Matagorda Island

1 March 10 – 8 March 10

The Matagorda Island trip is in the books as they say. What a trip we had on Friday – you know the old adage – clear and beautiful – well we didn't have the clear part – it was cloudy and breezy all day, but it was a wonderful day. That is if you call losing your hat and lens cover in the Inter Coastal(IC) Waterway a good day. Both were retrieved and the hat was worn while we walked the Island. After some cleaning, the IC is salty, the lens cap also works. That is more than Alan, our son, can say about his lens cap because he did not find his, but mine floated.

We were not on the water two or three minutes before we say the Osprey having breakfast. It only got better from there – with 10 Whooping Cranes over about a fifteen minute ride on the water. The same travel on the road is about 25 – 30 minutes because of no direct route. We then came back up the IC and started out in the Bay – NOT the Gulf. It is hard to keep track of what the water is when there are three different names and not the same place. The IC is along the shore – mostly channels dredged to facilitate barge and freight traffic. The Bay is outside the IC but inside the barrier islands, Matagorda is a barrier island. Then you have the Gulf outside that. The fellow who was giving us the tour said the IC goes from Brownsville, TX up to ME around FL.

Once we were in the Bay we say a number of different water fowl. At one point we saw more than 200-300 White Pelicans and then a little farther along 300-500 Cormorants. A number of Dolphin, no good pictures, were seen in different places. The best picture I have is the fin or tail on one and the back of another one. When we arrived at the Island we took off our shoes and waded ashore.

We landed on a beach on the Bay side where the Island is only 300 to 400 yards across to the Gulf side. The Island is jointly owned by the government and the state. It is 38 miles long and we crossed in the narrowest place with the maximum width 4.5 miles. After walking across we went up the beach – you could call us beachcombers, about two miles. Miriam came back with a number of shells and sand dollars. Nothing in the way of value was found, but our granddaughters will love the shells. Ann, DO NOT kill the messenger.

We did a number of other short day jaunts this week, but the trip to the Island will be a memory never forgotten.

Pictures:
Osprey – breakfast looked a little under cooked
Caspian Tern – notice the difference in wing span from the Forster
Loon – putting on a show
Pelicans and Cormorants
Whooping Cranes – the one with a dirty head is last years chick