I used to live in the RGV (Laguna Vista) between 2004-2008. Although I was always excited to see the cool "big birds" like Roseate Spoonbills and Long-billed Curlews, I wasn't much of a birder...just enjoyed being outside in "nature". About a year after we moved down there, mom and dad came down to visit. After a trip to Laguna Atascosa NWR, they gifted me my first bird book. It definitely helped, but I was still more of a bird watcher than a birder. It was more about identifying what was in front of me than actively searching out and discovering something.
Fast forward to 2017, dad convinced me to go birding with he and mom. Truth be told, I think I did it more to appease him and spend time with them. Somewhere over the next few years, things changed. I enjoyed looking for birds, being able to ID them, and learning a few calls. I can't tell you how many times I looked at a female Red-winged Blackbird before I finally "knew" what it was instead of asking for help or pulling out the bird book.
Over the last couple of years, I've eagerly awaited reading about Edge's RGV adventures in winter. I'd been hoping to get back there myself. In April 2008, just a few months before we moved back to MO, I experienced a mini-fallout at the Convention Center. That always stuck with me and I wanted to go back during Spring migration. By pure chance, I noticed I had 7 days off the first week of May. I work 12 hr shifts and it was just the way they happened to land. I immediately started getting excited that I just might get to get my Spring migration trip to the valley. I messaged my parents and to my surprise and delight, my mom was up for the adventure.
We boarded Southwest at 5am and was birding in Harlingen, TX before 10am. With a couple of exceptions, our efforts were all focused on Cameron County. One of those exceptions was Estero Llano Grande State Park (Hidalgo County) was offering free tram tours (with $5 entrance fee) around the park the day we arrived. This was well worth it and we were able to see a few areas of the park we wouldn't have been able to on our own. It's also a great way to explore for those that can't do a lot of hiking. We visited the South Padre Island (SPI) Convention Center/Boardwalk several times chasing all those migrants mixed in with those RGV residents. Our favorite spot was the SPI mudflats. We visited here almost daily...first thing in the morning, last thing in the evening, and sometimes both. We also visited the Valley Land Fund lots (new spot for me) and the World Bird Center on the island, Laguna Atascosa NWR, the South Texas Ecotourism Center (new spot for me), Palo Alto Battlefield to find 2 lifer sparrows and Oliveira Park in Brownsville (new spot) to find some lifer parrots and a few other spots. We packed as much as we could into those 6 days while somewhat limiting our driving. We still put lots of miles on the rental car, but to get from one end of the valley to the other, you can drive about 3 hrs and we wanted to avoid those extremes. I also wanted to stay on the island, so that was another limiting factor.
While many things were the same as I remember from 17 years ago, I was surprised at how much had changed. I didn't get all of my targets, but I got a bunch. In 6 days, we saw 167 species, 12 of which were lifers for me. Mom had close to 30 lifers. I added almost 40 birds to my Texas life list (total 228 now) and my Cameron County life list (220). I want to go back again and explore more by foot. I also gotta go back in the winter and see what kind of surprises I can find.
Anyway, I finally got through my pics and I think I've ID'd everything correctly, so thought I'd share my list with you. Hope you enjoy. I don't have a nice RGV report written up like Edge, but if anyone has any questions, I'm happy to try and answer them.
RGV w/mom 2025 - eBird Trip Report
Becky Lutz636-432-9442Washington, MO Franklin County
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The Missouri Birding Society's Wild Bird Discussion Forum
