by Texas Beach Vacation | Apr 20, 2010 | South Padre
Resaca de la Palma State Park — Texas’ newest state park and the eighth link in the World Birding Center chain stretching the breadth of the Rio Grande Valley — will host a grand opening celebration on Saturday, Dec. 6 in this border city.
by Texas Beach Vacation | Apr 20, 2010 | South Padre
he following are excerpts from recent Texas Parks and Wildlife Department law enforcement reports.
Rodeo in Sonora: On Nov. 30, a Sutton County Game warden received a call about two buck deer attached at the antlers by a large entanglement of wire. One of the deer was alive and the other was dead after being gored by a third buck deer. The location of the call was in the town of Sonora and several spectators were at the scene when the game warden arrived. A plan was developed and the necessary equipment, two ropes and wire cutters, were obtained. With help from a Sonora police department officer, who managed to rope the head of the deer while the game warden roped the back feet, the deer was stretched out in true rodeo head and healer fashion and the wire was cut from the bucks’ heads. The surviving buck was last seen jumping a fence and leaving town at a high rate of speed.
by Texas Beach Vacation | Apr 20, 2010 | News
Some exciting news for entomologists: a new species of tree cricket has been found in the United States. On May 16, 2009, Nancy Collins from Wisconsin and Laurel Symes, a PhD candidate at Dartmouth University, heard a tree cricket sing at Resaca de la Palma State Park and World Birding Center in Brownsville. On a return trip in June they found another cricket at Bentsen Rio Grande State Park, another World Birding Center in Mission. Further analysis by Dr. Thomas J. Walker, Professor Emeritus, University of Florida-Gainesville, revealed that it was an unnamed species of Oecanthus. Collins says that it will be called Alexander’s tree cricket, in respect of R. D. Alexander who first discovered them in Mexico in the 1960s.
by Texas Beach Vacation | Apr 20, 2010 | South Padre
The World Birding Center, a network of nine Rio Grande Valley parks and nature centers dedicated to avian conservation and education, has won national recognition from the Society of American Travel Writers for promoting eco-friendly travel.
by Texas Beach Vacation | Apr 20, 2010 | South Padre
Stick another feather in the cap of the Lower Rio Grande Valley to boost its already sizable reputation as one of the nation’s hottest birding spots.
A team of Rio Grande Valley birders at Estero Llano Grande State Park recently learned they placed first in the state and second in the United States in Birdwatcher’s Digest magazine’s Big Sit! competition held over a 24-hour period in October at locations throughout the world. It was the first time a team from the state park, which is one of the state’s nine World Birding Center sites, had competed in the Big Sit!