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Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge

[edit] Overview

The south Texas landscape is a unique blending of temperate, subtropical, coastal and desert habitats. Mexican plants and wildlife are at the northernmost edge of their range, while migrating waterfowl and Sandhill Crane fly down for the mild winters. This combination makes Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge world famous for its birds, and home to a mix of wildlife found nowhere else. Laguna Atascosa NWR is the largest protected area of natural habitat left in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, an oasis for wildlife with few alternatives. The refuge's 45,187 acres become more valuable with each acre lost to development -valuable to wildlife and valuable to those who enjoy wildlife in wildlands.

This NWR is site LTC 024 on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail.

Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge

[edit] Birds

[edit] Notable Species

Green Jay and Plain Chachalaca prefer the dense thorny burshland areas of the refuge, while Least Grebe and Black-bellied Whistling Duck choose the ponds and resacas.

Desert dwellers like Greater Roadrunner, Verdin, and Cactus Wren inhabit the scrub areas, while species like Roseate Spoonbill, egrets, and herons join Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet, and Piping Plover at the shore of the Laguna Madre.

Aplomado Falcons are being re-introduced at the Refuge. Also look out for Groove-billed Ani.

[edit] Rare Species

Orange-billed Nightingale Thrush has occurred here once in spring 1996.

[edit] Check-list

Birds you can see here include:

To do

[edit] Other Wildlife

Ocelot, Texas tortoise, American alligators and javelina (collared peccary) occur in the Refuge.

[edit] Site Information

[edit] History and Use

The refuge comprises nearly 50,000 acres of coastal Tamaulipan brush, grasslands, lomas, and tidal flats. Management techniques are slowly replacing some of the original vegetation, destroyed by cattle ranching and agriculture in the 1800s and 1900s. Only about 5% of the original vegetation remains, but native brush for ocelot and other brushland wildlife is being replanted, wetlands are being replaced, and farming for wildlife is ongoing to help the wintering geese and sandhill cranes by leaving the entire crop for them.

[edit] Areas of Interest

• Tour roads and trails are open sunrise to sunset, daily all year.
• Lakeside Drive: only a short 1.5 miles out to the lake that gives the refuge its name.
• Bayside Drive: a semi-paved, 15-mile, one-way tour loop, passing through thorn forest and coastal prairies before reaching the Laguna Madre.
• 5 hiking trails, varying in length from 0.125 to 3 miles.

[edit] Access and Facilities

• The refuge is open year round.
• Visitor's Center is open 10am to 4 pm daily, Oct. through April; 10am to 4pm, weekends in May; and closed June through September.
• Volunteers and rangers lead programs and birding tours on weekends from Nov. through April.

• Chiggers, ticks, and rattlesnakes are found in the Refuge. Take care, if you stray off the trails into tall grass or brush.
• It can be very hot here, even in the winter months - bring plenty of water, sunscreen and insect repellent.

[edit] Contact Details

Refuge Manager
P.O. Box 450
Rio Hondo, Texas 78583
Tel: (956) 748-3607
Email: r2rw_la@fws.gov

[edit] External Links

• Laguna Atascosa NWR
• Bird checklist for Laguna Atascosa

Content and images originally posted by Gaga