Freeport
There are actually a few beaches (or fragments of them, for example, Surfside Beach and Quintana Beach) around Houston. It is a surreal experience driving there -- you drive through miles of massive and ugly oil refineries and other machineries, some spewing steam and smoke all the while, then suddenly you arrive at a stretch of beach with the Gulf of Mexico in view.
(Click on each image to see the high-resolution version)
If you can ignore all that unsightly surroundings for a moment, the beach itself looks just like any other.
The birds, such as this Willet, seem oblivious to it all.
A few species of terns were flying about, these are Least Terns, I believe.
Sanderlings were scurrying along the surf.
I walked to the Freeport Jetty, which to me holds some special meaning -- this is where Kenn Kaufmann's Kingbird Highway ended. An immature Laughing Gull greeted me on the jetty.
But here I witnessed the saddest thing -- a group of Ruddy Turnstones were foraging around the jetty. These are pretty birds. But one was hopping about with a limp. Upon closer look, I realized that its feet were tangled with fishing lines. Once I realized, my heart sank. These nylon wires are sharp and extremely durable, in all likelihood, the bird will get its feet/legs mutilated and may die of infection or starvation. The bird was on the edge of the rocks on the jetty, and I could not catch it and free it. All I could do was hopelessly watching its painful movements. There are containers for disposing of fishing lines and hooks, yet, some of the anglers carelessly and callously toss them out on the jetty or in the water. This makes me angry and sad at the irresponsible anglers, and ashamed of my own species. Other animals prey on others for food and survival, but not many are like us wrecking environmental havoc for no reason.
At one point I saw swarms of "bugs" climbing out of the water or crevices onto the rocks (I think these are some type of rock lice, a type of isopod The seemed to come out of nowhere and endlessly so, the scene seems to be from a science fiction. I wish they would go get those irresponsible anglers.
Last look at the Freeport Jetty, now I cannot think of it without anger.
And a look at the sunset over the barracks of machineries in Freeport.
But my day was not to be over yet. The full moon -- in fact a also nearly a super moon (moon at its closest orbit to the earth) -- rose over the Gulf. Thus, just as my trip to Seattle ended with a red sun, my visit to Houston ended with an orange moon.
Surfside Beach
Surfside Beach
Willet
Willet
Willet
Least Tern
Least Tern
Sanderling
Sanderling
Laughing Gull
Ruddy Turnstone
Ruddy Turnstone
Ruddy Turnstone
Bugs (Rock Lice?)
Freeport Jetty
Sunset over the Freeport machines
Moonrise
Moonrise
