Having had about enough of sitting home waiting for the coming apocalypse, Karen and I decided to take a weekend trip down to Port Arthur Texas and social distance at some state parks and nature reserves. We checked into our hotel on Thursday night and looked forward to getting up early and chasing the sunrise the next morning at Sea Rim state park. However, checking the web site we learned that it’s new hours of operation had it opening at 8am, a couple of hours past sunrise. Plan B: look for an open place on the beach where we could watch the sun rise.

We woke up early the next morning and made the 30-minute drive to the coast. We finally found a couple of open beach areas, but then realized that due to lack of planning on my part, the sun was rising over the land, not the water. Oh well, Karen grabbed this shot and we still enjoyed our time outside.

After the sunrise, we cruised the road that follows the shoreline to see what we could see. There were lots of people fishing, and a few birders checking out the local birdlife. We followed the road to the end just to see what was there. We heard several birds, but didn’t get glass on any to speak of. Karen did however catch this sight.

We had planned ahead and gotten our reservations for Sea Rim state park, as they are only allowing a certain number of people in each day. When we arrived there we found out that the major trail/boardwalk which we were looking forward to hiking had been destroyed by a hurricane in 2017–thanks Harvey. They told us that it was plastered on their web site, but looking back at their web site now, the only thing plastered there is concerning covid and social distancing. In fact the trail is still on their maps which are dated 2020. Needless to say we were disappointed.

We saw what we could see there and departed since it appears that the main attraction at that park right now is camping.

Asking around, we found that there was a popular birding area just down the street, so we headed that direction. We found the Sabine Woods area, which is associated with the Texas Ornithological Society. We parked the car, and “Off-ed” ourselves to prepare to head into the woods. No sooner had we entered the area we found ourselves swarmed with these large, biting/stinging flying creatures. The deeper we got into the woods the thicker they became. Needless to say, it didn’t take us long to turn tail and run out of there. Karen is convinced they were attracted to the Off, but who knows. This would not be our last interaction with these critters.

At this point, disappointment was beginning to set in. Karen was beating herself up because she had planned this trip, but it wasn’t her fault. These situations were out of her control. Since I had been in the area before with my friend John Tucker, I suggested that we head over to the Smith Oaks rookery on High Island. It wasn’t that far away and at least it would be something to do. So we did.

On our drive over, we were stuck in traffic long enough to witness a guy doing some crop-dusting. It looked like at least he was having some fun.

As we left the traffic jam, I noticed a sign for the Anahuac Wildlife Preserve and remembered that I had been wanting to go there someday. File that away for now…

We arrived at the Smith Oaks rookery, only to find that they were doing construction and the main entrance was closed. However, there was another entrance. It just required a bit more hiking to get to the actual rookery area. We gladly took the hike.

Once inside the rookery there were numerous places to view the birds and their activity. This scene took me back to when I took an award-winning photograph here of a Great Egret with 3 young chicks in the nest called “Egret Family Values”. Well, it seems that peaceful scene changes when the chicks grow up. Maybe I’ll call this one “Egret Sibling Rivalries”.

There were lots of other birds here, including this Rosette Spoonbill feeding its “young”. Some of the behavior we saw looked as if the parents were getting tired of feeding the adolescents and trying to get them to strike out on their own. The younger ones didn’t seem to want to do that. Notice this one has its bill shoved all the way down the parent’s neck!

When we got to the end of the trail we were greeted with this sign…

Well, of course I want to see the alligators!! And I pointed out that the sign did not specify that the trail was closed to “Michael Hampton”, but Karen convinced me it was an all-inclusive sign and we shouldn’t proceed in that direction, so we headed back. It was then that Karen shot me on the trail! Yes, at my age I’m still hiking and packing my big lens and tripod.

To finish out this post, here are a few more of the birds at Smith Oaks…

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We left Smith Oaks and I took Karen for a drive down the Bolivar Peninsula for lunch and across the ferry into Galveston where we drove down the beach road, turned around, and headed back out of the crowded city to ride the ferry back once more.

On our way back up the peninsula, I spotted a Crested Caracara sitting on a pole. I have yet to get what I would consider a great shot of this bird, but this is by far the best I have gotten to date. It continues to challenge me.

From here, we decided to stop at the Anahuac area, but I’ll save that for the next post as this one is already pretty long.

Until next time…

Michael & Karen

All words and photos copyright 2020 MHampton Photography 
Equipment used: Assorted Canon bodies and lenses