March 30 Hugh Ramsey Park with the Bay Area Birders

A bunch of us visited Hugh Ramsey Park in Harlingen this morning. A tremendous amount of work has been done clearing overgrowth away and planting appropriate plants. We were told today that for a good part of the last century, the arroyo area was the dumping grounds for the municipality. It was then covered with soil and in the year 2000 planting began. Now it is very lush and green thanks to the hard work of many volunteers and staff.

These photos highlight what we saw today.

American Snout

Coral Bean

Tropical/Couch's Kingbird

Great Kiskadee

Harris's Hawk

Flower of a potato vine

Red-bordered Metalmark

Texas Spiny Lizard

Texas Crescent (southwest variant)

Not so great photo of a white-eyed vireo

White-winged dove, plain chachalaca, and white-tipped dove

Migrating broad-winged hawks

Close-up of migrating broad-winged hawks

It is very enjoyable to go birding with a group as there are more pairs of eyes for spotting and lots of expertise identifying birds by their calls and seeing them. I often can spot a bird and even get a good photo but have no idea what it is until I can look at the pictures on my computer. And when it comes to warblers, I'm very deficient in knowledge.

It was a beautiful day for taking in all that nature provided us with today. We are hoping the warblers will stop in at the convention centre on the island next Thursday. Hopefully they won't just pass us by.