 The
Weslaco Nature Center is part of the National Birding Center along the
Rio Grande Valley. Vicki and I spent the afternoon wandering this
relatively small, but very nice park Wednesday afternoon. I
was attracted as much by the beautiful blossoms as by the birds.
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 Vicki commented that these cactus blossoms are so perfect they look fake. They are real blossoms.
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 Near
the entrance a placard indentifies this as a Moctezuma Cypress. I
may have been looking at the wrong plant. Everything I've found
on the Internet describes Moctezuma or Montezuma Cypress as huge
ancient trees with no mention of blossoms similar to this.
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 Prickly
Pear blossoms are common at this time of year. They appear as this
intense orange color or brilliant yellow. Bees and Yellow Jackets
love them.
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 The cactus with these red finger-like appendages wasn't identified.
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 It
was almost impossible to take a step without rousting one of these
striped lizards. At first it was startling to take a step and see
a lizard out of the corner of my eye, they blend almost perfecdtly into
the background.
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 This park has lots of hummingbirds, more than I've seen anywhere else.
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 A Plain Chachalaca looks over its shoulder to see what I'm doing.
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 A White Tipped Dove checks me out through the trees
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 Seeing
the Yellow Croned Night Heron was a unique experience. These
birds are nocturnal and are seen during the daylight only during mating
season.
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 The
park volunteer said that last year there were eleven nests with 4
chicks in each nest. Hawks feasted on two of the hatchlings, but
42 of the chicks survived to fly away when they left the nests.
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 A Long-tailed Skipper sits on a cactus stem.
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 New Mesquite leaves announce the beginning of spring. I like the pattern and the brilliant green of these leaves.
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