San Antonio and the Gulf Coast

 01/20/2026

We spent 5 nights in San Antonio and had the opportunity to do and see a lot of things in the area. Our campground backed up to the Salado Creek Greenway South and twice we rode our bikes on this very nice trail.

On our first full day in San Antonio, we went to the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. It is a a beautiful garden with several large conservatory buildings. They also highlighted different plants in different areas of Texas in different areas of the garden. Another interesting thing was that the decorations for their Christmas “Illuminate” show were still in place. Although they were not lit up, it was still fun seeing them all.

After lunch at a very good nearby Mexican restaurant, we went to the Japanese Tea Garden. It is built in an abandoned quarry and has waterfalls, koi ponds, stone bridges and an open air stone pavilion. It is quite nice, but neither of us could figure out why they think it looks like a Japanese Garden.

On Monday, we rode our bikes on the Mission Trail which is part of the River Walk along the San Antonio River. We rode our bikes between 3 of the missions: Mission San Juan, Mission San Jose, and Mission Espada. We visited the visitor center at Mission San Juan and learned all about life at the mission for the native people and how in some ways it helped the natives, but in other ways it totally uprooted their culture. We toured the missions and saw the inside of the churches which are very beautiful and still in use. The missions varied very much in size.  The bike trail itself was very nice and went through many parks and had had several  art pieces. After our bike ride we drove to Mission Concepcion.  I should mention that the Alamo was also originally a mission also.

Mission Espada

Mission San Juan

Mission San Jose

Mission San Jose

Mission San Jose

Mission Espada

Trail Artwork

Mission Concepcion

On Tuesday, we took a city bus which stops right in front of the campground into downtown. Our first stop was the Alamo. We walked around the Alamo, went inside the mission and watched a short movie about what happened there in the battle with Mexico.

Next we walked over to the River Walk. This part of the river walk is totally developed and completely different from where we rode our bikes.We walked awhile along the river and then took a very nice 30 minute cruise on the river. The pilot told us many interesting facts about the river and the San Antonio area. We also had a nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant  and had a table right along the river.  Another interesting thing we saw were “river cleaners”, barges that go along the river and suck up debris!

river cleaner barge

On our final day in San Antonio, we went to the Mitchell Lake Audubon Center on the south side of town. We rode on their motor nature trails and walked around one of their basins. We saw 22 bird species, but Texas is in quite a drought and lots of ponds and marshes are pretty dry so the birding is not quite as good as it should be.

On Thursday, January 8, we left San Antonio and traveled east to Goose Island State Park across the bay from Rockport, Texas. We have been here several times and love the place. The birding is usually great and the state park offers several birding tours. This area is known for being the winter home of Whooping Cranes. Once almost extinct, their numbers are now up. Almost 570 whooping cranes now winter here. As soon as we set up camp, we drove over to the area where we usually see the cranes and were very happy to see several.

Crane Adult and Colt

On Friday, we took the Big Tree birding tour and saw 42 different bird species including a greater Kiskadee, a Ruddy Turnstone, several Roseate Spoonbills, Sandhill Cranes, 32 Whooping Cranes, 4 types of gulls to name just a few. In the afternoon, we took another tour which told us lots of information about the history of the area.

Red Tail Hawk

White Ibis

Saturday, turned very cold and windy. We took a ride over to Port Aransas, Texas to see the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center. We couldn’t believe our eyes when the first bird we saw was a Flamingo. Flamingos aren’t supposed to be in Texas. There it was, just hanging out with lots of white pelicans! We were so excited. We also saw Avocet, Black-necked Stilts, Green-winged Teals, Long-billed Dowitchers, Greater Yellowlegs, a galanule and more. We were surprised to see so many birds because of the wind. We also drove to the beach to see the Gulf of Mexico and ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Port Aransas.

An Avocet and Black Backed Stilts

Green-winged Teal

Long-billed Dowitchers

The Gulf Beach at Port Aransas

When we got back to our campground, the tide was out a lot and we were pleased to see lots of Whooping Cranes and Sandhill Cranes in shallow water and Roseate Spoonbills in the field. They were really close.

Sunday, we went to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge a little ways north of Goose Island. We took several hikes, saw about a dozen different bird species, three alligators, several javelinas, one racoon and a lot of deer. It was a pleasant day,

Both Tuesday and Wednesday we took birding tours at the park. The tour on Tuesday was of “shore birds” and we saw @40 species. Some of the best were Ruddy Turn-stones, Oyster Catchers, Dowagers, Curlews and a Roadrunner. On Wednesday, we took a walk with someone from the International Crane Foundation and spent our time looking at the Whooping Cranes. Our last tour Wednesday was a “Woodland Birds” tour and we saw @19 birds. We also had fun riding our bikes around the park and walking out to the end of the 1,620 foot long fishing pier. We very much enjoyed our week at Goose Island.

