Birding in the Rio Grande Valley

Couch's Kingbird ...

Green Jay - like most of the Corvids, noisy, intelligent, wary - and also strikingly beautiful ...

American White Pelican ...

Red-shouldered Hawk ...

Osprey - this bird was fishing over the pond at Edinburgh World Birding Center. The photo is minimally cropped, and was taken with the zoom at less than 400mm ...

Merlin - This large female was perched on one side of the tree; on the other side and somewhat higher, sat a small male Merlin, looking covetously, or perhaps hopefully (excuse the anthropomorphizing) at the female as she mantled her prey. We were with a group from the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in a residential neighborhood of Weslaco looking for parrots when we spotted the two Merlins. The male left, but she stayed put, slightly bothered by our presence but unwilling to fly off with her unconsumed prey. She was dining on an Inca Dove ...

Northern Mockingbird - fairly common in the river valleys near my Vermont home - very common in southern Texas - but that's no reason not to include this joyful mimic in a gallery of bird travel photos ...

Good birding!