Category Archives: Falcon State Park

Signs and Sounds of Spring

As I sat outside last evening, dozens of Red-wing Blackbirds were in the tree above me, chattering and calling away, and I thought, "I’m certainly not in Vermont anymore."

Here in deep South Texas where spring comes early (winter never arrives), Northern Mockingbirds are starting to work on their great array of songs. At times it seems like there is a tree full of different birds as the "mocker" run through its repertoire.

Growing season in the Southern Rio Grande Valley is listed as 340 days – I have no idea when the twenty-five non-growing days occur. The thing I have noticed is that fields, one day barren, are after a few days of plowing and planting, are in about a week, green ( often with stoop laborers bent over, tweaking things.) it is an amazing growing system, complete with scarce water from the shrunken Rio Grande, intensive pesticide and fertilizer use, and cheap migrant labor.

Here at Falcon State Park, the Yucca plants are blossoming.

One of the indicators of spring for many Texans is the greening of Mesquite trees, such as this one I saw yesterday on the trail. It is a sure sign for many that the last frost has occurred and that it is safe to plant.

After a brief rain the other night, some flowers are beginning to pop. Here’s some Texas Lantana, a common, but pretty shrub.

I just walked by two Curved-bill Thrashers perched in a tree, singing away to one another. Love is in the air in South Texas.

Adios, Falcon State Park

We leave windy, arid Falcon State Park in the morning after two weeks of nearly-constant wind and temperatures in the mid-to-high eighties. All in all, it has been a nice stay here and a chance to see some friends and make a few new ones. This is a unique state park: there is an active community here many of whom have been coming here for years and in many cases, decades. There is a rather active social calendar around the recreation center and while that’s not our cup of tea, we do drop in periodically to say hello and pick up a book.

Sunset over Falcon Lake

We said goodbye this morning two our Oklahoma friends, Bud (87) and Charlotte (85) who we first met three years ago. Bud, a former trucker and mechanic, helped me with some big problems with the Airstream – and this time helped me (well, he did most of it) fix a faulty switch on a motor that raises the trailer tongue. Last night, we went over at dusk to talk and in the warm Texas evening, a number of couples came by to say goodbye. It was very poignant since with their age, you never know if they’ll be back. They are traveling home with some Vermont honey from our bees – and our hopes to see them again.

Being right on the Mexican border, there are some challenges. First of all, a Mexican phone company, TELCEL, grabs your signal much of the time and phones therefore are pretty unreliable. The radio stations are nearly all Spanish language and the few in English seem to be right-wing talk shows. It’s fifteen miles for decent wifi and 35 miles for decent groceries. Don’t even look for skim milk in a thirty mile radius; Chips and beer and fishing gear, yes.

And yet, this place grows on you. We are on the western edge of the Central Time Zone so it doesn’t get light until nearly 8 AM. Early morning walks with the dog are cool and filled with bird songs. Roadrunners and rabbits tease the Vizsla with their run, wait, run movements. Double-crested Cormorants fly over in large formations, heading for a day of fishing. Likewise, White Pelicans cruise out to Lake Falcon as we walk along. The breeze is almost always constant and picks up big time during the day.

Roadrunners drive our Vizsla nuts

Spring flowers have been popping everywhere and some of the ugliest plants have the prettiest flowers. Butterflies are everywhere but the wind makes it a challenge. Red Admirals come reliably to the orange halves we stick on trees.

Flower of a Thistle Plant

Prickly Pear Flowers

I had a chance to do some kayaking here although the wind kept the boat on the truck most days. The first morning I launched, a little Eared Grebe surface right in front of the kayak, dove and came back up alongside. I got pretty close to egrets, and Osprey, and other water birds. They seemed to not be afraid of the quiet boat — particularly with many bass boats roaring by.

We can’t get away from the drug war. Border Patrol vehicles cruise the park and and are common along the highways. A tethered observation ballon often flies to the north of here — sort of an ominous sight in a clear blue sky. But there have been no issues for several years here — even though Mexican drug activity goes on in Roma and Rio Grande City.

