By Karen Gleason
For three mornings in the previous week, I made my way down to the Rio Grande to await and photograph the arrival of groups of asylum-seeking immigrants crossing the river from Mexico.
Guides from Mexico bring the immigrants to a crossing point where the Rio Grande is relatively shallow and cut by a number of sand bars. The river looks fairly easy to cross in this area, and few of the immigrants ever get completely soaked.
Over the past week, a Fox News team has stationed itself on the banks of the Rio Grande in this area, and other news organizations have sent reporters and photographers as well.
I was fortunate to meet a number of very talented fellow reporters and photographers, including Lena Klimkeit of Deutsche Press-Agentur (the German equivalent of our Associated Press), Bryan Allman of Fox News and photographers Jonathan Alpeyrie and John Lamparski.
In the time I was there, only one group of immigrants crossed, and it was a little surreal seeing them struggling across the river, then up onto the Texas banks and walking toward the waiting Border Patrol van, all the while chased and photographed by all of us.
Most of our time, though, was spent waiting.
The Rio Grande in this area is serene and lovely, and – despite the recent presence of a small group of Mexican military members – hardly the war zone sometimes depicted on the nightly news.
Whenever I am somewhere waiting, I watch birds, and my time along the Rio Grande was no exception.
On my first morning on the river, I saw an Eastern Kingbird, only the second member of this species I’d ever seen in Val Verde County. Eastern Kingbirds are migrants in this area and can be found throughout most of the eastern U.S.
A huge Ringed Kingfisher winged his way upstream, and Red-winged Blackbirds, Great-tailed Grackles and Yellow-breasted Chats shrieked, chortled and chirruped from the great carrizo brakes along the river.
Mallards and Double-crested Cormorants paddled and dove in the river’s eddies, and Western Kingbirds, White-winged Doves, Brown-crested Flycatchers and Hooded Orioles flew back and forth across the river, ignoring political, man-made boundaries.
A flock of Cedar Waxwings joined us every morning, taking up their stations in the mulberry trees growing on the Texas bank.
There are also many different species of swallows that can be seen here, gracefully swooping and diving over the quietly flowing river. Northern Rough-winged Swallows and Bank Swallows are the most numerous, but I also saw Barn Swallows and Cave Swallows.
