Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge

Yesterday we traveled over to The Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. To see more about the refuge, click here. It is about and hour and a half from here. On the way we crossed this interesting bridge at Rio Hondo. The center of the bridge lifts straight up to allow tall boats to pass under.

The last 15 miles are so are terrible roads some of which are under reconstruction.

We checked in at the visitor center for the three hour tram tour and then ate our lunch that we had packed. After lunch we headed out on the tram.

A little way into the tour, Janice got a picture of this caracara.

Part of the refuge looks like a desert landscape.

An immature long billed curlew on the edge of the water.

Nilgai scat along the road. These asian antelope were brought here from India and now are very invasive in the refuge. They are hunted regularly and are said to be very tasty.

Much of the land here is called thorn scrub and it is easy to see how it got its name.

A little of the shoreline.

Looking across at South Padre Island across the water.

Black mangrove growing along the shore. This helps stabilize the shoreline, but is is being eaten up by the nilgai.

A deeper channel was dredged between here and South Padre Island, and the material dredged up was used to create islands like this.

Another caracara on the sand.

In the distance you can see the bridge to South Padre Island.

Click on this picture and try to spot the coyote.

A couple of armadillo pictures to end this.