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Birding on the Bayou
Date: December 16 - 19, 1999 Weather: Mid-50s, cloudy, windy and wet Activities: Digital and traditional photography, birding, relaxation Submitted by: Shannon Moore Over ten years ago, my family and I stayed in the Hilton on Nassau Bay near the Johnson Space Center. We did the typical tourist stuff--toured the Space Center, visited Astroworld and the Battleship Texas. It wasn't until I returned in 1998, this time with Justin, that I discovered the Houston area's natural treasures. The opportunity to view and photograph alligators, myriad bird species and other creatures is what keeps bringing us back to Texas' largest city. Justin and I reached the hotel after dark on Thursday, December 16th, after enduring nearly two solid hours of intense Houston traffic; we left San Antonio too late, indeed! Thankfully, our plan for Friday was to spend most of the day hiking and birding at Brazos Bend State Park, far removed from the stress of the roadways. We entered Brazos at 8 AM and stopped at the park office/store to renew our Texas Conservation Passport. From there, we headed to the fishing pier at 40 Acre Lake. While Justin took photographs of the ever-present American coots, I observed the following bird species:
With our day off to a good start, we returned to our vehicle and drove to the Elm Lake trailhead. At 8:45 AM, we began our hike along Elm Lake's western shore, with 40 Acre Lake's observation tower as our destination. We hiked at a leisurely pace, stopping frequently to identify and photograph the wildlife and surroundings. At the observation tower shortly after 11 AM, we began our return hike to Elm Lake. Justin had already been blessed on two occasions with spectacular photo opportunities, one of a vermillion flycatcher and the other a red shouldered hawk (perching, and later, eating a snake!) Given our successes up to this point, we decided to take the long way back to our vehicle, hiking east around Elm Lake, instead of returning via the western shore. Delightfully, our desire to take the long way led to our first (and second, and third, and...) American alligator observation of the day, as well as additional bird species. In addition, we were privileged to observe the same red-shouldered hawk we had photographed earlier as it hunted and consumed a snake! Elm Lake blew us away with its abundance and variety of species:
We spent most of Saturday, December 18th, driving around the upper Texas coast. Our ride on the free Galveston ferry yielded laughing gull, herring gull, rock dove, double crested cormorant, and a pod of frolicking bottlenose dolphins who breached and slapped their tail flukes as we watched. While searching for Bolivar Flats without the aid of a map, we practiced our BBC ("Birding By Car") skills and were fairly successful:
 Around 11:20 AM, Justin and I entered Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge (Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail site #50), noting the sign had posted hours of 6 AM to 7 PM; funny, I didn't remember having seen that on the sign, before. About ten minutes later, after reaching a grassy parking area with hiking trail signs, we realized we had used a different entrance than the one we are familiar with. For future reference, at least we now know the first entrance takes you to the park's only designated hiking trails! After exiting the park and continuing on FM 1985, we passed another Anahuac NWR sign that had a posted "Public Duck Hunt Notice".
We continued driving and soon came upon a third marked Anahuac entrance which we did recognize. Success! Or was it? Immediately, we were faced with another challenge--in a word, M U D! Heavy rains the previous night had turned Anahuac's dirt and gravel road into a slick, rutted and muddy mess--fantastic fun if you thought to bring your 4x4 vehicle, but a huge headache if you're in a Toyota Corolla! Justin managed to successfully drive us to the park's sign-in kiosk and restrooms, but shortly thereafter we decided to turn back.
On our retreat out of the muddy park, we saw a (live!) baby armadillo and the following bird species:
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