Nature

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Aren't you sometimes made speechless by the site of some glorious part of our natural world? Something that makes you stop in place while you utter something like "ohhh wow". Personally, we have had many of these moments, some small and some big during our lives. We had another big "moment" last night. 


One highlight here on High Island is the rookery located in the Smith Oaks Sanctuary. This sanctuary is 177 acres of fields, woods, wetlands, and ponds, and of course, the rookery. There's a great boardwalk trail to follow, that meets up with the woodland trails. We were advised to visit the rookery about an hour or so before sunset. And when we walked up to the first viewing platform, well, you guessed it. It was an "oh wow" moment! 








The rookery is located on an island in the middle of Claybottom Pond. It's a well-used location for roosting and nesting for thousands of waterbirds in spring and summer, including herons, egrets, cormorants, and spoonbills. There are a total of five viewing platforms, all giving fantastic views of the rookery. 

We had great looks at great and snowy egrets, great blue, little blue and tri-colored herons, and roseate spoonbills.

Beautiful roseate spoonbills!

Tri-colored heron

Tri-colored heron

Lots of cormorants



The activity is non-stop on the island. Thousands of birds...copulation, fighting, building nests, flying back and forth...it's all happening there! 

Snowy egret collecting nesting material.

                                   And away!

This spot was something to marvel at! Life cycles of our natural world! Forgive my cellphone photos; they don't do justice to the real thing!

Saturday the 10th, we head back towards Livingston to visit friends, get the kitties to the vets for their annual check-ups, etc. etc. We'll share our visits to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Boy Scout Woods, and Bolivar Peninsular with you this weekend along with birds we were able to find throughout the week.

Behind the mask is a happy birder!









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