High Island

We got up at 6:30 and took Joy's car to drive down to Galveston to visit the high island bird sanctuary and try to catch the spring migration. Our hour long journey took us East, down the peninsula, and over a (surprisingly) free ferry back to the mainland that evening.

High island serves as a resting point for migrating birds that had just flown in across the gulf. The Houston Audubon society has set up an extensive number of parks and viewing platforms in the area.

We started our tour at the boy scout bird sanctuary next to a swamp. From the beginning it was clear the audubon society had spent a lot of money to provide the perfect conditions to view birds. When we pulled up, we saw a dozen birders standing outside the entrance building (which was empty and possibly locked) staring up into the mulberry and pecan trees which were filled with kingbirds, warblers, and oriols. Across the street there was a wooden boardwalk into the mosquito filled swamp.

In places the swamp was so picturesque it might have been in Disneyland. We would have lingered, but the mosquitos chased us out of the dense trees to the boardwalk that extended out over the wetland beyond. Once out of the trees, it was sunny and hot and the mosquitos were less fierce. Despite the heat, I wore pants, shoes with wool socks, and a windbreaker to keep from being eaten alive. Even with these precautions, other places in the reserve were so bad I could only get away from the mosquitos by jogging down the paths.

While Amanda peered out into the wetlands, I spent my time collecting mulberries from a nearby tree. Mulberries are better than blackberries and I regret not being able to collect more during our stay in Texas. It got me thinking I should write down and rate all the various wild berries and fruit for my own edification if nothing else. I've never seen a mulberry tree in California.

We saw a painted bunting in the bushes and anole doing push-ups and neck displays on the boardwalk.

Amanda had to attend a zoom meeting from 12-2pm, so after lunch I took my things and wandered around to check out the other local parks. There were no sidewalks because no-one walks in Texas. Apparently even birders will drive from site to site rather than walk, but there wasn't much traffic, so I walked in the road.

At the SE Gast Red Bay Sanctuary I entered a wooded section that was so full of mosquitos I had to run down the path. They were biting me through my rain jacket and hat. On the other side of the sanctuary just out of the trees, there was a short section of path exposed to the sunlight that lined a large wetland dotted with pools and oil rigs. By the time I emerged from the woods again, my hands were spotted with blood like liverspots. I warned a group of birders preparing to enter the forest after me, but I don't think they listened.

With an hour still left to kill, I decided to walk towards the other two sanctuaries. Along the way a woman pulled up in her minivan and asked if I wanted a ride to the smith oak rookery and I told her I was enjoying my walk. The first sanctuary looked like another mosquito filled hellhole, so I continued on towards the rookery.

The smith oak rookery was crazy awesome. It was a park designed by birdwatchers for birdwatching. They had huge raised walkways to look into the canopy and out over the two man-made lakes with islands containing nesting egrets, spoonbills, cormorants, anahinga, and herons. The pools were filled with alligators and purple gallnule. I spent an hour watching and then decided instead of walking back to the car, I would message Amanda and tell her to come pick me up. She wasn't happy to hear about all the cool birds she was missing.

Upon her arrival she quickly added 6 different life birds. We did a quick walk around the lake to look at the gallinules and Amanda pointed out an alligator at the edge of the lake.

Then we drove out to the gulf coast where the houses are on three story stilts, the water was the color of chocolate, and the road led right out onto the beach. We drove down the packed sand until we reached a little rivulet and got out to watch the birds. There were 6 different terns assembled together and Amanda was having difficulty telling them apart. The least tern was the size of a sandpiper, and they were diving in the ankle deep water that pushed up the beach.

As I stood in the water to cool my feet, a crab grabbed my toe. I noticed no-one along the entire beach was in the water, and it made me nervous. Apparently it's super-duper polluted. I'm not sure how the birds were surviving.

The ferry back to the mainland was surprisingly free, and we saw dolphins in the gulf just as Teresa had told us. The Houston traffic was terrible but when we got back to the house we entere a new type of circus.

Dave and Mary's son Tommy was visiting with his wife Rachel and their three kids aged 2-6(?). Rachel was pregnant with a 4th. They claimed it would be the last. The kids played the floor is lava, making the furniture shift around the room as they jumped back and forth, and they tore open the puzzles Mary had bought them.

Tommy is a construction worker, but he was moving stiffly because he'd injured his neck trying to do a double front flip on a trampoline as a bet. The kids were bouncing balls, knocking things off the walls and encouraging the dogs, which had been locked out back, to scratch at the windows and screens. At one point someone opened the back doors to let them in and Tucker immediately ran over to lick me while the other dog hid under the dinner table until Tommy managed to drag them out and carry them outside.

Joy arrive while we were eating, and we heard how she went with her sister to visit the old three-bedroom house where she and her seven siblings were raised. They also visited her old Catholic school and an old friend who told her it was a bad time because she had a broken arm, her husband had 4 stints, and she was caring for her mother-in-law who had dementia.

Dave has been battling a severe case of MSRA initiated by scratching a mosquito bite and has had to have his artificial knee opened up and scrubbed clean several times. He said he will be on antibiotics for the rest of his life. Mary was also diagnosed with a MSRA infection. They were getting older but from all the health problems I wondered if Houston wasn't a very healthy place to live.

I sat up with my computer while they chatted in the living room until Uncle Dave had to get up and let the dogs in. For a while it seemed Tucker had forgotten his intense desire to lick me all over, but then he noticed, and I retreated to our room. Dave gave me a dishrag to keep the dog away, but I didn't like having to threaten their dog every minute for my entire stay, and it was beginning to infuriate the dog. Constantly fending off the dog's advances was exhausting and rude but then leaving the room was also rude, so I didn't have much of a choice.