The "Birds"

Southern Texas is along the southern coastal birding trail.  There are birds of every variety here.  One of the most common is called a Grackle.  The male is shiny black and the female brown.  There are thousands of them and they all squawk. 

 



 In the evening they roost on the electric wires and in the trees.  The most popular area for them seems to be at the intersection of Tenth and Trenton streets here in McAllen.  There are thousands of them.  Every tree is full and the wires are loaded in all directions.

 

 







 









More Sights and Sounds of the Rio Grande Valley

Most people in South Texas do not drink the city water.  It contains " who knows what."  We have water stations called Water Mills where everyone takes their 5 gallon jugs and for .25 a gallon fills them up.  Our missionaries all have these 5 gallon water jugs in their apartments.  During the "Hurricane Season" which is June to November each missionary has their own jug filled at all times just in case they are evacuated.  We have our jugs as well but we bought a Brita filtering pitcher and we usually use that.  Water is never cold coming from the faucet. In the summer it is usually almost hot because the water is stored in water towers.

This water tower is right by our apartment and has McAllen Memorial Mustangs. We watched them paint it this summer with coat after coat of paint. The painters were up on scaffling and it was 110 degrees. Not our idea of a fun job.

 



 

Every city or town has it's own water tower and have the local high school mascot painted on them.  The city of San Benito is home to singer Freddy Fender and so that water tower has his picture on it.  We think they are kind of fun.