Taking flight on the Rio Grande

You half-expect people to start throwing away their canes, speaking in tongues and screaming hallelujah when Roy Rodriguez starts preaching about the birds of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

His eyes shine and his usual rapid-fire speech revs into machine-gun gear as he gets going on the nearly 500 species of wild, feathered beasts that have been found in a narrow swath of land that follows the Rio Grande along the Mexican border.

“This place is lousy with birds,” he said as we canoed down the river early on an April day. He was not exaggerating. In less than two hours, we saw 42 species of birds: snowy egrets, great egrets, cattle egrets. Tricolored herons, great blue herons, little blue herons, green herons. Harris’s hawks, Swainson’s hawks, broad-winged hawks, Cooper’s hawks, gray hawks.

Rodriguez, who leads these canoe trips for the nonprofit Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, was supposed to be steering the canoe, but he found it difficult to keep both hands on the paddle while pointing out the scores of birds that were swooping, soaring, diving, calling. It was spring, and the birds were at their peak, decked out in colorful plumage, fighting one another for territory, showing off for potential mates. Swimming garter snakes and giant breaching yellow carp tried to steal the show, but they had nothing on the small green kingfisher that plunged off an overhanging branch, grabbed a small fish and beat it senseless against a log before swallowing it in one gulp.

Six of us in two canoes, on a warm Texas day caressed by a light breeze, had entered the tabernacle of birding, and all of us were infected with Rodriguez’s tent-preacher passion for this region’s natural bounty.

Tourists toting binoculars

McAllen, Pharr, Alamo and Mission are just a few in a string of border towns that line the Rio Grande in South Texas. None is close to a major city: Brownsville is 60 miles away.

The idea of this area as a mecca for outdoor-loving naturalists seemed farfetched not long ago. Although the potential was there, locals were slow to figure out that binocular-toting tourists with open wallets would come in large numbers to enjoy Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park and Anzalduas County Park, undeveloped lands that sit smack in the middle of a geographic migration funnel anchored by the Rio Grande. Birds and butterflies amass here in great numbers, either as they pass through from wintering grounds in Mexico and farther south or as permanent residents. It is one of the few places in the United States that attracts unusual tropical birds.

Nationwide, wildlife watching has become a popular and profitable pursuit. In 2001 more than 18 million people traveled to bird-watch, according to the most recent U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service survey. Wildlife watchers spent $8.2 billion, the study concluded, about $229 million in Texas.

Nancy S. Millar, director of the McAllen Convention and Visitors Bureau and originator of the 9-year-old Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in nearby Harlingen, was one of the first chamber of commerce types to spearhead the effort to persuade business and political leaders that they could make money by saving the land.

“I just kept at them,” Millar said. “It was just so obvious that our natural attributes were a wonderful way to draw tourists to our region.”

Birders from around the world have been lured by the new Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, a $1.4-million, 700-plus-mile route completed in 2000 that starts near the border of Louisiana, hugs the coast through these border towns and then moves along the river to just south of Laredo, Texas. The World Birding Center, a trail of nine nature-viewing sites to be constructed in coming years east to west across Texas, from South Padre Island to Roma, is expected to attract even more travelers.

I saw birders from England, Germany and France, traveling in twos and threes, intent on adding birds to their “life lists” of the species they’ve seen. “We’re only here because the birds are here,” said Eugene Hood, from Kent, England, who was on a 17-day trip through South Texas with two friends, hoping to add a couple of hundred bird species to his life list of 1,000.

Don and Jan Pirie from Connecticut, who have traveled to Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, and other exotic birding locations, are typical of the American birders who visit the valley. “It’s one of the best birding spots in the country,” Don Pirie said.

Like Hood and Pirie, I had come to this birding crossroads to experience the yearly spring commute and, even more important, to see the many birds found in the United States only in this small corner of Texas. My plan was simple: to add as many of these rare birds to my life list as possible while appreciating the local flavor.

On Day 1, I was up before dawn and headed for the Santa Ana National Refuge, a 2,088-acre reserve established in 1943 for the protection of migratory birds. The hawk watch here is a true labor of love. From 7 a.m. until noon, from March 15 to April 15, volunteer bird-counters arch their necks uncomfortably and point their binoculars straight up, intent on figuring out the number of hawks migrating north. This year, they counted 54,788 migrating raptors.

In 20 minutes that afternoon, we watched 6,300 raptors (mostly broad-wings with some Swainson’s) float high on the thermals past us.

The refuge offered other surprises too. A female rose-throated becard, a bird usually found in more tropical locales, had built a nest. Clay-colored robins, another bird that typically stays south of the border, foraged below. Even the more usual suspects -- the orange and jet-black Altamira oriole, the clownishly colored green jay, the noisy and ungainly plain chachalaca -- were enough to cause birding sensory overload.

In the late afternoon, I drove to Quinta Mazatlan, a historic adobe home on 8 acres in downtown McAllen. Jane Kittleman, an expert birder, whose North American bird list nears 800 out of a possible 900, led the way and immediately directed me into the underbrush to see the common pauraque, one of the valley’s “money” birds. Sure enough, a pair of pauraques exploded like quails from the brush. A family of colorful Harris’s hawks hunted overhead, and American redstarts and Nashville warblers fed in the trees.

At the end of the day, I did an assessment: I saw 67 species in one day, 25 of them for the first time in my life.

Following the flocks

At 8 the next morning, I pulled up to the McAllen Chamber of Commerce and found a group of birders peering through scopes pointed at the city’s lone high-rise.

