Friends of Padre Beach Report 1/15/2018

Via Cody Moravits

The water was cold and brown the length of the beach until the last few miles where the water turned nice and green.

Surf was 2-3 feet and no mullet were seen in the surf and fishermen reported slow fishing with whiting and hardheads being the only few species caught. Winds were 5-10 mph out of the SE with air temperatures in the lower 60s. There was a little bit of dead seaweed washing in the 20s but still definitely fishable. Water temperature was 56 degrees and driving was excellent at low tide but not so good once the tide came in, especially between the 18-28mm. There is one large tree that is perpendicular to the surf around the 30mm that is too large for most trucks to drive over, forcing most to drive around it in the water at high tide. No large numbers of birds on the beach but there are still quite a few birds of prey flying around such as Northern Harriers and White Tail Hawks.

Birds observed:

            Herring Gull

            Ring-Billed Gull

            Laughing Gull

            Red Tailed Hawk

            White Tailed Hark

            Northern Harrier

            Sanderling

            Crested Caracara

            Double Crested Cormorant

            Brown Pelican

            Great Blue Heron

            Long Billed Curlew

            Black Bellied Plover

            Ruddy Turnstone

            Royal Tern

            Forster's Tern

            Sandwich Tern

            Caspian Tern

            Snowy Egret

            Turkey Vulture