Quinta Mazatlan

What an amazing place and a lucky find. This is part of the World Birding Center in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Quinta Mazatlan means "country estate" in Spanish and it was built in the 1930's. The city of McAllen bought the property in 1998 and it recently opened as part of the World Birding Center. Trails wind their way around this 15 acre property and it is a wonderful urban oasis for birds; it is also part of the "fly way" during migration when birds are making their way north or south. With a heat index of about 108 degrees we amazingly spent four hours there! We picked up several new birds and just had fun sitting and watching them buzz around. We got a couple new hummingbirds. They were so fast we were not sure if we would identify them, but they would perch on a branch or hang out on a feeder and we just watched. The largest bird that we saw was a Plain Chachalaca. There were a lot of them and they spent much time in the brush and trees. Their tail was a brilliant blue with white tips, very fun. Another exciting bird was the Great Kiskadee. It's head is bold with black and white stripes and it has a beautiful yellow belly. We were both very excited to see this one!! Today we are heading towards Brownsville, TX and are hoping to pick up a few more new birds!! Exciting, exciting!!!!