The Nature of Things

Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas Gulf Coast is one of my favorite places for birding. It's an hour-and-a-half drive from my house, if the traffic is light, but it is well worth the effort. In the past, we've had a family tradition of visiting Anahuac every January, often on January 1. It's a nice way to start off the year. We haven't made the trip yet this year, but I'm hoping we will be able to in the next couple of weeks. Looking back over my records from previous January trips, I selected some of my bird photographs to show you. The refuge is visited by more than 300 species of birds throughout the year. Not all of them are there in January, but here are a few that are.  American Coots with their striking red eyes are always plentiful on the refuge. Forster's Tern searching for lunch over the bay waters. A small flock of Red-breasted Mergansers bob along in the waters. Willets look like very plain birds until they take flight and you can see ...

Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas coast has long been one of my favorite day trips for seeing birds. At any time of the year, one can depend on a great variety of species being present there, so it was with optimism for a good day of birding that we headed down to the refuge yesterday morning. It had been many months since we had been there. We've had a family tradition over several years of traveling there for New Year's Day, but we missed that ritual this year and, in fact, this was our first trip there in 2014. Somehow, I had forgotten just how far it is. It is a good hour-and-a-half drive from our house. On bad days, it is closer to two hours. We arrived at mid-morning and immediately noted some changes. The refuge was severely damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008 and most of the human-built structures were destroyed, including the old visitor center. The storm surge washed over the refuge depositing salt water in its fresh water marshes and killing plants and anim...