Texas: Harlingen Arroyo Colorado & Olivera Park

     On our third day, we birded and footballed. My husband made a request to watch some of the game and I obliged, he is on vacation too, plus buffalo wings have been something I have welcomed into my life since being pregnant.
     So the plan was to visit Harlingen Arroyo Colorado, hit the amazing 77 Flea Market for some lunch and the experience of this massive marketplace, found a bar for the games, and then hit Olivera park at dusk in hopes for some parrots. It was a good plan and so it was executed...

We were welcomed by queen butterflies among the plantings in the parking lot.

My husband gets the credit for finding our one and only green kingfisher of the trip!
Also, they look funny head on.

Far smaller than the belted kingfisher, they still have a very similar rattling call.

They are also indeed, as their name suggests, green. In color, I cannot speak for their ecological practices.

Happy we got all three kingfishers on this trip.
According to the world Birding Site, this park is a known place where green kingfishers nest.

Along our walk, I heard this clamor of calls. When I located the maker of noises, it was a great kiskadee displaying to another, proudly showing off this yellow crest on its head.

It would tuck its beak close to its chest and quiver and shiver while making some noise.
Needless to say, the other bird seemed to ignore it all.

In walking, we found that small pocket gardens were built off of the trails and some of these had plants favored by the birds or stocked feeding stations which drew in the bulk of what we observed, like this verdin.

Verdin are just absolutely adorable and easy to recognize with their yellow head and black mask.

This bird found this plant a natural food source while the other species preferred free handouts.

I originally thought "oh a brown thrasher.... but, it looks a little... different."
Because it isn't...

Another Orange-crowned warbler with suet evidence on its beak.

A pleasant surprise, an oven bird!
With a little niblet on its tongue!

That brown thrasher-like bird is a long billed thrasher.

I liked looking at this bird, it was very handsome with its bold spots and rich brown feathers. These birds are again, a bird you will only see in South Texas and Eastern Mexico.

We got to Olivera Park at 5:30pm. We had no idea where to look, just going off other people's accounts of this experience. So I just listened for parrot calls and scanned tree tops and wires.

This wire gave me a bonus loggerhead shrike!
We also enjoyed views of an actively hovering American Kestrel, and a circling peregrine who seemed to set many of the birds onto the alert.
But then we heard those familiar squalks... and followed them.

They led us to the portion of the park where there is a skate park. A few gathered on the wires and acted, well... like parrots!

I originally thought this one had a stick it was playing with.
As we watched, more and more birds gathered flying in from where ever they spent the day.

Turns out that stick is a radio collar. I learned that there is a study based out of Texas A &M tracking these birds to learn more about their distribution as these, red-crowned parrots are pretty endangered. Many of the birds here are displaced from habitats destroyed and are also released pets. So having these birds here, and being that many of them are truly wild, they are a very valuable population and worth learning more about.

Before we knew it, the wires and nearby trees were dripping (quite literally) with hundreds of parrots.

At one point, these birds gathered in two small trees bearing fruits that they happily gobbled up. You could observe these particular birds quite closely due to the smallness of the trees. The volume of the voices of these birds was amazing, they were as parrots were, LOUD.
Then, while watching and enjoying these amazing views you see that also at least a dozen other people have gathered for this spectacle and every single one of them has the biggest smile on their face.
And then at one point, the parrots must have caught sight of the falcon, who also must time this each night, and took flight. Being that these trees were only maybe 10 feet tall, the birds took flight at face level, at least a hundred came out of these two trees. And this amazing moment of being surrounded by parrots happened, flying by your face somehow not hitting each other or you, or the five people next to you, as they retreated to the tallest trees.
IT BLEW MY MIND.

Here are some of those cuties in those small trees:

In the park, earlier in the day, we noted that the cacti were missing chunks out of them on their top pads. The bottom we dismissed for tortoises, but couldn't imagine what was chomping the tops.
Well, that was answered for us at Olivera Park!

Of all the birds and places we visited this was by far my most favorite moment and experience. I mean, for one, I LOVE parrots. But Also, to see this gathering unfold and this flock come together and roost, it was just stunning to see. Very happy we came to this little park!