Adventures in Mission, TX

We have spent the last few days in Mission, a small town right on the Mexican border. It is basically composed of strip malls with everything in Spanish. We stayed at the Indian Ridge B and B, where we essentially had our own flat, a swimming pool, and chookies! These lovely Rhode Island reds were at first uncertain about taking our tortilla scraps, but once we offered our restaurant leftovers to them the next day, we were best friends. Every time they saw us outside they would run to the fence with high hopes. Mission roads were in poor condition, and we encountered goats, dogs and children wandering over the road. We suspect they have a serious vampire problem here too, as all the restaurants have a wall of crucifixes and garlic is applied liberally to dishes.

The only reason for coming to Mission was the "World" Birding Centre, which comprised several state parks that were excellent for wildlife and birding. I went on a morning bird walk led by park naturalist Javier (sporting an excellent Amish beard) which was completely unlike the Grand Canyon nature tours - we saw green jays, plain chachalacas, great kiskadees, javelinas and Altamira oriole. Inspired by the awesomeness of Javier's tour, I also went on the butterfly tour led by Jose. I was the only one on the butterfly tour, and it turned out that Jose was an ornithologist filling in for the lepidopterist, so we had a great afternoon of being distracted by cool birds while trying to figure out the butterfly species we were seeing. Continuing the butterfly theme, I walked the 2 km to the North American Butterfly Association garden while Shelly and Jon were on a fruitless search for a supermarket. As I entered the gardens, everyone stared at me walking up the driveway, and the staff member informed me that 'people don't really walk around here much'.

I did convince Shelly and Jon to come and watch for the elf owl (North America's smallest owl) emerge from its hollow in a telegraph pole. Despite the ticks and ferocious mosquitoes, they came and sat in the fading light and stared at the pole like idiots with me for 40 minutes. This effort was rewarded with wonderful views of the bird perched at the hollow entrance. It definitely outranks puppies on the cuteness scale. We also had our first firefly sightings of the trip which caused much excitement.





The three of us went to the Estero Llano Grande State Park for some hot wetland action. Here we got to tag along with two of the park's naturalists, Huck (he of the awesome ringlet mullet) and Kyle. We saw alligators performing the motorcycle imitation call and accompanying dance moves, and Shelly got to hold a baby gator (also high in the cuteness stakes). Roseate spoonbills, least bittern and Wilson's phalarope in breeding plumage were also here. We heard cane toads, which are native here apparently, and saw giant tarantula burrows. And what we think was convict labour. Best of all though was getting to see a common pauraque sitting on her nest perfectly camouflaged on the ground.

Shelly discovered some pretty good wildlife back at the B and B, where she was lounging by the pool instead of baking a cake due to inability to find a supermarket. There she found buff-bellied hummingbirds, green parrots, and a friendly green anole, a type of lizard. The anole showed off for Shelly, displaying his extensible peach throatfan. After these wild times poolside, we were unknowingly in for a wild night too. At about 10pm, we suddenly heard helicopters and sirens REALLY close to the house. Jon decided to investigate outside and, yes, the helicopters were over the house and the police vehicles were circling our block. This continued for about two hours. Checking the net, we discovered that there had been a home invasion by an armed gang two blocks away and that the police were now chasing the suspects. Not cool.

We are now in Corpus Christi, which has some nice coastal birds like American skimmers, but that is about it. We have, however, seen a giant faux sandcastle next to a mini golf place. We may just have to drop in there tomorrow before we head for Austin.