I wandered down to Padre Island National Seashore a couple of weeks ago to see the beach and do some kayaking in the Laguna Madre. Padre Island is a barrier island just off the Texas coast and the strip of water between the island and the mainland is shallow and calm and ideal for some nice kayaking. I also planned on shooting some wildlife photos from the kayak as I usually see lots of shorebirds on the laguna side fishing along the shore. I really had an urge to see the beach, smell the sea air, and kayak around the shallow water, so I threw the kayak in the truck and set off for a day trip.

I wanted to kayak closer to sunset to get the late afternoon sun on the birds along the shore of the island, so my first stop was on the beach on the gulf side of the island. There were remarkably few people on the beach for a Sunday afternoon and I found long stretches of beach free of people where birds were congregating. Pelicans generally don’t get too close to people so I generally only see them flying low over the waves, but on this afternoon I saw flocks of them hanging around in the surf. I stopped and shot several photos from my truck window so as not to disturb them. It was challenging to get them to face the camera enough to get their faces as they seemed to want to look out to sea.

I also saw several Caspian Terns, which is a new one for me. I don’t remember seeing many of these birds before, but there were several wandering around in the surf looking for food I suppose. These birds generally migrate North for the summer and breeding and winter in Southern parts, but I have read that there are some that live here year round. I like his bright orange beak.

I also tried to take a bit of dune photography. I stopped at this gap in the dunes and climbed up to shoot some photos looking back toward the water. This picture is very representative of how I generally think of the beach with sandy dunes along the shore.

Once you get on the beach, you can just keep driving for miles if you like, but you probably want four-wheel drive and plenty of gasoline in the tank. The phone service is generally non-existent and it would probably be a very expensive tow in from out there. I probably went about 5 miles down the beach where it was mostly deserted. It was also fun to spin in the sand a little bit.

I eventually went back over to the laguna side a couple of hours before sunset and got the kayak in the water. I brought my camera on the kayak to shoot photos of shore birds and this would ordinarily make me very nervous as I have gotten water all over stuff in my kayak before. But this time I brought a waterproof backpack that I got for the Svalbard trip and this proved to be a very good decision. So with my camera safely in the waterproof bag between my legs, I paddled off into the laguna away from the picnic area.

After working my way South for about an hour, the sun began to get low on the opposite horizon, lighting up the shore with warm light. I saw many birds along the shore so I paddled in close to start taking some photos. As you get close to shore, the water is only a foot deep and so I could put my feet in the mud to steady the kayak and shoot photos. I followed this Willet (I think) down the shore as it was hunting in the shallows for food. It didn’t seem to mind me floating about twenty feet away in my bright yellow kayak. It eventually got into a sandy area where I could shoot it against an empty undistracting background.

The herons and egrets are much more timid. I saw many of them fishing but they were very difficult to approach well enough to get a good photo. I did manage to get up close enough to a white egret catching the late afternoon light. The water was ankle deep here and I had to get out of my kayak to get it out of the sandy bottom and out to where I could paddle.

I headed back to where my truck was parked. The water is so shallow that the fish are constantly jumping out of the water and I often saw their fins sticking up as they swam by. I thought maybe a fish might jump into my kayak with me, but I made it back fish free.

Now about that waterproof backpack. When I was back at the shore to take out my kayak, I got out and slipped on a muddy rock, flipped my kayak over and dunked myself. I didn’t mind dunking myself, it was kind of nice, but my backpack rolled into the water and floated there until I picked it back up. Everything inside the backpack stayed nice and dry including my camera, phone, and car keys. So, the backpack proved its worth. I put the kayak back in the truck, went to change my clothes and headed home after a nice afternoon at seashore. Thanks for reading.