Birthday Road Trip 2017

My Birthday Road Trip is essentially a photo expedition on or around my birthday of February 6. In a sense, it’s my perverse way of being eccentric… How many people prefer the beach in the middle of winter? And on my way to and from the beach I stop and photograph nature. The first stop, because it’s between me and Surfside, is Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge. The route I took can be seen in this image.

2017 Birthday Road Trip

Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge

I can always find photo subjects just laying around down there…

Alligator in BNWR

Here is a closeup of the little guy…

Alligator cloeup

Those were actually the very first shots of the day. Continuing on the auto tour in the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge I began to take a number of shots of the water birds hanging out in the shallow ponds.

Surfside Beach

Driving around Oyster Creek on my way to Surfside I caught a couple of shots of a Red-tailed Hawk that I really like…

Red-tailed Hawk and Refineries

Which eventually got me to Surfside Beach…

And… If you click on the images above to see the full sized shots, you’ll see why I like the beach in winter… even a winter that doesn’t feel like one has lots of peace and quiet on the beach… Only one vehicle and a couple walking their dog in both directions. Love it.

Nash Prairie Preserve

I left Surfside and headed over to Quintana, but nothing caught my eye. I headed north on Texas 36 out of Freeport and drove to West Columbia. I grabbed a sandwich and a drink in West Columbia before driving to the Nash Prairie Preserve for lunch sitting in the hatchback watching the wind blow over the prairie.

Nash Prairie Gate

More on the Nash Prairie can be found:

After leaving the Nash Prairie Preserve I stopped on my way to Brazos Bend to photograph a phenomenon I had noticed as I traveled along the river. It was evidence of the high water mark from last years flood. If you look closely at the following shot you can see the color change above the water line…

All along the road, even into Brazos Bend that dark below light above was visible… I don’t know how many times over the years I have seen this section of road go under water.

Brazos Bend State Park

Which gets us to our final stop on the road trip…

And my favorite bench to while away some time enjoying nature.

More Brazos Bend Here:

2 thoughts on “Birthday Road Trip 2017

  1. What a fun day! Did you see an Indian paintbrush, for real? I’ve seen Texas dandelions, and i saw some other little yellow job on Sunday (a sunflower-like flower that isn’t a sunflower) but I haven’t seen any traditional spring wildflowers yet. Well, except for the dandelion.

    I’m hoping that Saturday is a nice day. I’d love to make at least part of the loop myself. Apart from all that, happy birthday!

  2. Thanks Linda, and yes there was an Indian paintbrush right by the auto tour road. I took that shot through the car window. They really aren’t that uncommon this time of year. I usually see a few. If anything they were rarer this year.

    I hope the weather holds for your run. Let me know if you spot any sandhills, I missed them completely this year.

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