The Rio Grande Valley - a birder's paradies

During the winter months we get lots of people from colder states down here, many of them very interested in wildlife watching, especially birds. The Rio Grande Valley is a pretty good spot for it.
I wasn't particularly interested in bird watching at first, there are far more interesting places to watch them. However, after living in Brownsville for almost five years now I have become a birder. Well, sort of. I still do not sit for hours to catch a shot of one particular bird, but I keep an eye out for anything new or interesting.

Not long ago my husband and I took a trip to Estero Llano State Park. We enjoy walking around, learning about this area and if we see some wildlife - even better. Right at the visitor center we already could see some water fowl.
As we paid our entrance fee, we overheard people talking about a night hawk being spotted. Apparently this is a very well camouflaged bird, not easy to find. A rarely seen bird - where was that spot again? It had sparked my interest, and the park lady was so kind to show us on the map where we might see one.
We headed down the trail, almost overlooking a majestic Great Egret wading around.

Next up was the spot where the hawk had been seen. We looked around - no such thing. Between all those leaves, bark and shrubs we couldn't make out a bird. We spent probably five minutes searching. We almost wanted to turn around when a man came up to us and asked: "Did you see it? It's right there!" He pointed to the ground just two feet away from us. Looking closer and closer we suddenly saw it - a bird, same color as bark, closed eyes and completely motionless. It could have been a bump on a log, sitting so quietly on the ground, perfectly camouflaged. That bird was a hawk?

With its very short bill, long wings and roosting on the ground it really didn't strike me as one. But, there it was!

We took a few shots and for a very brief moment the bird even opened its eyes for us. Really cool!

We watched it for a couple more minutes before moving on. What else would we see? Well, as it turned out not much that day.
I spotted an alligator at the alligator lake, though.

 There it was, sun bathing

We continued walking down the trails for about two more hours before heading back home.
This weekend we might go to the Sabal Palm Sanctuary or the Birding Center on South Padre Island. Maybe we can spot another rare bird. The season has just started.