San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge Brazoria, TX Sept 24 - Nov 11, 2013

We moved from Caddo Lake south to the Texas Mid-Coast Refuge Complex, consisting of three federally-protected lands: Brazoria, Big Boggy and San Bernard National Wildlife Refuges. This was our longest ServCat stay to-date, largely due to the 16 day government shut down and the amount of work at these locales. It was a good place to be working and living for such a long stretch. We immersed ourselves in this coastal area (about an hour south of Houston), enjoyed some unique fishing and crabbing, great hikes, warm, sunny days, and peace and quiet.

We lived at Brazoria NWR and spent most of our working hours at the complex office. But Oliver did several days of scanning work at the San Bernard field office and enjoyed being there and working with Shane and Curtis. We both enjoyed some recreation there as well! It is an incredible place, lush with coastal prairies, salt marsh with saltwater lakes, shallow freshwater lakes and marshes, intermittent streams and bottom land forest. 

One Sunday afternoon, the Assistant Manager and Law Enforcement Officer at San Bernard (Curtis) took us for an incredible tour of the backwaters of the refuge on an air boat. It was amazing to see just how vast and expansive the refuge is and great to see this amount of land and water saved from development and protected for wildlife. 

San Bernard NWR was founded in 1969 to provide habitat for wintering migratory waterfowl and other bird life.  The 45,000+ acre refuge is located in Brazoria and Matagorda counties, 12 miles west of Freeport, Texas.   

The air boat could move pretty fast and it also could travel across the sea grass. What a great way to see the refuge!

We traveled through several of the refuge's back bays including the Cedar Lakes, Cowtrap Lake and Horseshoe Lake. The depth on any of these lakes was never much more than 3 feet and the water is clear, so we could look down and see fish and crabs.

Curtis parked the boat and we made a short hike across this beautiful pristine beach to the Gulf of Mexico. For as far as you could see, there was water, beach, birds and the big Texas sky.

What a fun afternoon! It was super-nice of Curtis to take us out and it gave us a different perspective on just how large San Bernard really is and how much water there is on this refuge.

After the backwater tour, Oliver and I headed on the refuge drive loop and hit a few of the trails. The grounds were enchanting and we loved seeing all of the interesting trees and plants. 

Yes, there are also alligators at San Bernard. They prefer the freshwater areas and love just hanging out. We saw several of them as we were exploring the refuge this afternoon - always a thrill to see one!

Can you see him smiling for the camera? 

Learn more about the wildlife and history at this important precious coastal area on the San Bernard NWR website: http://www.fws.gov/refuge/san_bernard/.