at Los Tortugos for a few pounds of fresh shrimp and Ceviche to have for dinner for the next few days. 

the weather was perfect for walking 6 miles at Santa Ana on Friday.  We arrived early enough to enjoy the cool morning, the sun came out for a bit and warmed us up but the clouds showed up by 9:00, keeping the temp perfect. 

Oh boy the Arctic finger brought us some cold weather and rain on Saturday.  the next finger comes next week!  52 for the high today, next week we are looking at 40 for the high!!  Crazy weather.

We found a new place to hike/bird!  Harlingen Thicket is a county park with nice paths.  A few people walking dogs with access to a paved path by the resaca. 

Wind chill brings the 31 deg temp down to 19!  Not quite prepared for this kind of weather.  But it's only for 3-4 days.  Had to put on ALL of my clothes for our walk on Friday.

We went to meet our landlord and see the house for next year (Jan 7-Apr 1). It looked pretty much like the pictures!  I think we will like it a lot.  Internet might be questionable as we will be right on the border.  She is trying to get service and should be installed by the time we get there....

We had another light show on the palm trees as we were eating Christmas dinner!  Even mort spectator than last time!

Our weather was not fun for 3 days around Christmas. It did keep people out of the pool, so Eric was able to swim a few laps.  

We took a trip to Sable Palm which is past the "wall" right on the river. Its a great place to walk, we have been here before.  There is a bit of history with lovely gardens and an old house.

Wednesday Dec 28, pool party at 80 deg!  Our final pool time as we leave tomorrow for Houston/Costa Rica for a week. 

We sure did enjoy our time here in Victoria Palms, the biggest issue is that it is too far west, we would really prefer to be in Harlingen.  Don't think we will return just because of the location. The people are all so nice, the place is very clean, we loved the house but.... location, location, location.