BIRDS OF A FEATHER

By Juan Montoya

I don't know about you, but growing up in Brownsville I never saw the numbers and diversity of bird life we see today.

As the risk of sounding naive, I don't think that pelicans such as those pictured above lived in the area. If they were, you could be sure that kids with slingshots and grownups with rifles would have been on them in no time.

When Antonio Pineda cruised up the Rio Grande in 1519, he reported sabal palms lining both sides of the river as far as the eye could see. He also reported to the Crown that native villages lined both banks of the waterway. There was, he wrote, a diversity of animals and birds living along the river.

We'll probably never see the reforestation of the Rio Grande Delta to anywhere near its original condition, but our heightened sense of preservation of the flora and fauna indicates that some of us are willing to try. For now, just seeing these majestic birds living unmolested in our resacas is an encouraging sign.