Texas Trip :: Day 1 – The Inn at Chachalaca Bend

Wow, I’ve been meaning to put something up about our trip, but have been swamped at work and was really sick yesterday … and maybe just a touch absorbed going through the whole set of pictures (1,500+ after deleting off of the camera and while still on our trip). I did write down some things, and realized it would be the megahugist post ever … so instead, I’ll break it into daily (sort of) logs…

The Inn at Chachalaca Inn

We arrived late at the Inn after a long travel day. The place was beautiful, a blend of rustic western furniture and various bird art throughout. The room itself was awesome, too – and very comfortable (although we didn’t take any pictures, you can see our room here). The grounds were great – between the gardens surrounding the Inn, the Resaca de las Antonias which runs along its back edge and the multitude of birds which inhabited the yard and the surrounding 27 acres, it was amazing to be there. For a birder, this place was heaven, and it was also a great central location for all of our other explorations.

Our first morning, we started locally, grabbing some delicious breakfast (fresh fruit, tasty peppered double-baked bacon, french toast, eggs and fresh-squeezed juice) and went out. We went first out to the dock that run along the Resaca, and checked out the multitude of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks that are resident on the grounds (and make quite a racket each morning). We were soon treated to Great-tailed Grackles, Purple Martins, the ubiquitous House Sparrows (they’re EVERYWHERE, I guess), a Cooper’s Hawk, a Brown-crested Flycatcher, a Great Kiskadee – all in the first 5 minutes. Not too shabby.

As we walked first around the ‘yard’, we encountered a bunch of other beautiful birds like Green Jays, Inca Doves, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers and Black-crested Titmice, all new species for the both of us. We saw the resident turkeys and chickens, and were buzzed by more birds that we couldn’t get good looks at.

After a bit, we went through their trails in search of the elusive Green Kingfisher, one of two birds on my ‘trip list’, or birds that I really wanted to see (the other being the Harris’ Hawk). We didn’t see them, but we got to enjoy a pretty nice walk through the woods and brush along the resace, winding our way through their private fields and back to the Inn. It wasn’t long, but it was fun. But we wanted to go explore, so we found out how to get to the nearby Laguna Atascosa NWR, and got our stuff together to go for a drive. Before we even got off the property, though, we were treated to a show by some locals on the nearby fenceline. After 20 minutes of better viewing opportunities than we could have hoped for, we were off…

The Inn at Chachalaca (link)

  • in order seen…
  • Brown-crested Flycatcher
  • Black-bellied Whistling Duck click to see larger image
  • Great-tailed Grackle
  • Purple Martin
  • House Sparrow
  • Cooper’s Hawk (immature)
  • White-winged Dove
  • Great Kiskadee
  • Red-winged Blackbird
  • Turkey
  • Green Jay
  • Black-Crested Titmouse
  • Golden-Fronted Woodpecker click to see larger image
  • Inca Dove click to see larger image
  • Chachalaca
  • White-Tipped Dove
  • Gray Catbird
  • Total Birds: 17
  • New Birds: 11
  • SimpleBits gets ripped off – it’s bad enough when a design gets ripped off. It’s worse when the company which did it tries to deny it. But it’s REALLY bad when they are a logo company who has done it repeatedly. Death to LogoWords!
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4 Responses to “Texas Trip :: Day 1 – The Inn at Chachalaca Bend

  • Good call breaking the trip into days for your blog. That sounds like an incredible start to your trip, I really have no idea about the birds you’re talking about, but seeing new species must be cool. And it’s especially great that the hotel had gardens and lots of birds on site.

    Sarah and I are hoping to go on vacation this summer. It’ll be our first vacation ever, really, my first paid vacation ever, etc. We’re hoping to go somewhere in the southwest and of course take lots of photos.

    I’m a little disappointed in you for not having fish tacos for breakfast, or at least some sort of breakfast burrito. This is Texas, after all!

  • Or migas, oh man do I miss migas.

  • migas…oh man

    who knew they founded a restaurant for Chaka Khan too?

  • Michael – as I get more pictures actually processed, I’ll start putting in thumbnails on each post to link to them…

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