Mammoth at Matagorda, Wednesday

(August 12)

 

 

Molly discovered that when we walk close to the edge of the mowed grass, near the sunflowers and other scrubby brush, sometimes a rodent will get flustered and scurry around. Very exciting! Lucky for me, she never got ahold of one.

In the morning Ed went surf fishing and I tagged along to spy on birds. We took Zack in our little wagon, and while it wasn't exactly easy pulling the thing though loose sand, it allowed us to carry a cooler of water, Ed's tackle, my backpack and our short-legged though stout-hearted doggy.

This time there were indeed Ruddy Turnstone to observe--they stayed more away from the water's edge and didn't mind hanging out for a photo op. Also a few Willet.

 

 

 Ruddy Turnstone

 

In the afternoon we went to the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge. It was marvelous! And to think we almost missed it--the web site didn't tell us exactly how to go in, so we turned in the first entrance that had official-looking buildings. No maps or permit stations were posted, so we wandered around the small parking lot feeling helpless. Just as we were pulling away, a nice employee came over and told us that we wanted the second turn on the left, not this one.

So that brought us to the 9-mile auto tour. Not a circle, as I'd expected, but an out-and-back road that had a loop to the right and one to the left. We went left first, to Moccasin Pond. (I think that was the name) After a short drive alongside a stream, me thinking every minute that this was it--that's all there was going to be, we came to the pond! Open water was crammed with green muck but full of birds. There was a raised platform there to give you a better look--but we had to be careful--it was showing its age. And probably a hurricane or two passed through since it was built.

 It's there I got this photo of Ibis, species unknown but probably Glossy Ibis

 

 There were black-necked Stilt [stilt] there, too,

 

and egrets:

snowy egret.

 

 

 

 

 

 Common Moorhen and Barn Swallow.. And this very peculiar bird, lurking in the water at our feet:

We were joined by a man and woman there so we all put on our masks. Silly, isn't it--no cars anywhere for further than the eye could see; nothing but nature, birds and buzzing insects; and we meet another pair of humans. They were nice, though. The said they'd tried to take the Bobcat Loop hike on the right-hand turn of the road, but been turned back by all the spiders (Shudder).

After admiring the gator and helping us look for other ones, (if there were any, they were so motionless that we never saw them) they went on. Shortly thereafter, we did too. We met up with them again at the end of the road, where a small river crossed over. It's called Cedar Lake Creek and there's a short trail there, but we didn't see it. On the boat dock someone had set out a couple of crab traps and one of them had a crab.

On the way back, even though time was running out and the refuge closed at 4:30 or 5:00, we turned aside to look at the Bobcat Loop. I was curious to see all the scary spiders that daunted a supposedly normal pair of tourists. The trail was an extremely nice boardwalk in very good condition heading off through a swampy meadow. I looked to be an easy, pleasant hike...but time was getting on and the day was extremely hot. So we just walked a little ways and turned back.

The spiders? I dunno. There were a good number of friendly little "grass" spiders of the sort we have all around our house and hard.  But Shelob had left the building. The ones remaining certainly didn't seem capable of nabbing a dozen dwarfs and stringing them up in webby cocoons, let alone waylaying a pair of mortal men and women.

It was about an hour drive back to the campground. Since the dogs didn't get to have any fun at the Wildlife preserve, I took Molly for a walk down to the beach via the "scenic route." Even though our RV park doesn't have a view of the ocean, there is a road going north along the shore and along it a line of expensive ocean view houses. I can't even imagine paying the flood insurance on one of those.

 I kept intending to drive out just to take a look at them, but that never happened. Instead, Molly and I took a road that we thought was going to lead to them but it soon disappeared into two narrow tire tracks through scrubby grasses. And there lived the motherlode of all mosquitoes. One minute I was trekking along happily, looking for birds--next minute I was dancing and slapping and jitterbugging in place. I'd feel a mosquito biting, slap her, and see on my leg a dozen more than I hadn't even felt. We were running by the time we hit the hot sand and left their winged world.

Safe back in sand and surf, we wandered south to the raised walkway and passed under it, coming out at a section of waterfront where huge granite boulders broke the surf in spatters. We climbed up on one, but when the next wave hit and splashed Molly in the face, she spooked and tried to move too quickly on the slippery surface. Her back end went down in a crack between two boulders and her front end couldn't pull the back end up.

I had hold of her by the harness, and was just about ready to heave her out when she got enough traction to scramble up.

Away from the rocks were some pools of water with marsh grasses growing around them, and the Fish and Wildlife service had put up a short, orange plastic barrier with signs asking people to stay out--crucial bird nesting habitat.  The barrier wasn't in good repair but I hope the reminder was enough to warn people away--there was a bucketload of birds in the pools. I stood and stared until it was starting to get dark and Molly was completely disgusted with me. She sees big birds on the ground and she really, really wants to chase them. And I wouldn't let her!  I'm such a spoil-sport!