My adventures in Rockport preceded my first expedition to south Texas, and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic that would dominate our society one week later. On 2020-03-16, I drove to the city of Rockport after leaving from my second day at Aransas, and prepared for the boat ride I’d signed up for, which would … Read more
On Tuesday, 2021-03-09, I spent the night at a rest stop on the Interstate-10 freeway east of Houston. I endured a lot of drive time exiting Louisiana after I decided not to pursue Florida on this expedition, and I was beat. I planned to visit Brazoria NWR on Wednesday, but after driving two hours southwest … Read more
After departing High Island in early March 2021, I set a course for the nearby Anahuac National Wildlife Reserve. I planned a quick visit before heading east on my clock-wise journey around the gulf, with intentions of ending up in Florida. Everyone I spoke with about must see places on the upper Texas Gulf coast … Read more
I visited the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center next to the Port Aransas Nature Preserve on the last day of February in 2021. I learned there was a popular boardwalk over the freshwater marshes on the property until 2017’s Hurricane Harvey dismantled it beyond use. Not ones to give up easily, Texans rebuild what nature breaks, … Read more
For my second expedition to Texas in 2021, I stayed five and a half months (2020-12-27 to 2021-05-13). I started in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and Big Bend before gravitating to the Lower Rio Grande Valley in mid-January. During the next six weeks I toured the valley, discovering as many hot-spots as I could. The … Read more
Located 50 miles north of Corpus Christi (Texas), and primarily on the Blackjack peninsula, the main unit of the 115,324-acre Aransas National Wildlife Refuge is protected from the brunt of the harshest weather by Matagorda Island, part of a long chain of barrier islands extending down the Texas coast from Galveston to South Padre. The … Read more
I’ll begin by listing a few factoids about this popular national park. At 1,252 square miles, it is the 15th largest national park. The rugged terrain reaches heights of 7832’ at Emory Peak, and as low as 1850’ at Rio Grande Village. The park gets its name from the long curve of its southern boundary, … Read more
During the last days of the calendar (2020) I was leaving New Mexico, determined to revisit Texas. After spending Christmas day at Bitter Lake NWR near Roswell (New Mexico), I drove south on US-285. When I reached the city of Carlsbad, I made a right-hand turn on US-62. I’d heard stories about the Guadalupe Mountains … Read more
Nestled at the southwest corner of Laguna Madre, that body of water that lies between the barrier island of South Padre in south Texas and the terra firma of the Texas mainland, is the community of Laguna Vista. This community has grown steadily from a population of 1160 in 1990 to over 5000 today. An … Read more
Perhaps one of the most overlooked birding “hot-spots” in South Texas is the mouth of the Rio Grande at Boca Chica Beach. There is no infrastructure or visitor center located there. Perhaps because of this, and its primitive nature, it doesn’t appear in very many travel guides, like members of World Birding Centers and other … Read more
