South Padre Island Nature and Birding Center…

Here at the Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort there are organized bird watching tours every Thursday morning and this past Thursday the destination was the South Padre Island Nature and Birding Center. Basically anyone intersted in the tour signs up at the guest services office for the (free) trip and then caravans in their own transportation to the destination. From our park it is about a one hour and fifteen minute drive over to South Padre Island.

We all met at the front of the park and left by 7:30 a.m. (yes, that is extremely early for Sharon) and got to the facility just before it opened at 9:00 a.m. We rode with our friends Brett and Darla whom we met here at the park. The entry fee was $4.00 each for seniors. After paying there is access to their observation tower, the exhibits as well as the extensive boardwalks and trails.

The South Padre Island Birding & Nature Center is at the southern tip of South Padre Island, which by the way is the world’s longest barrier island. South Padre Island is a rather thin and long island between the shallow Laguna Madre and the expansive Gulf of Mexico. The Center is near the convention center and encompasses about 50 acres of varied habitats from dune meadows, salt marshes,intertidal flats and even a fresh water habitat.

We spent several hours walking along the boardwalks observing the birds up very close and personal. There were even a couple of American Alligators and schools of mullet in the brackish and fresh water ponds.The birds in this park seem to be so at ease with people that they are not very skittish at all. They seemed to be carrying on with life as if we weren’t even there. This made it much easier to locate some of the more secretive birds as we were even able to see Clapper Rails and the American Bittern. I was even able to photograph both birds however, the Clapper Rail photo was only of its lower torso…

We enjoyed strolling along the 4800 feet of boardwalks as people shared their sightings while we shared ours thereby giving us the chance to see and identify most of the listed varieties of birds and butterflies. As we finished up our walk we went up the five story observation tower that offered some nice panoramic views of the Laguna Madre as well as the beaches and dunes of South Padre Island and the Gulf of Mexico. After our birding expedition we made our way back south on the island and stopped for a late lunch at Parrot Eye’s. They have a great lunch special there of delicious grilled jumbo shrimp for only $6.95. Some inexpensive draft beer selections along with some great conversation with Brett and Darla made our last trip to South Padre a really fun day…