Richard Moore Outdoor Report: Spectacular Fall Migration

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, Texas ( ValleyCentral ) — Imagine a place where hundreds of White pelicans flock to their sacred sanctuary and countless redhead ducks congregate in vast numbers joining millions of migratory birds arriving in southernmost Texas on their annual fall migration.

Soon, a river of birds will flow southward through the Rio Grande Valley, and this fall extraordinarily bountiful wetlands welcome their arrival.

The largest protected area of natural habitat open to the public in the Rio Grande Valley is poised to receive these avian winter visitors as recent abundant rains have greened Laguna Atascosa’s 125,000-plus acres and swelled wetlands to the brim.

Indeed, so much rain has fallen in the lower Valley that much of the sprawling coastal prairie in the Bahia Grande Unit of the refuge is now coastal marsh.

This remarkable inundation is particularly evident from the elevated boardwalk at the South Texas Ecotourism Center on Highway 100 just south of Laguna Vista.

With 417 recorded species of birds, Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge boasts more bird species than any refuge in the United States, and it is an impressive list that keeps growing such as with the past years’ appearance of marsh-loving flamingos.

Two of the nation’s four migratory flyways, the Central and Mississippi, converge in southernmost Texas funneling hundreds of millions of birds through this region that far surpasses any other migratory routes in North America.

This phenomenal number of birds brings an incredible economic boon to the Valley, as thousands of birdwatchers and nature tourists visit the area, particularly during fall and spring migrations.

A 2011 study by Texas A&M University revealed that this avian-generated ecotourism boosts the Valley’s annual economy by 463 million dollars, a figure that is undoubtedly much greater now.

The table is set for what promises to be a remarkable fall migration…just remember to take along some mosquito repellent when you venture out to admire the annual phenomenon.

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