Rodeo Parade

Skip and I enjoy taking in local events when we travel. This weekend is the rodeo in Los Fresnos, TX, a town of 5500 people about 30 km from where we are staying.

We got there an hour early to get a good place to park and to find a good place to stand. It's a good thing, too, because by the time the parade started the main street was completely lined with people.

taken about 1/2 hour before the parade started

For a small town, there were a lot of participants.

This was the first school group. I love how the mascots are very Texan in nature.

The Ocelots were identically dressed in vaquera (cowgirl) costumes.

Next came the Rancho Verde Elementary Rattlers. I'm guessing the banner carriers are the principal and the vice-principal.

The Rattlers were in red, white, and blue and carried Texas lone stars in the three colours. There would have been a big run on white cowboy boots at the local bootery.

Los Cuates Middle School was the first marching band.

It was huge! I got a lump in my throat to see all these young kids who have had their lives touched by music educators.

Even the bassoonists marched!

Then was the Resaca Middle School Gator Band

Go Gators!

Then a folkloric group.

These kids were adorable with their American flag bandanas.

Then came the Los Fresnos High School Falcon Band. They were a very large group that sounded great. I love the uniforms that had a stylized falcon head and body on the chest and the tuxedo-type 'tails' were the falcon wings.

They start kids marching early in this part of the world.

This group was the Kindergarten to Second Grade group - called "Tuxes and Tiaras".

Instead of the expected 'tuxes' there were rodeo clowns. They were preceeded by a pickup truck that blared the country tune (not surprisingly) "Rodeo Clown". They did a little dancing routine.

Then came the 'tiara' folks, dressed as cheerleaders.

There were very few corporate floats.  This was the Ronald McDonald van.

Early on in the parade, Skip remarked that he was surprised that there were no horses. He spoke too soon as the last groups were all in the equine vein.

Here was a replica of a Wells Fargo stagecoach.

Then several riding groups. The two black horses at the front did a dressage-like routine.

Then came this group of senior riders.

We concluded that they put the horses at the end of the parade so the bands and other marchers don't have to step in the horse pooh.

The parade lasted almost 1.5 hours.

After the traffic abated, we drove around the corner to Julia's Restaurant for some taquitos.

See the next post for what we did after lunch...

Birding at on South Padre Island - Pictorial

One of the reasons we like to spend the winter here on South Padre Island is the proximity to the World Birding Center.

On our first visit eight years ago, there were a couple of wooden boardwalks adjacent to the convention centre. A year later we were horrified when we saw the wetland all dug up. We learned that a new birding centre was being created. Last time we were there, three years ago, the birding centre was complete and the habitats restored.

Since our last visit, many zodiacal sculptures have been installed. This one is scorpio with one of the two SPI water towers in the background. This is facing north from the parking lot.

There are several of these water features around the birding centre. I'm sure in the hot, summer weather, the birds and butterflies appreciate the running, fresh water.

Out on the boardwalk, our first bird was a great blue heron, hunkered down in the lee of the wind, sunning itself, facing south.

This normally elusive clapper rail was sitting out for a few moments.

Texas is famous for its Gators. Several live in this wetland area.

As usual, the pied-bill grebe went on his solitary way.

Our bird of the day was this least bittern. It is very small - only about 33cm long (13")

There were lots of roseate spoonbills - also in the lee of the wind, at the water's edge.

Just to the left of the spoonbills were several pintail ducks - mostly snoozing.

Several turtles live there. In the foreground is a red-eared slider.

They were commonly sold in discount and pet stores when I was a kid. Released into the wild, they do very well in protected areas. I know someone who kept one as a house pet for almost 50 years until it died last fall. I believe the other turtle in the photo is a common Texan one but in my cursory search I haven't found the name of its species.

After our walk around the mile+ of boardwalk, Skip and I took the elevator up to the top of the birding centre. This is the view to the west and the Laguna Madre - the inland waterway between South Padre Island and the mainland. It is between 2 and 4 feet deep and is hypersalinated. This photo is taken from the 2nd floor of the centre.

Here is the view in the same direction one storey up.

My new camera does not take very good photos in low light. This is my attempt to capture a shot of this belted kingfisher sitting on a cement barrier while the nearby redheads snooze.

However, it does take some pretty great panoramic photos.

The left side of this is facing due north. In the centre is the Gulf of Mexico in the distance facing due east. 1/4 of the way from the right side is due south down the island. The far right is the Laguna Madre.

 Here, I started the pano looking due east at the Gulf again and swung around to look due west over the Laguna.

This photo gives a better idea of how narrow South Padre Island is. The Laguna is behind me about 300m. The road cutting horizontally through the centre is the main street - Padre Boulevard. In the distance are a couple of hotels located right at the edge of the beach. Our condo is only one mile to the south of here.

I'm in my happy place.

Busy Day

We had a busy day yesterday. We got going by 10am and headed up the Rio Grande Valley to Mercedes and the Premium Factory Outlet mall. After making a couple of purchases, we stopped in at a taqueria for lunch where we had excellent, authentic Mexican tacos  - small, thin corn tortillas topped with succulent barbecued meats, cilantro, onion, and queso fresco (a Mexican white cheese).

After lunch, we drove up to the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands (aka sewage ponds) to the World Birding Center there. It was an overcast day but we had a good look around.

A staff member told us the location of a winter wren. We heard it but didn't see it.

I saw this flower in several locations and googled "red Texas flower images" to learn it is called Turk's Cap.

I didn't figure out what this is called, however.

Across one of the ponds we saw several species of heron roosting and resting.  It's hard to see but there are several black-crowned night herons, great blues, white egrets, and a tricolor heron in that mass of greenery.

There were lots of coots.

Skip liked this sign which states: "Warning, Treated Effluent Water. Do Not Enter Or Drink This Water. No Swimming."

On the NE corner of the pond we saw several redheads and turtles snoozing - very close to where the 'effluence' comes out. Fortunately, we couldn't smell anything nasty.

Along another path we encountered this inca dove.

The interpretive centre is really nice. It has excellent washroom facilities, a comprehensive gift shop with many different birding and nature guides, this enormous great blue heron sculpture,

and beautiful mosaics on the floor.

Here's a better photo of the main visitor area.

At Costco we were able to find almost everything we wanted.  One thing we saw that we never see at our Costco back home was fire pit pigs ready for roasting at $3.79 per pound.

We Made It

We were able to get into the condo a day early so ditched our plans to dawdle in McAllen TX and came right to SPI. The key was under the mat. The Internet works and there's a washer and dryer. The kitchen has been updated with new appliances. We are within walking distance of a couple of bars, the library, and a couple of restaurants. We are all set.

The decor is tacky with lots of cheaply made, heavy Balinese-style furniture and accessories. However, it has everything we need and is 1/2 block from the Gulf of Mexico. We are on the north end of the inhabited part of the island - about 3 km north of the bridge from Port Isabel. We are about 1km from the World Birding Center. The area looks more prosperous than we remembered last time we were here (2012).

On Thursday, we drove to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge where the endangered whooping cranes nest. They make the annual trip north to Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Alberta. We plan to return in mid-February to do a whooping crane boat tour. During one of our stops on the self-guided automobile tour, we met two women from Texas who had driven all the way from San Antonio and Houston respectively to take the whooping crane boat tour only to be told that not enough people had signed up so it was cancelled. When they saw  my flop flops they remarked that we must be from up north as one of the women had long underwear on. I told her I had quit wearing mine in Indiana. We spent the night in Corpus Christi.

Flip flops on the beach at SPI

This morning we took a walk to the beach. This is one of the reasons we like SPI so much - no traffic.

looking south on Gulf Blvd.

Gulf Blvd. parallels the main street, Padre Blvd. and is more residential. This far up the island, it is pretty quiet at 10am on a Sunday. Yes, those are ample bike and walking lanes.

This is the view to the beach from our closest beach access point, Fantasy Circle, just at the end of our street. There is a wide plastic mat all the way from the parking lot to beyond the dunes.Those folks in the distance are fishing off the shore.

Here is the view of the beach looking south. It runs for 5 miles to the southern tip of the island.

And the view looking the other way - to the north.

It is always very windy here, ergo the jackets, but it was nice and sunny and about 24C.

We are very grateful we have escaped yet another winter in southern Ontario.