I’m a big fan of birding festivals. A few years ago, I decided to attend as many as I could in a 12month period. Work proved to be a bit of a constraint but I went to a total of 5 before the year was up. I’m lucky to live in Texas. It’s an ideal spot for bird festivals because of its large coastline and position along two migratory pathways. My favorite festival was the Laredo Birding Festival located on the Texas-Mexico boarder. It is a smaller festival, by design. As a result the tour groups get a little more one on one treatment from the guides. It also includes a kayaking trip on the Rio Grande River, if you’re so inclined.
It had been over 25years since I’d traveled down Interstate Highway 35 to Laredo and it was a bit of an eye opener. I was encased in wall to wall trucks with gas stations and truck stops lining the highway. I saw more and more massive warehouses the closer I got to Laredo. I assume this buildup was all due to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which came into effect in 1994. There was also a much larger boarder patrol presence than I remembered. The whole feel was a bit paradoxical. Let the products in but keep the people out.
I was hoping to see a Gray Hawk, a Clay Colored Sparrow and a Red Billed Pigeon. I know. Pigeons are not that exciting but Texas is about the only place in the US you can see this particular bird. Its range is primarily in Mexico but extends just across the boarder around Laredo. I was also hoping to see some Green Parakeets. La Posada Hotel in the historic district plays host to the festival. A pandemonium of parakeets roost in an abandoned building not far from the hotel. Every evening a few of us would wander over to watch them. Wether they were introduced or had moved up from Mexico I never learned.
Of course I took the kayaking trip. I love to bird and kayak at the same time, two great things that go together. This trip did not disappoint. I saw not one but several Gray Hawks along the way as well as a Harris’s Hawk. There were Orioles of various kinds, and a Pyrrhuloxia just to name a few of the highlights.
And we again saw multiple boarder patrol agents. In fact, we had been on the river for a couple of hours when several agents on the US side started yelling at us in Spanish and English. One of the Mexican cartels was having a shoot out and the boarder patrol wanted us off the river for our own safety. I couldn’t have been happier. I’d had to pee for the past half hour and hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything else. I’m not sure if we were truly in danger. None of us had heard gunshots and our guides felt it was a flex by young men in uniform. I’ll never know.
On our way back to the hotel we went through a boarder checkpoint. It was a little nerve racking for one of our fellow birders who was from Germany but he made it through, no problem. No one even checked his passport. Boarders, walls and patrols are no impediment to birds, of course. And thank goodness since twice yearly migrations for many are a matter of life and death. But it seems that Laredo has long been on the migratory pathway for many different species of animals, not just birds.
Photography by Susanne Harm, bisonwerksd619.myportfolio.com
While of course I like to read about the birding experience, I am also glad to see how “real life” shines through in your descriptions of the border to Mexico. I was born in El Paso, so I can pretend to know about these things.