January in the RGV

One of the best part about staying stationary for a while, is just relaxing and enjoying life at a slower pace. January usually starts with our kids coming to celebrate the holidays with us in our winter location. It works better for their work schedules and flights are so much less expensive! Unfortunately, this year weather and the Omicron Variant foiled our plans. Our daughter, Erica was still able to come, since she had such a short flight from Dallas. Mike loved birding in the park with her, and my favorite was hanging out with her at the beach in South Padre Island and playing games.

Later in the month, we took the RV for a short trip to Brownsville. This allowed us to spend a day each at two of our favorite World Birding Centers: Laguna Acosta and Resaca de La Palma. The weather was gorgeous and allowed us to see and experience different things than our previous visit in 2019. We especially enjoyed biking through the parks and looking for birds. We even were able to see Nilgai, the largest Asian antelope, that are common in Laguna Acosta. We also saw a new bird for us; the Groove Billed Ani while hiking on the Laguna Vista Nature Trail.

At the end of January, Mike went to visit his Mom and family and Omaha. Lucky for me, my sister Mary came to visit at the same time to keep me company, and enjoy a well deserved vacation. Unfortunately, the weather was unseasonably cold while she was in town, but it we still had a great time. The beach on a blustery day is still better than a much colder day in the Midwest. One of the highlights of her trip was visiting the National Butterfly Center. We didn’t see many butterflies due to temperature, but we did see a lot of beautiful birds and trails.

Stay tuned until February for some exciting news!