Matagorda

The weather still proves to be cold in the mornings. It was 27° this morning and yesterday it wasn't much warmer. But...it is warming up to the 60s in the afternoons.

Yesterday we went over to Matagorda Island. It is the largest unit of the refuge and the hardest to get to. It was a 40 minute trip in the refuge's Sea Ark, a 23' Little Giant model. It is an aluminum, enclosed cabin, 6 passenger workboat with twin 150HP outboards.

It was an interesting ride. As the combined air and water temperature was below 100°, we were obliged to wear full survivor suits. Ellen and Sarah were a bit overwhelmed by their suits as the smallest size available was large. Casey, who is one of the refuge maintenance staff, drove the boat over and back. It is a ride down the Intracoastal waterway and then across Mesquite Bay, most of it at about 30 knots.

He was going over to do some repairs, we were going over to help Sarah, the Biology intern, open up the "Pilot House" and inspect the fire extinguishers on the island. Opening the Pilot House entailed removing storm shutters (big plywood panels) from all the windows and doors. Checking the fire extinguishers entailed finding them in all of the buildings and vehicles. Sarah did most of them while Ellen & I removed the panels.

The "active" area of the refuge is at the south end of the island, next to the old airfield and the historic Wynne house. It has a dock with a boathouse, the Pilot House bunkhouse for on island researchers, a large garage and shop building, an environmental education center and several outbuildings for generators and water-making equipment.

The newest building is the environmental education center, but it has been closed due to budget cuts. There is no longer any funding for education on Matagorda, which used to host many school groups in the past.

After finishing with the pilot house, we stopped for lunch outside. It was very nice to have a sunny, warmish day. The picnic table, in front of the house, overlooks the Wynne ranch house. This was a spectacular location in its time, even hosting FDR, but has been allowed to disintegrate. It is literally falling down with some of the roof collapsed. Needless to say, it is off limits to visitors.

We finished finding and checking fire extinguishers after lunch. As we were finishing up, Sarah and Matt, the Whooping Crane researchers arrived along with Gina, a regional biologist for the the Fish and Wildlife Service. They were intending to spend a couple of nights on the island doing fieldwork. It was the primary reason we were opening up the pilot house.

As we were going back to the boat, we saw the biologists standing around by the airboat they came over on. It seems that the steering linage had broken when they were getting ready to take it out. This meant that they had to postpone their stay and come back with us. No one is allowed to stay on the island without a boat to get them off. Casey now had a full load of six passengers and an enormous amount of gear. It didn't slow the boat down at all—another 30 knot ride. Fortunately, the temperature had risen enough that we only had to wear PFDs on the way back.

They were able to scavenge a linkage cable from an another airboat, so they went back this morning. It must have been a cool ride; there was frost on the ground when we got up and our water line was a bit frozen.

We were back in the office again today, still entering research paper citations. It had warmed up enough to eat lunch outside though and we had enough time for an after work bird walk without freezing. The highlights were a Red-shouldered Hawk who flew right down in front of us, the Clapper Rail and Sora, who were up close at the wetland at the Heron Flats trail entrance,  and the two Whooping Cranes, who were still out on Heron Flats.

It is supposed to be in the 60s again tomorrow, maybe 70° inland. We are hoping to get on the motorcycles for our first 2014 ride.


Some Photos