By Brandt Mannchen
Since I moved to Humble, Texas from the Meyerland area almost four years ago, some places I like to visit seem much farther away. Perhaps that’s because they are! The string of national wildlife refuges along the Upper Texas Coast, Anahuac, Brazoria, San Bernard, Big Boggy, and Attwater Prairie Chicken, take about 30 minutes to one hour more when I visit them.
But I really wanted to see Attwater (a 10,000-acre prairie) and wildflowers, so I contacted my friends, David and Naomi. All of us had both COVID shots and the two-week waiting period, so I asked them to meet me there at 9 am. That meant that I had to get going by 6:30 am to reach my destination.
Somehow, I managed leave the house at 6:20 am as I wound my way, via starts and stops, down I-69, along I-610, and then out I-10 in my journey to Attwater. It had been two years since I visited the Refuge, although I had planned a May 2020 Sierra Club outing that was cancelled due to COVID.
The traffic was heavy, but after I got past I-45 it flowed well. I made a quick pitstop at Bucee’s and kept driving. The traffic returned when I got to Brookshire, with road work and the 55-mph reduced speed. Was I the only one trying to be safe and legal?
I began to feel lost as one intersection after another had orange signs, dug up dirt, and made the familiar landscape appear unfamiliar. Finally, I got to Sealy, turned onto State Highway 36, made a right on FM 3013, and after dodging a stopped overloaded vehicle, motored toward the Refuge.
The first thing I noticed was a new housing subdivision. There goes the neighborhood! Rice and other farmland turned into sprawling and unneeded houses. "Why can’t we put people where the jobs and development are?" I thought.
As I approached Attwater, I saw two Caracaras, Mexican Eagles. One flew over the road looking down at me and one sat on the side and watched as I zoomed by.
When I was within a mile of the Refuge I saw a stranded Red-eared Slider in the middle of the road. I did a U-turn, went back, and before someone crushed my shelled friend pulled over, grabbed the turtle, and headed for my car. Unfortunately, in a pique, the slider peed and wet my hand and later the floormat of my car. Oh well, I would probably pee in my pants too, if I was out in the middle of a road.
I finally turned into Attwater and began the drive to the visitor center/office. I passed some oil/gas infrastructure and saw a Dickcissel, Common Nighthawk, Mourning Doves, and Red-wing Blackbirds as I drove on. Unfortunately, I also saw non-native invasive plants like Johnson Grass, KR Bluestem, Bahia Grass, Brazilian Vervain, Vasey Grass, and McCartney Rose (whose flower is nice looking) in or near the ditches alongside the entrance road.
Finally, I came to the parking lot. My friend David was already there talking with a Refuge biologist about burning the prairie. This is done to reduce dense vegetation and recycle nutrients that go from thatch to ash during the fire.
While we waited for Naomi to arrive, I took my hard-shelled friend and dropped it into the San Bernard River, David looked at Pipevine Swallowtails which were feeding on American Basket-flowers, and we both saw Turkey Vultures circling nearby. I had heard Bobwhite Quail call when I was almost at the parking lot and also saw a Northern Cardinal on the ground.
Naomi arrived and we drove to the Horseshoe Lake Trailhead where a vulture greeted us from the top of the kiosk. We began the 1.3 miles hike by crossing an old bridge that crossed the San Bernard River. Before we crossed, a White-tailed Deer moved slowly in front of us near the trailhead and walked slowly across the bridge in front of us. Talk about calm, cool, and collected. It was after all, her Refuge, not ours.
The wildflowers, though different than ones I see in May were no less beautiful and plentiful. They came in all kinds and colors including Mexican and Evening Primrose, Lemon Mint, Common Sunflower, Dayflower, Sensitive Briar, Black-eyed Susan, Texas Dandelion, Texas Verbena, Knot-root Bristlegrass, Bull Nettle, Texas Thistle, Eastern Gama Grass, Morning Glory, Spiderwort, Wine Cup, Prickly Poppy, Canadian Rye Grass, Yellow Wood Sorrel, Bitterweed, Yellow Lantana, Sida, Coreopsis, American Germander, Sow Thistle, White Evolvulus, Yellow Powder Puff, Phlox, Yellow Flax, Partridge Pea, Frog Fruit, Swamp Sunflower, Meadow Pink, Croton, Silver Bluestem, Brown-seed Paspalum, Scarlet Pimpernel, Bluet, Gallardia, Sedges, and on and on.
At Horseshoe Lake, the white Water Lilies bloomed in spectacular fashion and Smartweed could be seen in the water along the shoreline. A snakeskin documented that not just humans roamed this prairie and wetland paradise.
After we finished our hike, it was getting extremely hot, so we piled into my car and drove the 5-mile auto tour. We admired the blooming Loosestrife and stopped at the viewing platform for a prairie vista. The Queen’s Delight was just about bloomed out, but a Killdeer kept us occupied as it pretended to have a broken wing to lure us away from its nest.
We continued, stopped at a prairie pothole, and admired the white Sagittaria blooms. Then we were surprised as two White-tailed Deer bounded out of the wetland, a doe and a buck with antlers, and crossed the road behind us.
A little further on we stopped and watched an old-fashioned windmill spin as it pumped water into a cattle pond with a solitary Elderberry blooming white against a wall of vines. We had to move very carefully past a herd of cows because a mother and her calf were at the side of the road. She did not look happy to have us pass so close to her baby. The undulating prairie was covered in white flowers that may have been Wild Buckwheat.
We got back to the parking lot and had a nice shady, breezy, lunch beneath a canopy of American Sycamores. Then it was time to leave. I got what I wanted and more. Wildflowers for the eyes, fresh air and sunny skies for the body, and memories for the soul!