For many, Valley birding is tops in the U.S.
Nashville’s Lyda Phillips has been birding throughout the United States and eastern Canada, but she keeps coming back to the Rio Grande Valley.
The reasons are simple. The Valley has more birds than any other part of the country, numerous birding venues and a history of rarities that excite even experienced birders.
Phillips lists South Padre Island as one of her two favorite birding spots. But anywhere in the Valley is OK with her.
“The OMG factor is very high, especially knowing that 100 miles farther north I wouldn’t see these birds,” she says of her Rio Grande Valley birding experiences. “And there are so many I missed.
“We are planning another trip to sink into it a bit more,” she added.
She is among the thousands of birders who come to the Valley and pump $150 million annually into the local economy, according to the McAllen Chamber of Commerce.
“The Rio Grande Valley and Laguna Madre region are some of the top birding spots in the United States,” Phillips noted. “From Brownsville to McAllen, the region has birds that can be found nowhere else in the lower 48 states.
“I spent my childhood going to Port Aransas, Mustang Island and South Padre Island from San Antonio with my parents,” she recalled. “It was magic then, and it’s more magical now.”
She said that during her last trip to the Valley, she documented 101 species, including 21 life (first ever sighting) birds.
“We will be back … there’s no doubt about that,” she added.
Nowhere has the birding experience manifested itself more than South Padre Island, especially since the grand opening of the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center on Sept. 25, 2009.
Boon to SPI
How important is birding on SPI?
“The simple answer is that it’s important enough for the city through the Economic Development Corporation to invest in a multimillion-dollar birding center,” noted Dan Quandt, executive director of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It’s an important part of our economy.”
He said travel writers no longer focus exclusively on the Island’s balmy temperatures and pristine beaches. “They want to talk about birding.”
The crowning monument to Island birding is the $6.5 million South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center and the nearly 1 mile of boardwalk attached to it.
“It’s our Dallas Cowboys Stadium,” said Quandt, referring to the $1 billion football facility in Arlington.
The Island birding experience reaches a climax in the coming weeks when neo-tropical migrants depart wintering grounds in Mexico, Central America and South America to nesting sites in the United States and Canada.
Birds traveling along two flyways stop in the Valley to recharge their batteries and replenish their fat supplies before continuing their journey.
It’s a magical time when beautiful birds such as the painted bunting, rose-breasted grosbeak, Baltimore oriole and magnolia warbler make brief appearances.
“During the migration, we not only get the casual birder, but the professionals and photographers with cameras worth more than my car,” Quandt said. “It gives us a true international reputation.”
With or without a migration, the Valley, which has more than 600 documented species, is known as the place to spot rarities.
In 2011 alone, the Valley has had such rare avian visitors as the black-vented oriole and blue bunting at Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park; rufous-backed thrush (sometimes called the rufous-backed robin) at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge; and the white-throated thrush at Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco.
Quandt believes birding will continue to get bigger and better on the Island.
“Spring Break and family travel are still the biggest draws, but birding has more growth potential," he said. “It’s a good, casual thing for the whole family to be involved in and fits with our family theme here."
