Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge

 December 16, 2020

Today we headed west over the toll bridge to 
Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge in Lake Jackson, TX

"The National Wildlife Refuge System, within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, manages a national network of lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife, and plants."

 

We started by hiking the Big Slough Trail

Lots of water fowl to be seen

We walked and saw evidence of ants.

This ant hill really fills the bill of everything in Texas is bigger.

Fortunately, we have only had a minimal encounter with 

some fire ants at the campsite when we have accidently

stepped on their ant hills at our campsite.  We are careful

where we put our footsteps now.

On our way back over the boardwalk we spied this momma

alligator (only her head is above the water) watching her 4 babies.

Yes, 4 one is not with the others but is in the photo.

We then took the auto trail and came to Olney Pond.

This was a favored spot for white egrets.

So we stopped for some lunch of course.  

The pond had a covered picnic table just for us.

As we hit the road, the birds also took flight.

In the Marsh

Taking off

and in flight.

Down the road we got out of the car to walk to Cox Lake

and the Maddox Monument

The first thing we came upon was Snorts.

Snorts is my name for this alligator who expressed his 

disapproval with us taking his photo by exhaling a long snort.

It was enough to make me move along.

The Maddox Monument was a plaque at the site of the homestead of 

the Maddox family, the house was destroyed by a hurricane in 1915.

The trail should have continued to Cox Lake according to the map

but there was no evident trail and after just having spotted an alligator

we decided not to forge through the marsh on our own.

We did however try to get a video of Snorts on the way back

So now you know what it was like to sneak a peek at Snorts,

however he did not snort on camera.  Yes, he snorted after I 

ended the video, oh well.

Remember the gator we saw at the beginning of our time here.

Let's go back and see if Momma alligator is still there.

Yes, and she is completely out of the water now so we can see all of her.

And wait a minute there are more baby alligators too.

I will let you count them all.  They like to lay on top of each other.

Well that was a fun day at Brazoria.

On the way back home, we drove a portion of it on the beach!

There were a few RVs boondocking on the beach, so we had to check it out.

It still feels odd to drive on the beach, but it was fun.

Hop in the truck with us for a minute.

I am sure you have heard about the Christmas star.

For the first time since 1623 Jupiter and Saturn

are coming so close together that they will look like one bright star.

Here in this sunset photo taken just outside our RV is the crescent moon

with Jupiter and Saturn just above it.

Hopefully we will have clear skies when they get together.