Bentsen Rio Grande State Park, Mission Texas

Monk Parakeet

On our way to Mission, Texas we stopped at Hildalgo along the Rio Grande just to find the Monk Parakeet who make huge stick colony nests in this town.  We found 14 birds walking in a school yard looking for lunch.  Also in the yard were 6 Long-billed Curlews digging into the lawn for grubs and bugs.

Long-billed Curlew

Long-billed Thrasher

We spent some time at Bentsen State Park looking for all the birds other than hawks before we officially start our count from the hawk tower.

Long-billed Thrashers are singing on territory in all areas of the park.  We see about 60-70 species of birds each day in the park.

Green Kingfisher male

Along Kingfisher Overlook, we found both South Texas specialty kingfishers.  The tiny Green Kingfisher sits low above the water along shores of the resaca.


The 16" tall Ringed Kingfisher came and perched on the railing of the overlook.  These two exotic birds bring many birders to the Valley.

Ringed Kingfisher

Bathing Orange-crowned Warbler displays his orange crown

Golden-fronted Woodpecker drinks and reflects

Northern Cardinals are a deep red here in the Valley

Green Jays always generate a lot of birder excitement 

Green Jay displaying

Great Kiskadee, our largest flycater in the U.S.

Black-throated Green Warbler

Yellow-throated Warbler

Yucca beginning to bud

Yucca in full bloom

We took a ride to Granjeno to find the resident Burrowing Owl along the floodplain dike.


We then drove to Anzulduas County Park to bird this open parkland.  An adult Gray Hawk was watching over the picnic area.

He took off as Ty got closer with his camera.

Adult Gray Hawk takes flight

Inca Dove pair

We also drove to Quinta Mazatlan in McAllen to see what birds were visiting this historical area.

Lower Rio Grande Valley Barrel Cactus

Carolina Wren at Quinta Mazatlan

Crested Caracara

On March 2nd, we started our daily hawk watch, climbing the ramp to the two story platform.  As you can see by the above photo, we are in an intense drought without any rain for weeks.

In this first week, we have had over 14,000 raptors counted from the tower, most of the early migrants are Black and Turkey Vultures.  There have been 13 other species of raptors seen this week.

Harris's Hawk

Harris's Hawk - Time to go!

Cooper's Hawk does a close fly over.

Immature Gray Hawk, notice the flexable primaries

Vermilion Flycatchers migrating north

Javelinas feed on willow branches that a bulldozer is clearing for wetlands restoration

Large Javelina drinks and washes in the pond by the Green Jay blind

McCall's Eastern Screech-Owl roosts in an open shelter at our RV park

Blue-headed Vireo

Proud Papa Owl overwatching the nest

The Great Horned Owl pair are again nesting in a large Palm tree at Bentsen Palm Village RV Park about 25 sites from our site.  The eggs hatched this last week and mother is doing a good job of brooding her young.  Ty was able to get a photo of one fuzzy white head.

Looking forward to seven more weeks of hawk migration and the migration of all the other birds heading north to nest.

Here's the fuzzy owlet with Mom peeking through the hollow branch

Love & Prayers,
Ty & Ida Baumann