But as the Winter Texans like us leave, it’s hard to imagine living here. We’ve had a taste of the temperatures and the constant wind and one can see why siestas are popular. It’s deadly in mid-day. The decrepit homes, mongrel dogs, and trash get to you after a while.

But what a place for birds. I picked up nine new life birds and both Mary and I saw a wonderful array of Texas birds. Just on our little camp road we have Scaled Quail, Northern Bobwhites, Inca Doves, Northern Mockingbirds, Orange-crowned Warblers, Long-billed and Curved-bill Thrashers, Olive Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows, White-Crowned Sparrows, and the ubiquitous Turkey Vultures, Northern Cardinals, and Red-winged Blackbirds.

So, we are trading wind for mosquitoes and returning to another favorite place, Goose Island State Park where Penny has a vet appointment to check her progress and remove the last two stitches. It will be nice to kiss TELCEL goodbye. Never thought AT&T would look so good.

Birds of Falcon State Park

While the Texas drought has cut back the number of birds, there is still a wide variety here and down at Salineno. Here are some photos I’ve taken in the last week.
Altimira Oriole
Long-billed Thrasher across the street sounding like a Northern Mockingbird
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Great Kiskadee
Green Jays are hard to beat for color and personality
Hooded Oriole

Remembering Falcon


I’ve talked about the people of Falcon State Park and their cordiality. We will recall with fondness Bud and Charlotte from Enid, OK who befriended us last year and were our neighbors again this year. Married 64 years, they are a wonderful couple – who also love Penny.

We’ve met a number of Canadian couples, including Bert and Maryanne — fellow beekeepers and many mid-Westerners. The people are a big part of the attraction of this facility.

The sunrises and sunsets are often spectacular — especially the sunsets over Falcon Reservoir. We went down tonight to watch it and see how fast the sun moves as it approaches the horizon. Western skies are just amazing to Easterners like us. I recall years ago when I was flying in the Navy out west and returning to Vermont briefly for an event. How closed in I felt — in spite of being a Vermonter I’d gotten used to the openness.

Falcon is one of the top fishing lakes in the country. With hundreds of miles of coastline, it attracts many bass tournaments — from local clubs to national events. It’s not unusual to see fifty or more truck/trailer rigs in the parking lots and they fish from sunrise to twilight.

And of course, the birds here are wonderful. A western birder told me yesterday, “I’ve birded throughout the west but never down here. I’m amazed at all the different species.” We tend to get a little blase’ about one more Green Jay or Altimira Oriole. While we didn’t have the rarer birds that sometimes frequent this place, it’s easy to pick up 40 species or more in an hour walk.

So we leave what has become one of our favorite places. It was in the 80’s today but has cooled down with a nice breeze this evening. The coyotes tuned up a while back and the three-quarters moon and starlight will light up this place tonight. I’d hate to be here in July but it sure is nice in February.

Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Vermont anymore

 Going to bed, listening to coyotes and the constant humming of oil/gas extraction nearby.  The lights of Mexican towns glitter across the reservoir.  What a contrast to Vermont — although we’ve had a couple of rainy days, the prickly pear and yucca cactus and many other thorny plants let us know we are in deep Texas.

Thursday we went down to the Roma library to use their wifi connection.  The room was abuzz in Spanish, making it feel like we were across the border – just a mile away.  Later, at a Walmart in Rio Grande City, we were about the only two anglos out of the hundreds of patrons.  No big deal – and we marvel, as we do in Montreal, of the adroit switching from language to language.  Mary overheard a cellphone discussion by the person next in line who interrupted a steady chatter of Spanish to say, “and you got the shrimp, right?” then switching right back to Spanish.

Yesterday, while out on a walk with Penny, four javelinas sauntered across the road in a line, starting from momma to the youngest.  Then a sharp-shinned hawk wove through the thickets in search of a bird to eat.  And hundreds of grackles and red-winged blackbirds (pests here right now) are hopefully thinking about heading north.

We awoke to a screech owl, cardinals, and mockingbirds.  The forecast today is for mid-seventies.  We can only imagine what August must be like down here.  It’s a foreign land in many ways to us native Vermonters.