We’re spending the rest of November traveling down the Texas coast, camping at one beach spot for a few days, then moving on. A sampling, a taste of each one.
We’ve done this before, so we’re staying at a few favorites, but we’re also adding new spots, like here, our starting point at the top of the map, Sea Rim State Park. Here’s what we’ve seen here so far.
Grasses
The two miles of hard-packed beach and low sand dunes make for long views of the coast.
Our campsite ready for the next morning’s heavy dew. That’s the gulf on the horizon.
Abutting the dunes are marshy lagoons and wetlands, salt meadows, and tidal drainages.
There are boardwalks, duck blinds, fishing piers, benches to crab from.
Beach Critters
A beached Portuguese man-o-war with its sail up.
Too many shells and other small critters to even try to identify. When I ride my bike on the beach at low tide, the shells crunch under my tires.
The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the Sabine Ship Channel
Driving along this waterway is like parting a sea of coastal birds. They fly up in front of you en masse: herons, egrets, spoonbills, ibis, egrets, mergansers, cormorants, all in the road, in the channel, in the air around you. Seasonal migrants going farther south and permanent residents.
Roseate spoonbills hang in a flock of snowy egrets.
A beautiful green heron.
This osprey has caught a red drum about its own size; earlier, a surf fisherman told me what strong fighters they are. Wish I’d seen this catch happen.
One of the largest alligators we’ve seen, and that’s just the head!
Feral hogs are an invasive species and super damaging to the land and to crops; they’re like big, chaotic rototillers.
Check out that baby trotting along in the middle, though.
Migrating dragonflies feasting on mosquitoes.
My favorite thing in the world (right now), flocks of white pelicans migrating above us, flashing the black tips of their wings as they spiral along drafts.
This wild thing just wants to lie in the sun on green grass.
You found a great place to see so many creatures! I hope you have a really nice day.
We have, thanks!
On the plus side, maybe you can score some fresh bacon!
My mom is obsessed with spoonbills. Every time she visits Florida, she and my dad make it a point to see (and photograph) as many as possible. It’s pretty cute honestly.
I can see why she is – they’re pretty cool-looking when standing and beautiful in flight. You’ve bought her spoonbill-related gifts, yes?
Nope. I’m not enabling her obsession, ha!
Such beautiful, lush, natural areas filled with wildlife! Not what I picture when I think of Texas. And most importantly, they’re Banjo approved.
😉
Banjo gets tired of the beach easily, but she never tires of the grass, and we do have that here. It is lovely.
For a moment I thought the pelicans in the photo were the dragonflies and I was absolutely 🤯 I have to admit I was disappointed when I realised what they were 😁
I think I switched from headers describing photos above them to just captions describing photos below? Whichever, my bad, I’m sure. Those would be some super-organized dragonflies.
Beautiful pictures. I love white pelicans in migration!
The first time I saw them I was out kayaking by myself, and when I got back I described them to Tracy as this amazing sight. When he told me they were pelicans, I hardly believed him. They are amazing!
V similar experience to me. We were in a flat boat in the Everglades on a glorious cool day. Our guide said the ones we saw were the late departures, that most had already headed north.
When their wings flash white, then black, then white again and again, it’s like a code has been assigned to the wind. Gorgeous.
Yes. V beautiful.
Were you aware comments are closed on your new post? I was going to talk about the horror of fire ants but was unable…
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I was not aware! I just fixed that. Thanks so much for letting me know – I would say it was a glitch in my WordPress, but probably I just pressed the wrong damned thing.
Nope. Still closed on this end…