Sunday, January 11, 2009

World Birding Center, Mission, TX

We start off each day bright and early with a 4 mile walk. I'm talking a "brisk" walk, not a "mosey". It takes us an hour. Been doing it for years. It's not necessarily because I enjoy it, but we figure it is a life necessity. We want to live a long, healthy life and to do that, we feel we have to keep moving and push ourselves. For the first few years, it was tough and I could think of a dozen reasons not to go walking, but Ms Pat kept pushing me. Believe me, I needed that push!! Now, although I still don't really enjoy the walk, I look forward to it. Shortly after sun up, presently about 7:15 am, we head out.

The second most enjoyable place we walk is here in South Texas in the Bentsen State Park, just a couple blocks from our place. It is a World Birding Center, 760 acres and a nice quiet place to walk. It used to have a big RV Park in it. In fact, back in 2000, the first year we came to the Rio Grande Valley, we camped in the State Park. They closed the campground shortly after that and dedicated the entire Park to the World Birding Center (WBC). Retama Village, where our lot is, and the Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort right next to us, were just an open farm field......... Strange how things work out. Who would have ever thought?
Here are a few pictures taken in the Park.
(click on all picture to enlarge)

This is Danielle Mayer and Ms Pat at the far South end of the Park looking out across the Rio Grande River. That house across the River is Mexico. Told you we were close!!



Almost every morning, we see one or more groups of Javelinas feeding under the many bird feeders. They are interesting creatures and have become somewhat tame as they don't pay a lot of attention to us as we walk by....each time I see one I can't help but think how good they would taste on a BBQ spit........:-)

That's about it for this week, Gotta go walk!!!!

Just 3 more weeks and we'll be headed WEST to attend the Gypsy Journal Rally at Casa Grande, AZ and on to our lot at North Ranch near Wickenburg, AZ.

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!!

God Bless you all...

Mike

This Blog is published every Sunday and Wednesday morning.
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fortunately for us, we both enjoy taking walks and hikes when we're traveling. Unfortunately for us, we're not traveling right now and taking walks on the highway where we live is just not something we want to do, so we end up going somewhere else or running into town to go to the gym.

I had NO idea that javelinas would be that tame. We've never been anywhere where there were any - except zoos -, though we hope to rectify that on our next trip, which we're planning to start next month.

Carol said...

Thought the same thing when I saw the javelinas.......YUM!!! They are sorta cute though, huh?? :)+

EmmeBee said...

The Rio Grande Valley of the southern Texas was known to be the most popular hotspots in birding. There have been more than 900 species of birds spotted in the country, so it has been considered to be the Worlds Birding Center.

EmmeBee said...

The Rio Grande Valley of the southern Texas was known to be the most popular hotspots in birding. There have been more than 900 species of birds spotted in the country, so it has been considered to be the Worlds Birding Center.

EmmeBee said...

The Rio Grande Valley of the southern Texas was known to be the most popular hotspots in birding. There have been more than 900 species of birds spotted in the country, so it has been considered to be the Worlds Birding Center.

EmmeBee said...

The Rio Grande Valley of the southern Texas was known to be the most popular hotspots in birding. There have been more than 900 species of birds spotted in the country, so it has been considered to be the Worlds Birding Center.

http://missioneda.org/