Pleasure Island Part 4

The fourth part of my series on Pleasure Island takes us to the North Levee. So far this area has been the least productive in my trips to Pleasure Island. Although it has not been as good as the other areas, it still provides plenty of opportunities to view and photograph nature. I suspect that part of the reason for it being less productive is that the levee road is surrounded by water on both sides with very little land to attract wildlife or grow plants. On the southeast side is Sabine Lake, where the road is protected by a rock barrier. You will see various shore birds walking on the rocks or floating on the lake.

View of Sabine Lake along north levee. 

Willets along the north levee of Pleasure Island

Great Blue Heron 

Little Blue Heron

The northwest side of the levee road is also bounded by water. There are narrow channels on either end of the road with a much wider area of water in the middle section. Unlike the lake side, the is a strip of land the can support a variety of plant life, including trees and shrub. In addition to shore and water birds this area should attract a variety other birds and wildlife that use the plants for food and shelter. Also this area should be of interest to those of us interested in wildflowers. I hope to have some photos of the wildflowers of this area in future post. For those interested in Texas wildflowers you can view some of my photos on my other blog and website at  http://wildflowersoftexas.blogspot.com/  and  http://www.wildflowersoftexas.com/

One of the channels on the northwest side of the levee road.

Large body of  water in the middle section of the levee road.

Northwest side of levee road. 

Great Egret standing in the road.

Great Egret

Red-breasted Merganser

Laughing Gulls

Related articles

• Pleasure Island Part 1 (texas-nature.blogspot.com)
• Pleasure Island Part 2 (texas-nature.blogspot.com)
• Pleasure Island Part 3 (texas-nature.blogspot.com)
• Pleasure Island (wildflowersoftexas.blogspot.com)

Pleasure Island Part 3

Continuing south along T. B. Ellison/Martin Luther King Jr. Drive you find photo opportunities on both sides of the road. The left side of the road away from the ship channel is mostly high reeds and some areas of stand water. The photo below was taken in this area.

Snowy Egret and Common Gallinule hiding behind it. 

For about a mile and a half, past the hurricane damaged road mentioned in the last post ( see Pleasure Island Part 2 ) the road moves away from the ship channel. Then it parallels the channel all the way to the Causeway Bridge. The pilings, barricades, rocks and mud flats attract shore birds.

Barricades to prevent erosion

Ships travelling in the channel produces powerful wakes, which pound the shore line. 

  Snowy Egret in the path of destruction.

Neotropic Cormorant 

Herring Gulls on pilings. 

Variety of Gulls

Related articles

• Pleasure Island Part 1
• Pleasure Island Part 2
• Pleasure Island Part 4

Pleasure Island Part 2

Another area of interest is the shoreline on the channel side of the island.  T. B. Ellison Pkwy/Martin Luther King Jr. Drive parallels the ship channel for approximately 9 miles between the causeway bridge and just north of South Levee Entrance Road. Below is a road that has been blocked off because of hurricane damage, but you can park at the barricade and walk down the road to view flora and fauna of the island. This road is located about 9/10 of a mile south of MLK Jr. Memorial Bridge.

Barricade blocking hurricane damaged road.

This photo shows some of the damaged to this section of road. 

Shoreline and debris along hurricane damaged road. 

 I did not see any wildlife along the road on this trip, but there are plenty of places for that would attract wildlife.  

Lantana

Blackberry in bloom.

Related articles

• Pleasure Island Part 1
• Pleasure Island Part 3
• Pleasure Island Part 4
• Pleasure Island

Pleasure Island Part 1

  Pleasure Island is an 18.5 mile long  man-made island on the Texas coast. It was constructed by the  U. S. Corps of Engineers, using  deposits that were dredged during the construction of the  Port Arthur Canal, and the Sabine Neches Intracoastal Waterway. Port Arthur Canal was completed in 1899, and the Sabine Neches Intracoastal Waterway in 1908. The island is connected to Port Arthur, Texas by the Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge and to Louisiana by the Sabine Causeway. According to Pleasure Island Website , there are about 14,000 acres of which only about 2,200 acres are usable. This leaves about 11,800 acres of natural area.

  There are several areas of interest for naturalist that I will cover in future post. The North and South Levees, the south end of the island around the causeway , and the shoreline on the channel side.

Sabine Causeway Bridge between Pleasure Island and Louisiana

The above photo shows Causeway bridge and fishing pier on the south end of the island. Birds can usually be found around the pilings, boat ramp and the pier. The pier is part of  Walter Umphrey State Park.

 Here are a few photos I took last week in this area.

Brown Pelicans lined up along boat ramp rail.

Brown Pelicans

 The juvenile Brown Pelicans  in the photo below remind me of the pushmi-pullyu from Dr. Doolittle.

Juvenile Brown Pelicans 

Laughing Gulls on boat ramp.

Snowy Egret 

Neotropic Cormorant 

 In the photo below, from front to back are an Royal Tern,  Laughing Gull , Herring Gull, and a Brown Pelican.

All lined up on the fishing pier.

Herring Gull

Laughing Gulls, Royal Tern, and a juvenile Herring Gull

Two Brown Pelicans feeding near the fishing pier. 

Related articles

• Pleasure Island Part 2
• Pleasure Island Part 3
• Pleasure Island Part 4
• Pleasure Island

Pleasure Island

 I made a couple of trips to Pleasure Island, on Sabin Lake to try and photograph a few birds for my Texas Nature Blog and was pleasantly surprised to find a few blooming plants. Here are a few photos of what I founds.

This Bushy Seaside Tansy ( Borrichia frutescens ) was mostly covered with dry seed heads, but a managed to find this one with a couple of boom left.

Borrichia frutescens - Bushy Seaside Tansy 

Borrichia frutescens

The Camphor Daisy was fairly plentiful along the south levee.

Rayjacksonia phyllocephala - Camphor Daisy