Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge

We've been checking out south Texas.  We went to two wildlife refuges.  The first one was Laguna Atascosa which is just north of South Padre Island on the coast.  It attracts a lot of ducks and birds that are migrating.  They had a special deer hunt going on the day we were there so some of the areas were closed off for hunters only.  The road to get to this refuge was one big pothole.  We would not go back because of the road.

We also went to Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge which is down in the Rio Grande Valley.  It is on the Rio Grand itself so its as close to Mexico as you can get.  A few years ago the Rio Grande flooded and took out a lot of the structures in the refuge.  They have rebuilt the trails and overlook decks.  We got to see our first Green Jays and Chachalacas.  The Green Jays are beautiful with their pretty blue heads and bright green bodies.  The Chachalacas are the size of Grouse or small chickens.  They can fan out their tail feathers like a turkey.  I think they are hunted like other game birds.