Road Runner

We left Goose Island State Park on Wednesday the 15th and went to Kingsville, Texas. Thursday morning we took a four hour birding tour at King Ranch, the largest ranch in the United States. At 825,000 acres it is larger than the state of Rhode Island. Our tour was fabulous.Our guide was very knowledgeable  and we saw 61 different bird species. Some of our favorites were Northern Bobwhite, Least Grebe, Golden Fronted Woodpecker, Audubon Oriole,White Tailed Hawk and tons of Crested Cara Caras. It was a great morning..

Crested Cara Cara

White Tailed Hawk

Harris Hawk

Golden Fronted Woodpecker

Audubon's Oriole

Northern Bobwhite Quail

King Ranch Cattle

Now we have moved on to the Mc Allen area in the Rio Gande Valley.

Patagonia and beyond.

 January 6, 2026

We arrived at Patagonia Lake State Park on December 19 and spent nine nights there.

We had beautiful weather for all but one day. We have been there several times before and did all of our favorite things. We hiked the birding trail almost every day but we did not see a lot of bird this time. It has been very dry and warm at Patagonia, and in many places in the West, and many birders suspect there has not been as many birds migrating yet. We saw lots of Yellow Rumped Warblers (butter butts), Northern Cardinals, lots of water fowl, a few Black Capped Night Herons and one Vermillion Flycatcher. Even at Paton Center for Hummingbirds we only saw a few hummingbirds including a unusual Violet Crowned Hummingbird. We did see lots of wild turkeys and one time watched a coopers hawk for a long time. He kept all the other birds away.

Wild Turkeys at Patons

Birding Trail

Broad-Billed Hummingbird

Northern Cardinal 

Pied-Billed Grebe

Hepatic Tanager

Cooper's Hawk terrorizing the birds

Eared Grebe

Ann's Hummingbird

Double Crested Cormorant

Black Bird Evening Murmuration

Many hundereds of blackbirds in Evening Murmuration

One day we hiked a Sonoita Creek Natural Area adjacent to the park. We saw only three birds the entire hike. The creek that we usually have to cross on rocks and the spillway from the lake were completely dry. It was really weird. 

Mark did a lot of kayaking and we took a pontoon boat birding tour one morning and a twilight pontoon tour another day. They were both lots of fun. We also took a guided bird walk one morning. Mark also sailed his model sailboat a couple of times.

Of course, we drove over to Elgin and Sonoita to do some wine tasting. We went to Deep Sky Vineyard in Elgin and Dos Cabezas Wineworks in Sonoita, which also has excellent  pizza. Every time we go to Patagonia Lake, we drive into Patagonia to eat at two of our favorite places : the Gathering Grounds for breakfast or lunch and the Velvet Elvis for pizza. This time we also ordered guacamole and chips for an appetizer and neither of us had ever tasted such delicious guacamole in our lives.

Dos Cabezas Wineworks

Velvet Elvis guacamole and chips!

On December 28, we left Patagonia Lake and headed east. We spent the night at Rockhound State Park near Deming, New Mexico. You are allowed to collect rocks at this park, but we are not expert rock collectors and the prettiest rocks we saw were some that someone had left on our picnic table. We did take a nice hike on the thunder egg trail which was covered in prickly pear cactus.

 It got very windy during the night and was quite windy all day as we continued east to Balmorhea State Park in Texas. It also got colder as the day progressed and when we arrived at Balmorhea it was 37 degrees with a wind chill of 30 degrees. We quickly got our heavy winter coats out and walked around the park to see the huge spring fed swimming pool which maintains a constant 32 degree temperature. The spring puts out 15 million gallons of water a day and the rest of it goes on to fill a nearby lake.

Great Horned Owl

We continued east. To say Texas is big is an understatement. The western part of it is also quite flat and empty. On Tuesday, December 30, we arrived in Fredericksburg, TX and stayed for four nights at Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Campground. The campground is part of a larger city park and next to the municipal airport. Mark enjoyed watching all the private airplanes and jets land and take off. We also enjoyed the parks nature trail and birding blinds. Fredericksburg was originally settled by Germans in the 1840’s and they have really kept the motif going. The first night there, we went out to a very delicious German restaurant.

Texas is BIG

One day we went to the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Park and the Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site. We saw the house he was born in and grew up in and took a motor tour of the ranch. We learned all about his accomplishments as president. The parks also had a “living farm” with interpreters. We talked to one woman about how they preserved food in the early 1900’s. She showed us a big barrel of lard and showed us how they used to preserve sausage in the lard. It was a very interesting day.

'Living Farm'

LBJ's Boyhood Home

Lesser Goldfinch

We also walked the main street of Fredericksburg which was very touristy, but had some very beautiful Christmas decorations including a 26 foot four tier wooden German Christmas pyramid with moving characters on each level. It was really neat.

One afternoon we went wine tasting. The Hill Country is well known for all its winery although much of the grapes are grown elsewhere. The first winery we went to was Signor Vineyards. We sat out on the patio and enjoyed 5 different wines including one made from grapes from Oregon and a delicious charcuterie board. Next we went to Becker Vineyards and enjoyed tasting 6 different wines. Again we sat outside and and enjoyed the great people watching. They really do wear cowboy boots and hats in Texas.

Signor Vineyards

Becker Vineyards

Now we are in San Antonio, but that is a story for next time.