South Padre Area Birding
MORE TO DO
•South Padre Island Birding & Nature Center is organizing three day
trips to see seabirds in the Gulf of Mexico: July 25, Aug. 29 and
Sept. 19. Cost is $150 per person. Long day at sea (6 a.m. to 6 p.m.)
not advised for young children. Contact Cate Ball, 956-761-8303.
Details:
www.texaspelagics.com.
•Beachcomber's Museum, 104 W. Pompano St.; 956-761-5231.
•Sealife Center, 110 N. Garcia, Port Isabel; 956-943-6626;
www.spisealife.org.
Small, nonprofit educational facility with touch tank for children.
Operated by Scarlet and George Colley. Entry: $3.
•Schlitterbahn Beach Waterpark (33261 State Park Road 100;
www.schlitterbahn.com
RESOURCES
•World Birding Center,
www.worldbirdingcenter.org.
•North American Rare Bird Alert (
www.narba.org) reports unusual sightings nationwide.
•Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail maps ($4 each), available from
Texas Parks and Wildlife (1-888-900-2577;
www.tpwd.state.tx.us).
•Scarlet Colley channel and bay tours. Reservations: 956-299-0629;
www.fin2feather.com. Maximum six people. Dolphins, $20 per
person, one hour. Birds, $45, three hours.
•South Padre Island visitors center, 600 Padre Blvd.;
1-800-767-2373;
www.sopadre.com.
•Lower Rio Grande Valley tourism,
www.valleychamber.com.
•Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge (956-748-3607;
www.fws.gov)
offers seasonal tram tours, plus driving and walking trails.
•Sea Turtle Rescue Center, 6617 Padre Blvd.; 956-761-4511;
www.seaturtleinc.com.
Ten years after planning began to launch the World Birding Center
in Texas' Lower Rio Grande Valley, the ambitious project to restore
wildlife habitat and promote birding and nature tourism has taken off
and is gaining altitude.
Comprised of nine sites strung along 120 miles of the Rio Grande
corridor from Roma to South Padre Island, the WBC encompasses
everything from saltwater flats and riparian woodlands to thick
Tamaulipan thornscrub and palm-fringed resacas that attract an
incomparable diversity of bird species.
As the WBC Web site notes: "The Rio Grande Valley hosts one of the
most spectacular convergences of birds on earth. More than 500 species
have been documented in this unique place."
And, some of the best places to see specialty birds of the Valley,
such as the green jay, great kiskadee and Altamira oriole, are the two
state parks run by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department that are
currently open and six locally operated WBC sites.
Only TPWD's Resaca de la Palma State Park near Brownsville has yet
to open, but is expected to welcome visitors sometime this fall as the
final link in the WBC chain. Resaca de la Palma will feature 1,700
semitropical acres etched by ancient curves of the Rio Grande that
will nicely complement the other WBC sites, according to Russell
Fishbeck, the South Texas region's state parks director.
"The managers of the various World Birding Center sites have worked
pretty well together when they've needed to share staff and other
resources," Fishbeck said. "It's hard to pinpoint the visitation
numbers throughout the network, but the sites are really starting to
connect with the local customer base through school programs and
family nature events."
TPWD's executive director, Robert L. Cook believes, too, in the
WBC's educational mission and the Valley's unique natural heritage.
"The World Birding Center," he explained, "is important for
wildlife conservation and sustainable economic development, but its
lasting impact may come through youth involvement and education.
"The Lower Rio Grande Valley is one of the most biologically
diverse ecological regions in North America and a critical migratory
stopover point for birds that move between the Americas. Yet, more
than three-quarters of the region's original wildlife habitat has been
replaced by human development. The WBC showcases ways to restore and
protect habitat while providing a tourism destination that puts people
directly in touch with nature and wildlife."
TPWD operates both the headquarters of the far-flung World Birding
Center at Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park near Mission and the recently
opened Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco. Estero Llano Grande
features almost 200 acres of reclaimed wetlands that teem with birds
and other wildlife. Six other WBC sites have been built and are
operated by local communities in Edinburg, Harlingen, Hidalgo,
McAllen, Roma, and South Padre Island.
The $7 million WBC headquarters includes an exhibit hall, lecture
hall, gift shop, coffee bar and administrative offices on a former
60-acre farm field that has been replanted with native South Texas
vegetation. Other elements include the hawk viewing tower, two bird
viewing blinds with water features to attract birds, a flooded habitat
courtyard that draws butterflies and birds, tram service to transport
visitors within the park, and miles of hiking trails. More than 300
bird and almost 200 butterfly species have been documented at the
760-acre sanctuary only minutes from fast-growing Valley communities.
The advent of the WBC has been an economic boon to the Valley
economy, which has suffered agricultural setbacks in recent years.
Wildlife watchers from outside the region are estimated to generate
more than $100 million annually in new tourism dollars for the Lower
Rio Grande Valley.
Economic development motives, as well as the drive to conserve
rapidly disappearing habitat, help explain the involvement of six
major Rio Grande Valley municipalities in the World Birding Center.
Edinburg Scenic Wetlands provides an oasis for birds and other
wildlife in an urban landscape that draws visitors to 40 acres of
shallow ponds to view waterbirds, shorebirds, butterflies, dragonflies
and other critters from waterside observation platforms and trails. An
interpretive center features educational exhibits on fish and aquatic
life, and state-of-the-art interactive computer programs highlighting
birds and butterflies.
Hugh Ramsey Park on Harlingen's east side to a 40-acre upland thorn
forest on the west side. Harlingen's wing of the WBC provides breeding
grounds for numerous "Valley specialties" and the endangered
red-crowned parrot.
The Old Hidalgo Pumphouse combines preservation of a key part of
the Valley's agricultural history with nature conservation through the
creation of butterfly and hummingbird gardens, hike and bike paths and
birding trails. The site's museum depicts how steam-driven irrigation
pumps turned Hidalgo County into a year-round farming Mecca.
Quinta Mazatlan, a Spanish-style, 1930s adobe home just across from
McAllen's international airport, serves as headquarters for the
bustling city's wing of the WBC that opened in spring 2006. The
6,700-square-foot showplace anchors an eight-acre estate filled with
more than 100 species of exotic and native trees, shrubs and flowers
that attract scores of birds and other wildlife. Since it opened, more
than 20,000 people have visited, many of them attending weddings and
other special functions.
Roma Bluffs, the westernmost WBC location, occupies the old plaza
of a once-thriving steamboat port sitting above the Rio Grande. The
site includes a narrow band of river woodlands dominated by black
willow, Texas sugarberry and stands of Texas ebony. An interpretive
overlook offers a great view of the river, island and woodlands below,
as well as views of the Mexican border town of Miguel Aleman.
South Padre Island and Nature Center bookends the string of WBC
sites at the southern tip of the world's longest barrier island. A
boardwalk nature trail adjacent to the city's convention center spans
a marsh all the way to wildlife-rich Laguna Madre. Interpretive panels
and bird blinds enhance the experience. A 10,000-square-foot visitor
center, lengthening of the boardwalk and addition of two more bird
blinds are on the drawing board.
For details on the World Birding Center, see the Web site or phone
(956) 584-9156. Photos, maps and graphics are available for news media
use on the TPWD Web site.
Media Contact: Rob McCorkle, (830) 866-3533 or
robert.mccorkle@tpwd.state.tx.us; Tom Harvey, (512) 389-4453 or
tom.harvey@tpwd.state.tx.us Tom Harvey, (512) 389-4453
