North Deer Island
April 20th, 2013
by Natalie Wiest
Red Hat Paddlers
Blazing Paddles, that is, our local group of the Red Hat organization. Lois Jean Wright Singleton, now known as Jeannie, was our organizer and as several of us are Houston Canoe Club members, thought you’d like to hear about our trip of Saturday, April 20th.
We met at Fat Boy’s – the TPW (Texas Parks & Wildlife) ramp practically under I-45 just north of the causeway and Tiki Island. All five of us paddled sea kayaks. Our destination was North Deer Island and the nesting birds that frequently are there this time of year. Had to be a good omen as we departed Fat Boy’s and right there on the corner was an oystercatcher (bird). As we paddled along under the Tiki Island bridge and into Galveston Bay we had constant streams of brown pelicans overhead. Dave Singleton was IDing the shorebirds including several varieties of plovers (black bellied +).
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| Put-in at Fat Boy’s |
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Great egret, Tiki Island
in the background
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It looked like it would be a very busy day on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). As we approached our crossing, four barges, two in each direction, passed each other right in front of us. That was the most traffic we saw, and as traffic decreased, the winds came up. Of course that meant headwinds for the return trip, but we made it.
North Deer Island didn’t have nearly the diversity of nesting birds I had expected; it was covered almost exclusively with brown pelicans. I’m not sure if we were simply early – or if the pelicans have pushed out the other birds.
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Chipper and Linda Day,
Chipper doing a Yoda
impersonation thanks
to the high wind
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Jackie, Jeannie, and
Linda with birds
in the background
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I wonder how many other Red Hat organizations in the U.S. have contingents of sea kayakers. It was a fine day to be out on the water, I hope you were doing likewise.
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| The author, Natalie Wiest |