In Search of the Bat Falcon at the Santa Ana wildlife Refuge

Yesterday we managed to see the Bat Falcon on a pole right outside the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge Entrance. Unfortunately, he waited until dusk to show up and our pictures were not good. So today we decided to try to find him at the Towers in the park where he was seen around 3 PM the day before. 

The following are pictures we took on the way to the towers. 

Lee climbed the tower and stayed up there for awhile but came down discouraged. I sat down below hoping I could see the bird in the trees. However, the park was so full of people today that if the bird showed up, he would probably just fly into the brush and stay hidden. And the bugs were relentless today. I used my vanilla lotion, as usual, when we go and the mosquitos seemed to hungry to care about it today. I managed to keep most of them off of me but I got some horrendous bites on my upper arm and I was wearing long sleeves. 

With all the people there today, we just decided that we would probably never get a good look at him today so we left. It was a bummer. 

Birding at Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge

 

I like to keep track of what the expert birders in the Valley are doing at  RGVBirding on Facebook.  Right now they are excited about a Bat Falcon that is way out of his range. 

This is a picture of the Bat Falcon and information about him from https://ebird.org/species/batfal1:

"Dashing small falcon of tropical lowlands and foothills. Prefers forest edge, adjacent semi-open areas with tall trees, buildings. Found at several Maya ruins in Mexico and northern Central America, also locally in towns. Looks dark overall with a contrasting white throat, and in flight can be confused with White-collared Swift. With a good view, note the rusty belly and ‘trousers.’ Hunts bats at dusk, but main food is small birds caught in flight."

We arrived about 3 PM and parked the car in the parking lot and talked to some birders and found out that the bird has been hanging around at the entrance to the park in the afternoon. So we walked out to the entrance of the park and joined the throng of the very serious birders waiting for the Bat Falcon to arrive. Here is the pole that he likes to use. It is right across the street from where everyone was standing.

You can tell these are the serious birders by just taking a look at their equipment. One of these days maybe we will bite the bullet and get some serious birding camera. 

After more than two hours of waiting, I got bored and tired of standing so I took a little walk in the area just to move around a little. Here are the picture from my little excursion.

After my walk, I went back to where Lee was still standing and we waited some more. It was a very long wait because the Bat Falcon didn't arrive until dusk and it was really too dark to get any good pictures of him. This was the best that we could do.

McAllen's "South Pole Illuminated Festival 2021"

Tonight we went to McAllen to see their South Pole Illuminated Festival which is held on the grounds of the Convention Center. It is amazing what a day can do as far as weather in the Rio Grande Valley. We had so much rain and cold weather the day before yesterday that we had to reschedule caroling in our park. We did the caroling one day later and it was a cool morning but by 3 PM, it was beautiful outside. Today was another gorgeous day and we only need light jackets to keep us warm while we walked around.

This was the first thing we came to as we walked past the ticketing area. 

We are about to enter one of several lighted tunnels.

All the lights reflected on the water 

made a beautiful scene.

Lee is standing by a lot of weeping willow 

trees. They are so pretty. We bought one for our Christmas display this year.

This tree was so pretty, I had Lee take a video of it.

They had fire pits where people 

could make s'mores!

They also had fair rides but we 

didn't go on any of those. 

I love these huge lily pads. They changes 

colors and look spectacular!

Another tunnel!

A Double Decker Carrousel

Of course, there was a huge area of food vendors

And another lighted tunnel

We love these icicle lights that look 

like they are dripping

In this area there was a movie going on

 behind us but this character was floating

 over the water and dancing.

It was really a gorgeous evening and we had a good time walking around and seeing everything there was to see and do.  

Then on the way home there was a 

fabulous full moon. 

These pictures don't do it justice!