Friends of Padre Report 3/11/2014

Driving is fine on low tide but there are some really soft areas (esp. Big Shell) on high tides. Water color varies from beautiful to murky in various locations for the entire beach front. No new sargassum was seen altho old weed is present high up on the tide line. The beach is eroded significantly at the 52 and 58 mile and care must be taken when traveling in these areas. Some birds were seen working but no fish other than a few small hardhead catfish were observed. North end is crowded with campers; few visitors in Big Shell or south of Big Shell. Bird numbers is increasing. 193 Great Blue Herons were observed including individual groups of 43, 19, 37, 24, 36 and 23. This is quite unusual. Other bird species include 3 Golden Plover, 3 White-tailed hawks, 1 Peregrine, 1 Merlin, 1 Yellow Crowned Night Heron, 500 White Egrets sp., 8 Curlew, 3 White tailed hawks and 2 Caracara. Willets are staging in large flocks. A beach cleanup is being held out of Port Mansfield on Sat. 15 March and everyone is invited to participate. A group will be leaving ranger headquarters at 6:45 a. m. for those with 4 wheel drive vehicles.