Resaca de la Palma State Park off New Carmen Avenue, Brownsville, Texas, consists of about 1,200 acres of native habitat. This includes thornscrub and woodland shaded by mesquite, Texas ebony and anacua, and others. The park counts among the nine World Birding Center locations in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
When we started our walk, a dozen people with binoculars, scopes and cameras looked up at tree branches near the parking lot. They searched for a Rose-throated Becard that had been spotted recently. A Roadside Hawk had been spotted nearby as well. Neither bird is commonly seen in this area.
We walked westward from the Visitor’s Center along the shaded asphalt road, the Tram Loop, where the Roadside Hawk had been seen. We didn’t see it. We crossed over a dry resaca. The Park pumps water into the resaca a couple of times a year.
After a half mile, the asphalt road turns south. We continued west and then south on the milk chocolate-colored dirt of Mesquite Trail for two thirds of a mile to North Mexican Olive Trail.
We followed North Mexican Olive Trail south and then west to an observation deck on the same dry resaca we had crossed earlier. From there, we walked east to Tram Loop. We crossed it and took the short Kiskadee Trail to another observation deck on the same dry resaca.
From Kiskadee Trail, we walked a third of a mile south on the asphalt road to Flycatcher Trail and followed it east about a quarter of a mile to Hog Trail. We followed it several hundred feet to another observation deck on the dry resaca.
On previous walks when there was water in the resaca, we saw more birds and other animals. At the observation deck on Hog Trail, we watched a perched, Harris’s Hawk, one of the few birds we had seen, besides soaring Turkey Vultures.
We took Hog Trail back to Flycatcher Trail and followed it east, south, and west to Hunter’s Lane, an unpaved road that runs south from Tram Loop to the southern boundary of the park. As we approached Hunter’s Lane, the tram passed. A few riders enjoyed the scenery.
We walked south a quarter of a mile to the Hunter’s Lane crossing of the resaca. Here stood some shallow water on both sides of the road. Snowy Egrets, White Ibises, and American Coots fed in the water. The tram returned northbound and stopped. The driver said there were baby feral pigs on the road not far from us. We didn’t look for them.
Instead, we took Yellowthroat Loop west about three quarters of a mile to Bobcat Lane. Bobcat Lane follows the western boundary of the park and parallels New Carmen Avenue.
We followed Bobcat Lane north about a mile and a quarter to the park entrance. Along the way we spotted a few Golden-fronted Woodpeckers and an American Kestrel. Some warblers worked the brush beside the trail, but we didn’t get a close look at them. We did see a Mexican Bluewing Butterfly.
We covered 6.3 miles on our two hour and thirty-five-minute walk. There are other trails we did not walk: Ebony Trail, Coyote Trail, Mexican Olive Trail and Quail Loop. We’ll walk those the next time.
