Day 11 Moving down the Texas Coast

We decided to pull up the levelers and move to Rockport to see if there were

Cattle Egret on Hurricane Dike

some different bird specie we could find. So after church at the Bay Harbour UMC We headed out. The Church had both a chancel choir and a bell choir and they did a marvelous job. We had a chance to see them use marts, plucks, and "two in hand" techniques and they performed well. (pop 950)

The trip covered some 220 miles and moved us south then west and SW until we caught TX 35 which took us into Rockport. There were however, a number of interesting observations along the way. One of the questions I had asked myself was,"How , when and with what do they plant and harvest rice?". After some research I discovered that rice can be planted either in dry fields (and cultivated) or in flooded fields as the situation shows itself. Flooding does prevent more insects and disease, but depends upon good weather for growth and excellent weather for mechanical harvesting. Getting harvestors stuck canend the harvest.. If the crop gets a heavy rain or gets too wet and is flat on the ground, , harvesting the crop lessens the yield. From 1965, when mechanization started until 2004, the labor hours it took to harvest a ton of rice, went from 3 hours to .15 hours per ton. The addition of new techniques like shakers, sorters and strippers changed the industry. More than 60% of the worlds population eats rice as the main diet. Rice raises 1/2 billion dollars for Texas, and 1/4 billion for the farmers annually. I found this page to have a lot of information on world wide rice planting and harvesting. http://www.hyss.moe.edu.sg/webquests/Curriculum/geography38sdk/Subsistence%20Wet%20Rice%20Farming.asp

Eared Grebes at Ship Canal Dike

We drove through Alvin , TX a 20,000 population city which has a hospital, some construction workers and many workers who are in the chemical Industry (See Alcoa below) The vultures along here were numerous although we only saw two hawks.The land is mostly mixed woods and poor grazing land. There is a big rice warehouse here. Rice can be stored as long as the temperature remains at or slightly below 0 C. For instance, a 90 minute blow of cold air is enough to keep the rice at temperature in the winter so that it loses no quality.

As we moved sfurther southwest we began to pick up some water in lakes and sloughs that reach inland from the Gulf. The town of Palacios has a fleet of Shrimp boits numbering 400 and is the "Shrimp Capital of the Gulf". Just north of Palacios you could tell you were in "money" country by the smell. Gas wells!

At Point Comfort, Alcoa has a huge aluminum plant that produces alumina and bauxite. THis is shipped throughoutthe worls to make aluminum. Unfortunately, there was a spill in Matagorda Bay a few years ago and now they have designed a better catchment to prevent this in the future. LaVaca is the city of 10,000 tyhat Alcoa is nearest there.

Sure we did stop in the DQ in Palacios and Jim had a banana split on sale and Ruth the usual Flurry. I understand that Grand Rapids DQ on Stocking St. is open. Maybe you won't get to it on Tuesday??? Will the snow ever end?

THE ENTIRE SATURN V ASSEMBLY USED ON THE APOLLO 11 MOON SHOT

The new park here in Rockport is right in town, but there must be a lot of "grayheads" in it, as the park is VERY quiet at 9:15 and I mean Q-U-I-E-T. That is good.

Tomorrow we will head from here to Refugio and Stinton to survey bird habitats. Stay tuned.-- May all be well, --Jm and Ruth