Roma Bluffs, Salineno, Falcon Dam

The destination for our weekly field trip today was the Roma Bluffs World Birding Center and Salineno. We left Santa Ana at 8:00 with six of us participating. It was a good size group and the other two couples are volunteers we have visited with many times and really enjoy being around. Plus, we all got a window seat! Our first stop was the Roma Bluffs World Birding Center. We got to meet a couple of the volunteers working in the visitor center. We saw a few birds including a Black Phoebe. Also: Green Jay, Yellow Rumped Warbler, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, House Sparrow, Eurasian Collard Dove, Osprey, Great Egret, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Neotropic Cormorant, Great Kiskadee, Belted Kingfisher, Great-tailed Grackle, Rock Pigeon.


Across the Rio Grande River is Mexico

We were told that Marlon Brando rode his horse out on the balcony of this building in the movie Viva Zapata.



Then it was on to Salineno. We saw a Common Loon on the river. Also Great Blue Heron, American White Pelican, American Pipit, Northern Cardinal, Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Gadwall, Altamira Oriole, Spotted Sandpiper, Double-crested Cormorant, Red Shoulder Hawk.


Common Loon a long way off!

At the feeding station we saw Audubon’s Oriole, Hooded Oriole, White-tipped Dove, Inca Dove, Orange Crowned Warbler, Long-billed Thrasher, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Brown-headed Cowbird. At one time I was looking at 5 Altamira Orioles through my binoculars!


American Pipit

Pyrrhuloxia

Hooded Oriole

Audubon's Oriole

Altamira Oriole, Green Jay

We then drove to Falcon Dam where we drove up to the Texas/Mexico line. There we saw Mockingbird, Vermillion Flycatcher, Pied-billed Grebe, Little Blue Heron, Ring-billed Gull and American Coot.


I had to keep one foot in the US because I didn't have my passport with me!

Then on to Falcon Lake State Park where the Roma volunteers stay. There were a couple of state park volunteers there that had a bird feeding station that we sat at for a little while. We saw lots of Pyrrhuloxia, a Road Runner and Common Ground-Dove.

We had lunch in Roma at a very small Mexican food restaurant called El Taco Rico. It was pretty good. We got back to Santa Ana a little after 4:00. It wasn't a great birding day but we did manage to see 44 species.