Anahuac National Wildlife
Refuge Review

Anahuac National
Wildlife Refuge

This Refuge is a great location to observe wildlife and enjoy nature.  The auto tour provides plenty of waterfowl to observe and photograph while in the comfort of your car. Watch out for the Gators and the biting flies!  This was not a busy location, which is excellent if you want to just relax and see the wildlife, while not being disturbed. Big plus, admission is free.

Amira’s Review

Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge

This was a fun location. We started the day early around 7am. Paul actually started his day at 5am, but he had a full night sleep. How do I know this? He kept me up with his snoring all night. Our hotel claimed to have a queen bed which I’m almost positive was a full so we were squeezed into this tiny bed all night and every time he moved I ended up with a smack to the face. Eventually I moved to the foot of the bed to sleep and all was good.

We took a ferry over to Boliver Peninsula to get to the park. I haven’t been on a ferry in years! Luckily we were in line early enough we didn’t have a wait. On the ride back to the hotel around 2pm the line had grown immensely and my guess is at least an hour or two wait to get on. The ride over was only about 15-20 min and we were able to see the laughing gull, brown pelicans and terns flying over.

It was a short drive to the park once we arrived on the island. The day was so hot and humid I was relieved to find that the park offered an auto tour. These are a must in Texas, especially in the summer.

The first road on the auto tour was the best. Almost immediately we drove up on a saltwater marsh and started to capture birds. It truly was a beautiful sight. I would say close to fifty different birds all sharing a pond, along with a few Alligators which I was not expecting. My favorite of the day was the Black-necked stilt.

“Black-necked Stilts are almost always seen near shallow water, including both salt and fresh water, especially mudflats, salt pans, saltmarshes, and many human-modified habitats such as sewage ponds, evaporation pools, and flooded fields.” https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-necked_Stilt/id

After about an hour of taking photos we drove on and the landscape turned to countryside almost like we were back in Aubrey. Tons of red-winged blackbirds and dickssisels. We did come across two nighthawks and were able to finally get great shot of them. Paul was happy! The amount of deer flies in this area of the park was disgusting.

We pulled off at one point to get a stupid fly out of the car and of course Paul found a friend. They talked for a pretty long time, he was a fellow birder. He told us where to find a Caracara nest with fledglings. We decided to head back out of the park and this was along the way. We did find the nest with two babies perched in waiting to be fed.

I am glad we decided on this Refuge. Between the ferry over and the amount of new birds we found it was a great experience for me. I can’t wait to come back during migration

Paul’s Review

Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge

Heading to  Galveston Island we got a late start, making it to Huntsville about 7 PM, where we decided to pull off the road and check out the Huntsville National Park… Losing daylight rapidly, but Amira got a shot of the pine warbler… new to the life list , so it was a great start on our quick impromptu trip.

Getting to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge

As Amira said, it was a very early start, jumped on the ferry to Bolivar Peninsula, and our second confirmed bird for the trip and life list the Laughing Gull “easy”

We are only about 5 miles down the road and a beautiful Red- tailed hawk had me turning around to go grab a quick picture… Back on track and 40 minutes away, the drive to Anahouc was beautiful. This is the added benefit to our new found love of birding, seeing new locations and regions that we’ve never seen before.

Turning into the park, we already knew it was going to be great… The visitor center had a few hundred cliff swallows buzzing around welcoming us.

The auto tour immediately provided new birds to our life list, the glossy Ibis, White Ibis, Black-necked Stilt and Tricolored Heron to name a few. The salt marshes provided exceptionally great viewing capabilities and very little traffic to speak of… haha probably because it’s almost 100 degrees and the humidity is thick and soaks you the moment you step out of the car to get a photograph.

As usual, I think I’m going to say, I cannot wait to come back in the fall and in the spring to see this location during migration seasons. The park is well taken care, many quick micro trails to walkout on with raised bridges overlooking the grasslands and marshes.

If you are birding, just love mother nature or would like to show your kids a bunch of alligators at a safe distance… Go checkout Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge