Along the border

Time kind of flies down here. The days are long and it's hard to muster the strength to get caught up on the blog after getting settled in for the night. I usually just pass out after dinner. Again, not most people's idea of a vacation but I have no problem with it. I'll just have to recap the last few days to get caught up:

Sunday:  We birded quite a few areas. We started at Santa Anna NWR on the off chance the blue bunting was still around. We didn't have any luck with it or many other birds for that matter. Mostly quiet so we moved on to Anzalduas park.   There were lots of birds around and we ran into the young couple again that helped with the tropical parula. This time they were looking a black-throated gray warbler that has been spending the winter at the park. We no sooner had parked the car when I spotted the bird in the tree in front of us. I called them over and all of us were able to observe the bird for some time. This was a life bird

for them so I was happy to have been able to help. 

We decided at this point to start making our way north. We stopped at a few places along the way including Bentson, Salineño and most interestingly Roma Bluffs. This is an interesting area. It's tucked back into a neighborhood with a viewing platform that looks out over the river into Mexico. Hundreds of people we're picnicking, fishing and generally hanging out enjoying the day while a half dozen border patrol cars and sheriffs were keeping a watchful eye on a guy that was in a four wheeler going across the river. We watched birds flying around the river and mostly in Mexico adding to my Mexican life list but a few rough-winged swallows were cruising overhead in the US side for a new year bird. 

Next we stopped at Falcon State Park which also had its fair share of people enjoying the nice day. We walked a trail and heard black-tailed gnatcatchers buy could not get a view of them in the thick scrub. I would wait to count this as a new bird. We ended up driving up to Del Rio, Texas and spent the night.