By Brandt Mannchen

It’s crazy to visit Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge in July.  Hotter than hot and humid as a rainstorm.  But that’s what I did.  I met my buddy David before 8:30 am.  After a brief walk around the butterfly garden, which included watching swallows skim across a pond while an Anhinga watched from a Black Willow tree, and observing several swarms of honeybees at the pavilion, we took off.

Immediately, I noticed there were a lot of flowers blooming.  During our visit we saw Salt Marsh Mallow, native hibiscus, Japanese Honeysuckle, Water Primrose, Sensitive Briar, Water Plantain, Texas Dandelion, Dayflower, American Germander, Turk’s Cap, American Basket Flower, Mexican Primrose, White Guara, White Water Lily, lantana, Common and other Morning Glories, Brazilian Vervain, Texas Vervain, Frog Fruit, goldenrod, bluebell, and American Elderberry all showing off their white, blue, purple, yellow, and red colors.  What a showy spectacle!  Too cool.

We drove the auto tour of the Refuge and saw about 15 American Alligators, mostly small, with heads just barely visible in the water, waiting for a tasty morsel to present itself.  There were few people at Anahuac, an advantage for birding and enjoying natural surroundings without a lot of “hurry-burry” activities.

I heard a Bullfrog and saw baby toads, probably Gulf Coast Toads, hopping to keep from being eaten by almost everything (they were about ½ inch long).  Everybody’s idea of a quick meal.  Dragonflies darted looking for food and occasional sulfur and Gulf Fritillary Butterflies flitted through the native grass.

Birds were the big attraction and we saw a fair number for such a still, hot, breezeless day.  Some of the birds we saw included Barn Swallow, Eurasian Collard Dove, Cattle Egret, Mourning Dove, Northern Cardinal, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Red-winged Blackbird, Mockingbird, Anhinga, Eastern Kingbird, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Brown-headed Cowbird, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Boat-tailed Grackle, White Ibis, Neotropic Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Green Heron, Louisiana Heron, Little Blue Heron, White-faced Ibis, Common Gallinule, Purple Gallinule, Roseate Spoonbill, Laughing Gull, Willet, American Coot, Meadow Lark, and an unknown tern species.

The cutest of all were the baby Common and Purple Gallinules.  They were small, black, and looked fuzzy.  Mom kept close by to protect them from predators.  Now that’s a tough job.  A mom Purple Gallinule was seen pulling a large snail from the water for a tasty treat.

Dave and I also went down to East Bay and marveled at the extensive rock breakwaters that had been erected recently above the normal water level about 100 feet from shore.  The breakwaters are used to protect the shoreline and the Smooth Cordgrass wetlands from erosion from waves and sea level rise that occurs due to our burning of oil and gas.

It was a great day and I needed to get away from the city, and too many people and disturbances.  The air was fresh, and the only sounds were from birds calling to each other.  What a great atmosphere to enjoy on a Tuesday morning.  Thank goodness for our national wildlife refuges.  They not only are refuges for many animals and plants but also for a human mammal called Homo sapiens.  I like this habitat!