Yesterday afternoon, Barry and Lynn and I drove over to the COE Wallisville Lake Project. There are more than 23,000 acres covered by this project. Since it’s the COE, you know there’s a dam involved. The Trinity River is dammed to prevent tidal salt water from moving up the Trinity River. I have driven past this area many many times as I’ve traversed I-10 for various reasons, but just never stopped to enjoy it.
Our main objective was to check out the Trinity River Waterbird Rookery. Since spring has sprung, we wanted to see if any nesting activity has begun. There is a parking area and this nice board walk out to an overlook of the rookery. Hard to see in this pic, but just after the bridge there’s something other than a bird under the boardwalk.
Can you see the nutria grooming itself by the right most pylon? There are a couple of white ibis and a bunch of blue-winged teal in front of it. Nutria are an invasive species here, and remind me of giant muskrats.
As we approached the overlook, Lynn was busy eyeing all the nesting birds. All those dots in the cypress trees in the background are egrets, herons, ibis, and spoonbills setting up housekeeping.
It was a warm and bright day yesterday, and we were facing right into the afternoon sun. That doesn’t make for great photos for sure. Since it isn’t that far from Anahuac, I think I’ll be visiting again some sunny morning so the sun is at my back.
Oddly enough, for me, I didn’t automatically estimate how many birds were there, but there were a lot! Must have been the fact that all my blood had gone to my stomach to digest the farewell luncheon we attended just before coming here. Six of our RV volunteers will be pulling out in the next week or so, and the luncheon at Napolito’s Tex/Mex Restaurant was in their honor.
Today, I headed in to headquarters to work on getting all the Environmental Education materials organized. April is when all the local school districts start sending their kids here for a day on the refuge. We have different programs for each grade from kindergarten through fifth grade. There are lots of materials involved, and another volunteer and I went through them all to make sure everything was in its proper container and ready for the coming season. We made a list of missing items. I’m a person that would rather be prepared than wait until the last minute and panic when stuff is missing.
 |  |
Afterwards, I headed for the refuge to have my tailgate lunch. I thought maybe this Krider’s red-tailed hawk would sit and pose for me.
Ha! Not for long. I was lucky to get this shot of its leaving. Usually I just get a picture of the sky.
 |  |
I leave you tonight with a wonderfully camouflaged young alligator. I can’t forget I’m in Anahuac, you know, the alligator capitol of Texas!
Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later, Judy
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét