Valley birds
I guess I've complained enough about my rain-spoiled birding vacation in the Rio Grande Valley. It was a week I had long looked forward to, since it is one of the birdiest places on the planet. I was hoping to see lots of new birds. That didn't quite work out, thanks to the weather, but, in fact, I did see quite a few birds. I even managed to get pictures of some of them. This group of Roseate Spoonbills was resting at mid-day in the wetlands of the World Birding Center on South Padre Island. Also at South Padre was this Long-billed Curlew . A pair of Mottled Ducks napping in the sun - the first sun we had seen in several days. This was one of the two Red-breasted Mergansers I saw and was able to photograph at South Padre. Green-winged Teal were quite common in the ponds at Estero Llano Grande State Park. Lovely ducks! As were the very distinctive Northern Shovelers . I wasn't able to photograph very many songbirds that I saw, but this little Savannah Sparrow was coo...