We got up early at our ocean-side campground near the Aransas Wildlife Refuge. Emma worked on her Red Fox grants and I went for an early morning birding walk around the Goose Island Campground.
Inca Dove
Typically, you do not see the red primary feathers on an Inca Dove
until they fly. This bird had just hopped out of the birdbath and was
readjusting its feathers.
15] Fox Squirrel
At noon, we headed northeast along highway 35 toward Galveston. At Bay City, we stopped for lunch at the local park. There were some resident domestic and interesting exotic waterfowl in the park pond. Suddenly, a couple of black vultures dropped down to the pond for a drink.
Black Vulture
Great Egret
As we moves eastward the terrain became bushier with tall grass and trees. When we approached the south end of Galveston Island, the land became very low-lying and flat. Once we were on the island, we were surprised to see all of the houses were up on 12-foot pilings.
There was no high ground for dozens of miles and any small rise in sea water would flood the entire marshy plain. We stopped for the night at Jamaica Bay and were comforted by the fact that this was not major storm season. Just after dusk hundreds of 188) Black-bellied Whistling Ducks flew into the adjacent marsh to roost for the night. I grabbed my camera but it was too dark to get pictures of the ducks. However, it was just right for a moon shot.
February 26
Our first stop was the nearby Galveston Island State Park.We saw the usually seaside birds on the beach and in the marsh. I was hoping to see a Seaside Sparrow but no luck on this day.
Eastern Meadowlark
We crossed over a couple of tall bridges as we headed to Galveston. The bridges are unusually high so that the tanker traffic can sail underneath. At the high point of the bridge, you get a great view of the surrounding flat marsh lands. There was lots of tank traffic sailing up and down the intracoastal waterway.
Galveston has a long boardwalk right beside the highway and beach. Unfortunately, the day was cool and breezy as we had left the warm Brownsville weather behind.
Galveston Beach
A free ferry carried us from Galveston Island to Port Bolivar. The ferry crossing attracts lots of gulls which feed on the fish that are disturbed by the wash from the ferry.
Laughing Gull
We drove for miles through low-lying marsh land and stopped for the night at the aptly named town of "High Island". This little patch of land rises up about 20 or 30 feet above the surrounding marsh. That difference is enough for trees to grow. It is literally a small island in a swamp of reeds.
This location is world famous as a migratory trap for birds. During the spring migration, birds fly across the Gulf of Mexico non-stop. Once they leave the Yucatan peninsula it's fly or die until they reach the trees of High Island. If they encounter a headwind, many drown and the survivors "fall out" in a stupor as soon as they reach land.
In six weeks, the northward migration will begin and High Island will be covered with birds. Unfortunately today is late February and there were few birds. However, there will be lots to eat when they get here as the town was swarming with mosquitoes. We discovered that we have some minute holes in our RV slide-outs. Emma and I could not find the holes but the mosquitoes did. They came at us in waves. Emma was wielding our fly swatter with a passion and clubbing legions of attackers with every swing. Sona and I took a duck and cover approach to avoid this free wheeling battle.
March 27
We arrived at Anahuac Wildlife Reserve at mid-morning. At the visitors' centre, I bought the perfect t-shirt for Emma. It's royal blue with life-sized pictures of five different herons and egrets standing on a log. (Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Black-crowned Night Heron, Tri-coloured Heron, Green Heron and a Red-eared Slider).
We did a short walk around the visitors' centre and saw an 189) Ash-throated Flycatcher. The reserve has an extensive system of dikes and we took the six-mile auto tour through the marsh. I drove slowly along the dike photographing from the RV.
Roseate Spoonbills
Great Egret
Emma decided she wanted to walk the dog and exercise instead of sitting in the RV.
Now we had a problem because our dog just flops down and won't move from the RV unless all three of us go for a walk together. Keep the pack together is her motto.
Solution! I would drive ahead in the RV and bird watch. As we were on a dike surrounded by water on all sides, Sona would see the RV in front of her. Emma would be able to walk behind the RV as Sona would want to catch up.
I drove ahead bird-watching and rather lost track of the time and distance. Looking through my rear-view mirror, I saw that Emma and Sona were about a mile behind and jogging at a good pace to catch up.
Have you ever seen an athletic performance that takes your breath away? I had one of those moments.
Still looking through my rear-view I realized that they were not jogging. Emma was running full-tilt like a Heisman trophy-winner on a breakaway. She was deking imaginary tacklers as she sprinted along the top of the dike. My jaw dropped open as I realized she was out-running the dog! Sona was game enough but clearly out-classed by Emma's superlative effort.
Emma kept coming at a sprint for the full mile. In the finishing stretch, she looked like Secretariat at the Belmont. The dog was a good 16 furlongs back. Emma hit the RV door at a dead run and leapt inside followed quickly by the dog.
"Way to go, Honey! You out-ran the dog", I said in admiration.
Huff, puff, gasp .... Alligators!!! gasped Emma.
Sure enough and big suckers at that!
Instead of looking 50 yards into the marsh for birds, I looked along the gently sloping sides of the dike. This 12- footer and his compatriots were sunning themselves inches from the top of the dike.
It all worked out. I saw lots of birds. Emma got her aerobic exercise and Sona had a great run. They were both happy to sit quietly in the RV for the rest of the birding auto tour.
190) Black Duck
We drove to Port Arthur then south to the coast and Sea Rim State Park. As we drove up there was some storm damage to the boardwalk that was still being repaired. The pack went for a nice walk along the beach and saw some new birds.
191) Piping Plover
Snowy Plover
Piping and Snowy Plovers are quite similar particularly in winter but their legs are different colours.
192) Marbled Godwit with several American Avocets
193) Western Sandpiper in Winter Plumage
Two tall bridges later and we were in Louisiana. The terrain became even wilder and marshier.
Brown Pelican
The few houses sprinkled around were all high-up on stilts, even the churches.
We took another free ferry ride to get to Cameron and thankfully were able to get some gas. The marshy, watery landscape really felt like Cajun country.
Louisiana State Flag
We decided to turn inland and spent the night at an RV Park in Lake Charles. I was expecting a small town but Lake Charles is a good sized city. We had some late night excitement finding our way through traffic to our campsite.
February 28
Most of the trees were bare as we drove east along the I10. It was definitely winter in Louisiana.
For dozens of miles, the highway was raised up 20 feet above the ground. Actually the ground was covered by several feet of water. It was a classic forest swamp with tall trees rising out of the still, murky water.
We drove through Lafayette and on toward Baton Rouge. I wanted to press on to New Orleans but Emma had had enough of the crazy bumper to bumper 70 mph traffic on the I10. We stopped just west of Baton Rouge by the banks of the Mississippi River.
March 1
The morning was cold but the sun was warm. Spring is just around the corner here.
On our morning walk around the campground we saw: 194) Barn Swallow, 195) Brown Thrasher and
196) Cedar Waxwings.
Eastern Bluebird
As we drove toward New Orleans I took a turn-off into the middle of a swamp forest to see what it was like. We were set straight by the locals very quickly.
Our RV site was in New Orleans and getting there was challenging. At times on the freeway, it was dead stopped and bumper to bumper. That is actually good news as Emma can relax momentarily and recover from the driving insanity that is manifested on big city freeways. There are not many cities we want to see but New Orleans is one of them.
Emma on the Banks of the Mississippi River in New Orleans.
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