Since Bill & I have volunteered at several National Wildlife Refuges we're always interested in visiting any that are close to our travels. We've visited quite a few refuges in Texas, but had never visited Trinity River NWR, which is located less than 50 miles from the Escapees RV Park where we're currently located.
Today we packed a lunch, our binoculars, cameras and maps and headed south.
Just before the town of Liberty, we turned off the main road and found the refuge headquarters.
That's our handy refuge guidebook in Bill's hand. To commemorate the Refuge System's 100th anniversary in 2003, the book America's National Wildlife Refuges, a complete guide, by Russell D. Butcher was published. Refuges have a rubber stamp available and most folks use the refuge passport book to collect those stamps. We've used that anniversary book for our stamps, so refuges we visited before 2003 aren't recorded in our book.
The office was pretty quiet when we arrived, but a "brown shirt" (employee) quickly appeared on the scene.... Stuart Marcus, the refuge manager. He'd been in the back pursuing his passion...
Photographing and classifying moths...
This is his set-up... a halogen light next to white sheets.
He asked us how many moths we'd guess he's IDed so far...
I'm embarrassed to say how low my guess was... but Stuart told us he's seen and classified over 600 species so far.
He took us into his office and showed us his photo collection on his computer.
Really clear, sharp photos.... very impressive!
We started talking about the refuge and what it offers... right now everything is closed because all the roads and trails are under water. Bill & I had seen a lot of standing water alongside the road as we drove down there, but had no idea that the Trinity River was so high.
About this time I got a phone call I had to take, so Bill continued talking with Stuart about volunteers, refuges and all the things we like to talk about.
While we didn't get to hike any of the trails, nor do any birding, we did see the area and...
We got our book stamped on the proper page....
Last count I had there were over 550 National Wildlife Refuges in the USA and territories...
We've only visited about 200 of them... guess we have a few more to see....
That's All For Today!
You've only just begun. Getting your book stamped, at any rate. Now you have me wondering if some of the wildlife refuges I am aware of are "national."
ReplyDeleteOf all the times I've gone to Anahuac, I've never visited Trinity River NWR. Maybe next winter. I'm one of those that uses the NWR passport book, but your idea of using that guide is a good one. I know I'll never see all the refuges, but for me it's kind of like geogaching. ;)
ReplyDeleteAs many times as we have been to Livingston, we have never visited Trinity River. Darn...I was hoping for some photos of the NWR to wet my whistle.
ReplyDeleteI use one of my Sibley books for NWR Stamps since I'm usually looking at birds. Thanks for the tip on Trinity, we think about it but haven't visited yet. Becki
ReplyDeleteThats a good idea to add the stamps to your guidebook. There has been to much rain in South Texas this winter.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea there are refuge books and stamps.
ReplyDeleteI think I just might order that book, $0.76 plus $3.99 shipping from Amazon.com!!!
ReplyDeleteNow that is a goal for sure.
ReplyDeleteONLY 200! That's still amazing. I'm sure I'm well under 20.
ReplyDeleteThat's really cool about the stamp books!
ReplyDelete