High Island, TX

We left Dauphin Island last Friday, and after a 430 mile drive across I-10 thru southern Mississippi & Louisiana, we arrived at High Island, TX - another great place. It was a longer drive than we usually like to make in the motorhome, but there's really no good stopover places in Louisiana, plus we already had reservations for Friday at High Island. In any case, we made it OK and got set up in the High Island RV Park. It is a private park, and the sites are close together, but it is the only game in town. We have stayed here a couple of times in the past and have gotten to know the nice lady that owns it. High Island is a very small town, population around 500, and is about 1/2 miles from the Gulf of Mexico on a rise of land about 40 feet elevation. There is one store, one small motel, and a produce stand and about 3 churches. 

High Island RV Park

There are 4 birding sanctuaries in High Island - all under the Houston Audubon Society. There are the Boy Scout Woods, the Smith Oaks, the Eubanks Sanctuary, and the SE Gast Red Bay Sanctuary. The place was covered up with birders over the weekend, but it looks like we are late for the warbler and other small perching birds migration. Seems they've come & gone! Oh well, at least on Saturday in the Boy Scout Woods we did see a Painted Bunting that I finally got a long distance shot of.

Painted Bunting

 

It is about 25 miles down Bolivar Peninsula to Galveston Bay and Saturday afternoon we took a ride down the highway by the beach. Hurricane Ike a few years ago wiped out most everything up and down the coast here, but they about have it all rebuilt. All the houses and other structures are built on stilts high in the air.

The Beach Highway

 

One of our favorite places on this side of Galveston Bay is Bolivar Flats near the community of Port Bolivar. We knew we were welcome when we saw the sign at the edge of the birding area on the beach!

After walking up & down the beach at Bolivar Flats we checked out Port Bolivar to see how the community had survived the hurricane - not too well it turned out. There used to be lots of trees, but now they are either all dead or gone. They're rebuilding, but there's still lots of evidence of damage. We did see a nice water bird in one of the canals.

 

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

 

Sunday we attended the First Baptist Church of High Island and enjoyed a very nice worship service. It is a small church with a small congregation, but they were extremely friendly. We were welcomed with open arms - literally!

After church we drove back into Winnie a little less than 20 miles north and had a nice lunch. Then we drove out to the Anahuac (pronounced Anna-Wock) National Wildlife Refuge which is about half way between Winnie and High Island, but off on another road about 10 miles. This area of the country is flat, the roads straight, houses on stilts, and one of our favorite birds along on the fences! Anahuac NWR is a very popular refuge with lots of water fowl.

Road to Anahuac

 

Another Stilt House

 

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

 

Entrance to Anahuac NWR

We first checked out the gift shop (we're suckers for caps & T-shirts), and a boardwalk near the entrance where we saw lots of birds.

Sora

 

Lesser Yellowlegs

There are three separate auto-tours, two of them over 3 miles on rough gravel roads, and the most popular one which is a two and a half mile one way paved loop which we took. There is water (canals & ponds) all along both side of the road with lots & lots of birds!

One-way Loop

 

Black-necked Stilt

 

Ole Man Gator!

Today (Monday) we went back to the Boy Scout Woods here in High Island (saw the Painted Bunting again), then went back to Anahuac for another trip around the loop. We're going to be here three more days, so stay tuned ------------