Friends of Padre Beach Report 9/17/2017

Cody Moravits

Waves: 1-2 feet with occasional 3 footers on 2nd bar

Water temp: 83 degrees F

Wind: 5-10 mph ESE increasing to about 15 mph late in afternoon

Driving: 4.5/10

            There is a ton of debris on the beach due to hurricane Harvey and unfortunately it will probably keep washing in over the next few months, including debris from hurricane Irma. The bulk of it is large trees, most requiring 4WD to get around them and a few you actually have to drive over for the time being.

Plenty of firewood on the beach though and the ship that was grounded in the Mansfield channel is gone. The surf was pretty much filled with giant ladyfish the length of the beach, if you caught anything besides a ladyfish on live mullet then you were doing pretty good. Casting out chunks of ladyfish led to small sharks 2-4 feet long.

Woke up at 12:30am to a Park Ranger notifying us of a missing woman around the 30mm, and drove past the scene where she washed up Sunday morning a little north of the 30mm.

Moderate amount of bait the length of the beach and water clarity was decent the length of the beach also- with a few dirtier spots between the 10-25mm. A lot of birds on the beach number-wise (especially on the south end) however no oddball species. Did see an Aplomado Falcon coming off the beach on one of the speed limit signs just past the Visitor's Center.

Species observed:

Juvenile Yellow Crowned Night Heron

Reddish Egret

White Morph Reddish Egret

Great Blue Heron

Caracara

Turkey Vulture

Black Skimmer

Long-Billed Curlew

Black Bellied Plover

Wilson's Plover

Sanderling

Ruddy Turnstone

Spotted Sandpiper

Brown Pelican

Ring-Billed Gull

Herring Gull

Laughing Gull (most immature)

Sandwich Tern

Black Tern

Caspian Tern

Royal Tern

Forster's Tern