Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge

We went to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge this morning to see what was around there. It is very, very dry. Most of the ponds are dried up. There is still some water in the canals, but not much anywhere else. There are hardly any ducks out there. We saw one flock of Snow Geese. Mallards were the only ducks. There are several Pied-billed Grebes in the canals. Savannah Sparrows lined the sides of the road. At one point, I "pished" and drew out Song Sparrows and Common Yellowthroats. ("Pishing" is making a noise like telling someone to be quiet.)

What we found quite a bit of is debris left from Hurricane Ike. We noticed along FM 1985 going to the refuge that we would have been under 8' to 12' of water in several places. All the way into the refuge, we could see grass debris in the trees and on the fence. At the entrance to the refuge, the visitor center is an empty shell, and one of the brick walls had been ripped off and all the windows were gone. As we started around Shoveler Loop in the refuge, we saw lots of building debris. I was trying to figure out where it all came from and finally realized it must have come from houses in Gilchrist on the Bolivar Peninsula. There was quite a bit of it. It was really kind of weird to think that I was looking at debris that had five months ago been someone's house. There were all kinds of things - pillows, a baseball bat, a recliner and lots of boards. Even though I go to my office and see the results of hurricane damage, it's different looking at debris knowing that someone's house was literally ripped apart to create it. They are still cleaning things up in Chambers County and have a long way to go.