In this part of the world (coastal Louisiana and Texas), it
is almost impossible to forget about the enormous presence of the petrochemical
industry. The gas that fuels our cars
and the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) that heats our homes and warms our ovens may
have come out of the ground here. Huge
oil rigs are smudges on the horizon out in the Gulf of Mexico, their lights
visible on a dark night. Oil wells pump
up and down in fields as cattle placidly graze around them. Even touristy Galveston Harbor has oil
drilling equipment along the industrial shoreline opposite the museums and
historic tall ships.
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| Quintana Beach County Park |
However, nothing prepared us for what we encountered in tiny
Quintana, Texas. Wikipedia (the source
for all “accurate” information) says that Quintana has 20 homes. That may be off by 50%, but it is still a
tiny town. It has no shops. It has no post office. What it does have is a delightful county park
on the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico near where the Brazos River enters the
Gulf. The park is spacious and green,
with lovely dunes and a beach complete with little palm roofed structures to
provide shade.
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| Our motor home is to the right. |
The other thing that it has is an enormous petrochemical plant
that processes LNG.
So, when we came out
of our camper and looked in one direction we saw a lovely natural setting.
When we looked in the other direction we saw
an industrial landscape.
You can imagine
which way we chose to look.
The Brazos River has a deep-water port, so huge tankers and
other ocean going vessels came past our jetty and beach. If you have been following this blog for a
while, you know that we LOVE big ships.
It was fascinating to watch them glide past the beach. We could even see them from our windows as
they passed alongside the LNG plant!
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| Male Great-tailed Grackle |
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| Female Great-tailed |
While we have been in Texas, we have been serenaded by the raucous
calls of “nesting” Boat-tailed and Great-tailed Grackles.
They are larger than the grackles back home
and have very long tails that can fan up at the sides forming a “V” like the
keel of a boat.
The Great-tailed are a
bit larger than the Boat-tailed and can be found around all of Texas.
The Boat-tailed are only found along the Gulf
Coast and in all of Florida.
They chirp,
cluck, croak, and sing.
They have a very
high pitched wail that sounds like an emergency siren in the distance.
They start the noise at sunrise and quiet
down at sunset.
In Quintana, they walked
around on the roof of our motor home.
It
sounded like demented entertainers tap dancing on our roof.
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| Pelicans!!! |
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