Friday, March 27 Falcon St Park

 Friday, March 27

71 degrees this morning at 7:30.  We wave goodbye to the Gulf and head west for a while.  Our destination is Falcon State Park, which is right on the Texas/Mexico border, south of Laredo (tiny red dot). From there, we will work our way back to the Gulf, via the Rio Grande Valley.  The Rio Grande forms the border most of the way.

Very arid terrain along hwy 285.  We see a few Crested Caracara perched mostly on poles or atop fences. They are permanent, non-migratory residents of south Texas and have their own genus. Their range goes down into South America and they have qualities in common with both hawks and falcons.

Dry creek beds abound and for miles the only sign of civilization is a massive electrical transmission project where they are putting up a series of very large towers.  No wires yet.  

We have no problem finding the park.  We are near Falcon Lake and the International Bridge into Mexico which crosses a dam. The folks at the park headquarters give us a map and tell us that they have a bird blind and a few spots where they feed the birds, around 8 in the morning.  We go to check out the blind and I am walking ahead of Greg and get a real surprise!  As I near the blind, a large bobcat leaves it, goes right by me and follows a trail into the brush.  He/she/it was beautiful!  And much bigger than I remember, though I've never been so close!   Here's a picture of a taxidermied one, but the one I saw was bigger with a much prettier spotted coat.

We walk through a butterfly garden area but see only a couple of plain jane butterflies. 

 

I do notice this beautiful tree with white flowers though, which is the Mexican Olive.  We see them often down here.

  This is the hottest place we've been and as temps climb into the 90's, we plug in and give our AC a workout. We use it rarely, but it runs fine and keeps things comfortable.  We hang out and read, relax and chill in the Trek till the temperature drops into the 70's.  Too hot to cook, so we have tuna sandwiches, chips and an apple.  Shower is nice.

We walk a bit and see a few birds, but common ones like mockingbirds, cardinals and the ever-present grackles.  There is a boat ramp which leads to nothing but parched ground and a no swimming sign.  Sign of better days....

We have seen only a few border patrol vehicles this trip, but we do notice this sign.

 As the sun sets, several rabbits come out to nibble the sparse grass around our campsite.