Quinta Mazatlan

Luis and I took a well deserved vacation the week of Labor Day and headed to south Texas. We stayed the first two nights in a bed and breakfast that is adjacent to a Santa Ana National Wildlife Preserve. The inn was charming with a courtyard filled with hummingbirds but the service could only be described as obtrusive. We are not B&B people.

The preserve was filled with birds that can't be seen anywhere but south Texas: chachalacas, green jays, olive sparrows, etc. We saw them all. The area is also home to the nine sites of the World Birding Center because Texas is the world. We went to the sites at Quinta Mazatlan and Estero Llano Grande State Park. Quinta Mazatlan is a Spanish style adobe house that was built for a rich Texan in 1935 that has been turned into a tourist attraction. It is beautiful and the surrounding garden was filled with birds.