Last Saturday weekend (May 26 to May 29) Lower Brazos Riverwatch was invited to participate in the annual river cleanup, up river, just below Glen Rose. The event was sponsored by the Friends of the Brazos, the Little L Ranch, and about five north and central Texas Master Naturalist Chapters. Michelle Waterman and I represented the Lower Brazos this time.
The cleanup itself was held on Saturday, May 27 and was conducted primarily by canoe and kayak. Four separate groups picked up trash on four segments of river varying from about 3 miles to a bit over 6 miles. Michelle and I were on the long stretch, using her Alumacraft Voyager. We had five other canoes in our group as well.
The river in this area is generally clean, fairly clear and had a classic riffle and pool structure. The bulk of the trash consisted of old tires on sandbars. We found relatively little small debris or the lower river oilfield junk. The most unusual piece of junk Michelle and I picked up was a large (about 5’ X 2’) piece of stainless steel sheet metal.
Our group picked up 7 plus tires per boat, so roughly 50 for the group. Overall, there were nearly 150 tires picked up Saturday, plus a few bags of small trash and a few exotics. The weight of the tires had the boats drafting a bit deep, a few of the minor riffles became challenging to pick a line through and we did end up walking a few hundred yards. It was actually pretty refreshing to get in the river and cool off, even though it was never particularly hot.
We were on the river for roughly six hours on a beautiful day.
Of course, any outing like this is also a birding trip. On the river Michelle and I had the following:
Great blue heron, green heron, snowy egret, great egret, cattle egret, spotted sandpiper, least sandpiper (late!), killdeer (including hatchlings), bald eagle, red-shouldered hawk, mourning dove, yellow-billed cuckoo, red-eyed vireo, white-eyed vireo, yellow-throated vireo, blue jay, American crow, painted bunting, northern rough-winged swallow, cliff swallow, barn swallow, northern parula (heard bird), turkey vulture, black vulture, cormorant sp., wood ducks (pair), Carolina wren, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, bluegray gnatcatcher, northern mockingbird, eastern phoebe, eastern wood peewee, red-bellied woodpecker, and pileated woodpecker.
Additional birds observed around camp and on the roads in and out included:
Chuck-will’s-widow, common nighthawk, barred owl, red-tailed hawk, Swainson’s hawk, blue grosbeak, dickcissel, common grackle, red-winged blackbird, brown-headed cowbird, great-tailed grackle, eastern bluebird, scissor-tail flycatcher, great-crested flycatcher, and European starling . I’m sure there were others that I a forgetting, but it was a fairly diverse area with a mixture of habitats on the Little L Ranch and along the river.
Other than the river cleanup, the weekend was devoted to being a teach-in for the Master Naturalist chapters attending, with talks on geology, astronomy, entomology, malacology/ichthyology, and botany. It was great to be able to join in and learn. Lower Brazos Riverwatch did a talk after dinner on Sunday about the conditions and concerns on the lower river and how they compare to those on the cleanup stretch.
The hospitality and location were wonderful! Much of the Little L Ranch is being returned to prairie vegetation and forest and was experiencing close to super bloom conditions. We were probably over fed, at least by typical river standards! All-in-all, it was a wonderful weekend and something we will definitely get on the calendar for next year so we can have a stronger representation from down river.