“We’ll introduce you later,” Millar said. “Now you’ve got to see the peregrine falcons. One was just eating a pigeon.” And sure enough, a peregrine was calmly preening itself, nestled in the “C” of the Chase Manhattan Bank logo above the 17th floor.

An hour later, Millar, Rodriguez and Martin Hagne, another top area birder and the director of the Valley Nature Center in nearby Weslaco, and I were cruising the suburban streets of Pharr like a SWAT team on the hunt. The van was still moving when Rodriguez swung open the door, stage-whispering, “I hear them. I hear them. Let’s go.”

We spilled onto someone’s front lawn, trying to ignore the huge dogs lumbering toward us, as Rodriguez trained his binoculars on a flock of noisy red-crowned parrots, another species rarely found in the United States. They took off, and so did we, jumping back in the van and following the flock as it flew north. Amazingly, we found them again, this time getting a close-up view of the large, brilliantly colored parrots.

Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, slated to be the headquarters of the World Birding Center, was our next stop. I added two more “wow” birds -- a nesting gray hawk and a northern beardless tyrannulet, which is much smaller than its name -- to my list.

On Day 3 the always-present U.S. Border Patrol jeep followed our truck and pulled over as we launched canoes in an isolated part of the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. Rodriguez shrugged; he is used to their presence. “They don’t give us any trouble.”

As we paddled, Rodriguez told how he nearly tripped over an illegal immigrant who had curled up to die in 110-degree heat last summer. Returning from a six-hour round trip to see the curlew sandpiper, a Eurasian bird that had been blown off course, Rodriguez had stopped at a rest stop and followed bluebirds as they flew into the scrubby desert. There he found the parched man, nearly unconscious, mumbling prayers in Spanish. An ambulance was called, the man’s life was saved, and Rodriguez, who had almost said no to the trip, decided that driving three hours each way to see a rare bird might have had a greater purpose.

With that story running through my brain, we docked our canoes and I returned to the refuge, trying to squeeze out just one more bird to add to my life list before leaving for the flight home. I hit pay dirt with a black-crested titmouse. During the flight, I listed the birds I saw -- 100 species, 44 of them new to me. My North American life list has been jolted to 325, which, while not impressive, delights me.

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Texas warblings

GETTING THERE:

From LAX, Northwest and Continental offer connecting service (change of planes) to Brownsville, Texas. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $500.

WHERE TO STAY:

Alamo Inn, 801 Main St., Alamo; (866) 782-9912 or (956) 782-9912, www.alamoinnsuites.com. I stayed at this birder-friendly inn, where innkeeper and birder Keith Hackland is a great help with maps and directions to birding hot spots. A suite with kitchenette runs $64; bird-watchers’ rate, $42.

Casa Santa Ana, 3239 S. Tower Road, Alamo; (956) 783-5540, www.casasantaana.com. Doubles from $90; discounts available.

Indian Ridge Bed & Breakfast, Bentsen Palm Drive and Two Mile Line Road, Mission; (956) 519-3305, www.indian-ridge-bb.com. Doubles from $90.

Renaissance Casa de Palmas, 101 N. Main St., McAllen; (888) 236-2427 or (956) 631-1101, www.casadepalmas.com. A beautiful historic hotel in downtown. Doubles from $89.

WHERE TO EAT:

El Dorado Restaurant, 755 Main St., Alamo; (956) 787-8822. I rolled out of bed to have the football-size 99-cent breakfast taco stuffed with eggs, potatoes and cheese and the bottomless cup of 89-cent coffee, then returned at night for the $6.95 Mexican plate special. The restaurant offers good Tex-Mex that’s hard on the arteries and easy on the wallet.

Republic of Rio Grande, 1411 S. 10th St., McAllen; (956) 994-8385. This upscale restaurant has excellent chipotle chicken. Entrees $13-$20.

BIRDING:

Best places to see birds near McAllen (most offer guided birding hikes):

Anzalduas County Park, Shary Road, Mission; (956) 585-5311, www.missionchamber.com/anzalduas.html.

Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, two miles south on FM 206; (956) 585-1107, www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/bentsen.

Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Route 2, Alamo; (956) 784-7500, southwest.fws.gov/refuges/texas/santana.html.

Valley Nature Center, 301 S. Border Ave., Weslaco; (956) 969-2475, www.valleynaturecenter.org.

TOURS:

Bird Treks, 115 Peach Bottom Village, Peach Bottom, PA 17563; (717) 548-3303, www.birdtreks.com. Has a South Texas tour Feb. 6-15 for $1,695 per person, double occupancy; airfare is extra.

Wings Birding Tours, 1643 N. Alvernon Way, Suite 109, Tucson, AZ 85712; (888) 293-6443, www.wingsbirds.com. Plans a South Texas tour Feb. 7-15 for $1,890 per person, double occupancy; airfare extra.

Borderland Tours, 2550 W. Calle Padilla, Tucson, AZ 85745; (800) 525-7753, www.borderland-tours.com. Arranging a South Texas tour April 15-22 for $1,425 per person, double occupancy; airfare extra.

TO LEARN MORE:

McAllen Chamber of Commerce, 1200 Ash Ave., McAllen, TX 78501; 877-MCALLEN (622-5536), www.mcallen.org.

World Birding Center, 900 N. Bryan Road, Suite 201, Mission, TX 78572; (956) 584-9156, www.worldbirdingcenter.org. Has nine birding sites in the Rio Grande Valley.

Audubon Naturalist Society, 8940 Jones Mill Road, Chevy Chase, MD 20815; (301) 652-9188, www.audubonnaturalist.org.

-- Carol Sottili