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Just off the end of the runway at the airport in McAllen, traffic noise fades away, only to be replaced by the chittering calls of chachalacas. Nearby shops, restaurants, and cars disappear behind flowering gardens and Tamaulipan thorn scrubs, revealing an urban oasis called Quinta Mazatlan.The 1930s adobe mansion was originally a private residence. After the property fell into disrepair in the nineties, the City of McAllen bought it and transformed it into a wildlife sanctuary with trails winding through fifteen acres.Quinta Mazatlan is part of the World Birding Center network in the Rio Grande Valley, a world-class birding destination. In this dispatch from Texas Country Reporter, manager Colleen Hook explains how the sanctuary just might do as much good for humans as it does…

The post Quinta Mazatlan Is a Mansion With a Mission appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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