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During our stay on Galveston Island our friends, Karen and Rich, took us over to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. We’d never even heard of it before but when they mentioned alligators we jumped at the chance to go. Besides, after our recent trip in November to Bosque del Apache NWR our interest in the Refuges was piqued.

We drove to Galveston Harbor and boarded the free ferry run by TDOT for the ride to the Bolivar Peninsula. It’s a distance of about three miles and takes about 20 minutes. Once the ferry has left the dock you are allowed to get out of your vehicle and walk around the boat. Although it was quite breezy we walked to the front of the boat so we could watch the dolphins. They cavorted around the ferry like they didn’t have a care in the world.

After landing on the Peninsula we drove over the tall bridge that spans the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Completed by the U.S. government in 1949 it runs 1,500 miles from Carrabelle, FL to Brownsville, TX. The waterway allows for barge and other boat travel, primarily when the ocean is too dangerous. When we crossed over on our way back there was a barge on the waterway which we later saw again when it passed our ferry.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Anahuac NWR was established in 1963 and consists of 34,000 acres of bayou, marsh, prairie and ponds. Entrance is free and like the Bosque access is limited to a small portion of the Refuge, the rest is protected for the wildlife.

Anahuac is an Aztec word meaning watery plain but I’m not sure why it was used because there was never any connection to the Aztecs there. There were native peoples in the area, the Atakapa and Karankawa Indians once lived there. By the mid-1800s the tribes were extirpated, there are no known descendants. Quite a bit was written about the people and their customs, the name Karankawa roughly means “dog-lovers” and refers to the fox-like dogs they raised.

Anahuac doesn’t allow camping and really doesn’t have many trails for hiking (we wouldn’t have anyway in that weather), after all the place is literally, for the birds. They do offer a couple drive-through options with various kinds of habitat. They actually recommend that you stay in the car because it acts as a blind and the birds won’t be as skittish which makes for better viewing. We opted for the 2 1/2 mile loop around Shoveler Pond. That’s the best place to see alligators but they warned us at the Visitor’s Center, the weather was not conducive for alligator sightings. We went anyway. And are we glad we did!

The Refuge bird checklist has 281 species on it, 22 of which were only seen once and are considered Accidental. In our couple hours that we spent touring Shoveler Pond we saw 23 species of birds and one alligator (see full list)! That’s not including all the LBBs (Little Brown Birds) that never sit still long enough for us to identify them. Several of the birds were firsts for us so that made it even more interesting. The alligator was about 6’ long and not that far away but slightly hidden by grass so we didn’t get a great look at him. Then he disappeared and that made us nervous, where was he? Did we look like lunch? It was one of the few times we were out of the car, we quickly got back in the car.

The afternoon flew by (pun intended). We watched the setting sun on our ferry ride back to Galveston Island. The ride back was longer since we had to wait for two large cruise ships to leave Galveston Harbor. What a wonderful way to spend a day!

Photos: View photos from our day trip to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.

Dates: We visited Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday, 12/09/06.

Our bird list from Anahuac NWR:

• Pied-billed Grebe
• American White Pelican
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Black Vulture
• Great Blue Heron
• Great Egret
• Snowy Egret
• Little Blue Heron
• Tricolored Heron
• Glossy Ibis
• White Ibis
• Snow Goose
• Greater White-fronted Goose
• Canada Goose
• Northern Shoveler
• Red-tailed Hawk
• Common Moorhen
• American Coot
• Black Skimmer
• Belted Kingfisher
• Northern Mockingbird
• Eastern Meadowlark
• Red-winged Blackbird