We got the urge one morning to see a sunrise coming up over the Gulf of Mexico and the Laguna Madre. So we unshackled the bikes before we could see very well and headed out to Plover Point on the Bay View Drive of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. With all the clouds, we didn’t have our hopes set very high but were greeted with a quick and spectacular good morning flash through a hole in the clouds that reflected across the Laguna Madre. Well worth the ride!
From where we viewed the sunrise you can see the town of Port Isabel and South Padre Island. This time of year it is rather busy down there with Spring Break and one of the Mexican holidays going on. Everybody loves the beaches and it is quite the party place! Back in the 18th century Port Isabel (before it was named that) was used as a resort for Spaniards after watersellers came ashore looking for freshwater supplies. They liked it and decided it was a nice place to visit in the spring, fill up their ships with fresh water, drink a little rum, get a sunburn on the beaches, sample a bit of the local culture, buy a few souvenirs - spring break was born! The city wasn’t actually named Port Isabel until 1928 and the causeway to South Padre Island wasn’t built until 1954 so any traffic before that time was all by boat. The causeway (the new one after the hurricane took out the old one) has the distinction of being the longest bridge in Texas and is a fun drive with views of all the boats, birds, skylines and an occasional dolphin or two.
Linda has been enjoying her volunteer hours in the Refuge Office. Working with the Refuge Manager, the Biologists and other staff – they have kept her busy doing various projects – namely cleaning up the “map drawers” – several duplicates, many not even pertaining to the Refuge and some just too old to keep. Now they are organized and even easy to find. Another project was scanning in several years of reports for Hilary, the biologist in charge of the ocelot program. And lastly, completing or drafting “narratives” of the happenings at the Refuge. You know how she enjoys digging in and this research was right up her alley! Linda also volunteered for Ocelot Conservation Day at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville. “It has been a great three months and we were even invited to see an ocelot release after having been checked and a collar for tracking was put on it. The ocelot was beautiful!”, this being said by Linda.
One of the things that we really enjoyed during our past stays in the area was the South Padre Island Kite Festival — so we just had to go to it this year. Down in the area of the South Padre Island Convention Centre the sky was filled with hundreds of colorful kites some of them over 100 feet long flying in the constant wind. There were thousands of Winter Texans in folding lawn chairs munching on snacks, drinks in hand, listening to the music and marveling at a blue sky full of vividly colored kites.
There were flying dolphins, octopus, puffer fish, tubes, odd shaped things, even flying cows and pigs. Kite flying demonstration teams preformed to music and dazzled the crowds with the precision they could accomplish with multiple kites at the same time. It was pretty cool! Then it was time to visit Claytons – “the largest beach bar in Texas” to have a little refreshment on the beach and listen to the moldy oldies played by a pair of “working” Winter Texans. They were quite good actually.
Port Isabel is a rather nice little coast town with its colorful painted dolphins, fishing boats, wharfs, oil rigs and a rather nice area called Little Venice. Little Venice is a pricy area where all the homes and apartments have access to canals leading to the Laguna Madre. All of these are only a couple of feet above sea level in hurricane country. Does make you wonder! Maybe they like insurance payments or rebuilding costs. I suppose that could be a tax write-off.
Whenever we go to the beach we keep our eyes open for the Ghost Crabs. These little guys are quick! They can run up to 10 miles an hour and considering their size (most only an inch or two long) they seem to disappear. The coloration and patterns remind me of intricate tattoos that a lot of people would love to have. They have two little black eyes on stalks that allow them to see 360 degrees with each eye – but they can’t look up. That’s how I got this pic!
While we were walking the beach for the last time this past Tuesday, we saw and unfortunately stepped on one of the larger water versions of this crab that was buried just below the surface of the sand as the wave was receding. Boy did he come up fighting! Eyes fixed on us, claws up and snapping. Even though we were the bigger ones by far we didn’t hang around!
The Refuge has many different species of birds and we ran into this Moorhen one day admiring himself in the water reflection. I could just imaging him saying “Yes, you are so pretty, you are a pretty bird, there is no mate good enough for you, I am good looking!” It’s no wonder there were no other birds around.
We are always running into new experiences at the refuges and this one was no different. Ever have a seven duck butt salute?
Doesn’t leave any question of what they thought of us being in the area does it?
As I was riding the Bayside Loop one day this Turkey Vulture decided to put on a bit of a display. In reality he was just drying the morning dew from his wings. There was quite the group of them in this area but I only took the one pic. I’m not sure of the wingspan but it is big!
On that same ride a bull Nilgai decided to escort me a ways along the road. They sound just like horses when they run and he was being sure that I didn’t turn towards his lady friends.
The Yuccas have been in bloom for the last few weeks and we ran across this one that was rather unique. It looked like a candelabra.
While Linda was down at the Ocelot Conservation Day at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, she got to observe the Ocelot from the Cincinnati Zoo named Sihil. Kind of like a big housecat but much more interesting
Speaking of cats – just this week we have seen two bobcats. One on our ride around Bayside Loop, the other right outside of the rv – after scaring the local quail who survived and did not become breakfast for the bobcat!
This is the other project I’ve been working on while we have been here. It is a mobile pigeon coop! The one pic is of the old pigeon coop which I used as a basis for the mobile one. The staff here wants to be able to move the pigeons around so they can keep the ocelots further away from the roads and decrease the possibility of them getting hit by a passing vehicle. They use pigeons for trapping purposes but the little guys are safe from whatever ends up in the trap by a barrier between them and the animal. It’s been fun trying to figure this concept out and put it together with the materials and trailer that were available.
The finished product going for it’s shake down cruise. It held together and the plumbing even worked!
I do like projects like this! It was a challenge and a number of the other volunteers said it couldn’t be done.
We had the pleasure of our puberty-infused granddaughter visiting us for a week during her spring break. It’s always fun giving the young’ens a bad Grandpa time. We spent some time on South Padre Island with her showing her the sunburns on the Spring Breakers, walking the beach, visiting the turtle rescue place, taking a dolphin watch cruise and even swimming a bit when you could avoid the pinching crabs. Then we took her to Dirty Al’s for shrimp and oysters for lunch (talk about good!) I had the blackened cheeseburger and have to admit it is one of the best in the country! (In my opinion only.)
This is one of our baby alligators in the area. The little guy (less than a foot long) was cruising the shoreline of the alligator pond looking for that juicy frog or crawfish. He did eventually get one – a crawfish that did its best to fight back – lost in the end though.
Here are a couple of Ibis, the younger ones are the ones with the brown on their bodies. They will lose that as they mature and turn pure white.
So as we pack up, say our farewells, get a few hugs, and head north in the next few days we leave behind new friends and acquaintances that we hope we will see down the road some day. The staff of the Refuge and the volunteers we have met and worked with here will hold a special place in our memories when we think of this place called Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.
Until next time, we leave you with a sunset from Lake Atascosa on the Refuge.
Home is where we park it
Lee & Linda
