Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Texas

Posted bymatt93111Posted inUncategorizedTags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Recently went to the Texas gulf coast, around 70 miles South East of Houston to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. It’s 34,000 acres of natural habitat mainly for birds and in particular shore and wading birds. It’s also a great place in the spring to see migratory songbirds whom travel through after crossing the Gulf of Mexico on their way north. The wildlife is very easy to see here as there’s an “autoloop tour” which takes you directly through the refuge. Amongst many other creatures who call this place home, the most interesting I found were the Alligators who lived here.

This is an American Alligator. There were probably around 40 we saw in total whilst driving around the autoloop. Most of them were pretty docile and didn’t seem to move around much but they were still menacing nonetheless.
This was one of the smaller ones we saw here. Quite a few of them were out of the water altogether and enjoyed basking on the bank.
You can find alligators across most of the Southern United States. I think here in Texas they are mainly found on the Gulf Coast and areas along the Louisiana border. It was great to see these things in the wild though, a few months back at Caddo Lake we didn’t encounter any.
Despite not being that far from Houston, it’s incredible how vast and isolated this place is. After leaving Baytown in East Houston there were hardly any towns all the way down to the Gulf Coast.
There were plenty of birds to see here to say the least. Those flying overhead are Roseate Spoonbills which are found along the Gulf Coast.
This is a Snowy Egret. There were a lot of these birds on the preserve. Generally I haven’t encountered them around DFW before so it was cool to see some here, I think they’re cool looking birds.
This is a White Ibis. They are year round residents of the Gulf Coast. Cool looking birds as well though, seeing one makes me think of Ancient Egypt. Below i’ve included some other photos of wildlife here. There’s a few herons, a hawk, and that’s a northern Harrier swooping down into the field below.

Published by matt93111

Howdy, my name’s Matt. I'm originally from England but now live here in the Great State of Texas. Since moving here I thought it would be fun to try something new and enter the world of photo blogging.

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