It's a WILD, WILD Life on Mustang Island

....and inside this universe spin countless galaxies: 

here, in the upturned half of a single mussel shell, 

lives a barnacle 

and a tiny spindle shell 

occupied by a still smaller hermit crab. 

And on the shell of the crab? 

A yet smaller barnacle. 

And on that barnacle? 

~ Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

My family was all around - in everything we saw and did. Sea Oats (Uniola paniculata)

Because BH was traveling with us and wanted to participate in the seining field trip on Sunday afternoon, we all attended a "Wild, Wild" class.* There was one about shorebirds, one about the ecology of the coastline, one about beach invertebrates, and one about sea turtles, snakes and alligators.** That was our ticket to a unique experience seining at Mustang Island. So, we knew the bird expert and the plant expert from the two classes we attended, but the other folks were new to us.

How many times have I been on Mustang Island? I couldn't even start to give a number. We lived a short drive from the coast. We went as a family; we went with scouts; and we hung out with our high school and college friends.

In all those years I never went seining - not in the estuary/not in the bay.

I should be clear that we did much more than seine on this wild, wild day. We identified plants and animals. We used dip nets to catch amazing tiny crabs "where the waves come together." We sang. We asked questions. We ate the sand that blew in our faces. We waded and laughed - a lot.

Such a generous group of people guided us -  sharing their knowledge and having fun.***

The photos are numerous and in no order (well, maybe a bit of order. - the first group is from along the estuary side of the island while the second batch is from the bay side).

We would observe plants and birds before, during, and after the seining. It was a juggle, a dance.

Seining in the Nueces estuary.****

They had a couple of big nets and some dip nets. I "poo-pooed" the dip nets in my thoughts. What would we catch in those? Then folks started bringing back crabs and shrimp and other creatures. It was  amazing. All the "catch" was deposited in a couple of blue wading pools - to keep the wildlife alive while we identified and studied things.

Making a big sweep of the shallows and then bring the net up for us to scramble to transfer the fish to the wading pools.

See the shrimp among the fish?

Pigfish (so named because of the sound they make when stressed) are edible, but are often used as bait for larger fish.

Pigfish

Most of the small fish were "Silversides" which appear bottle green from the top, but which have shiny silver sides.

Mostly Silversides (see why they are called that?) and extraneous vegetation.

DH and some of the group. You can see the weather here. It never rained on us, but the front came in just before this field trip (thank heavens!). There was a cool wind blowing as you can tell by DH's hat. Waves were choppy and we could see "waves" of sand blowing as well.

Someone found a dead Needlefish. It was not where it was supposed to be and there was some debate about how it ended up washed up here.

It's a Fiddler Crab that has lost it's claws. Many crabs will regrow lost limbs.

I saw this Long-billed Curlew fly in...

...and fly out.

Yet another hermit crab was caught. This one was in a periwinkle shell. It is often "all about the lip." Here the Thinstripe Hermit comes out of his shell just a bit.

What? Were those Willets I see? Yes...

I walked over to gently flush them for photos. (KR our bird lady said it was okay!) And I managed to catch one.

We tested the water.

BH checking her small net...what would she find?

Miss Seaweed, 1964 found a teeny-tiny hermit crab. I'm not sure I've ever seen one this small.

Plants, you say? PR shared the id of a number of flowers and grasses. Some I knew. Most were new to me. I skipped the Sea Oxeye Daisy as they weren't blooming and I've photos of them in full bloom elsewhere.

Camphor Daisy

Carolina Wolfberry

Stunted Mesquite tree

Smooth Cordgrass?

Sea Purslane

Cordgrass? I know one only grows in the water and the other on the beach.

NOW TO THE BEACH!

We drove over the the bay side of the island to seine once again, look at the dune plants, and watch a few shorebirds. The big net came out and excitedly we gathered the catch when the seiners came in. We also got a lesson in catching things as one wave came in and another went out, stirring up the sand. I've never seen anything like it.

Then there was sucking the ghost shrimp out of the sand with a crazy contraption, similar to a "bailer"  (as in get the water out of the boat) we use as a water gun (we are a vicious bunch).

Sanderlings. Their non-breading plumage includes a dark shoulder patch. There were many sanderlings chasing the waves as they "fished."

Sanderlings also have no back toe.

I will always be distracted by Brown Pelicans flying overhead.

It was clearly looking for a fish. I felt like we were taking his dinner.

It started heading down as our net was coming in.

It landed in the waves soon after this photo, but it was time to pay attention to the net.

There were body surfers, regular surfers, and kite surfers on the beach. We were trying to behave as  we had dinner with the nieces and nephews and we thought we would limit how much we would need to clean up.

How beautiful is this? Pompano, Mullets and Silversides among other fish.

This isn't a big Cabbage Head, but it would sting if it hit "sensitive" spots.

Pompano - I suspect the pelican was looking for this guy.

Mullet

This little mole crab was caught by dip-net in the waves

THE DUNES!

There are two morning glory vines - Railroad vine and Beach or Fiddle-leaf Morning Glory.

While past their prime, these white flowers signal the Fiddle-leaf Morning Glory.

The leaf of the Railroad Vine which blooms purple. It is also known as Goat's Foot Morning Glory because of the shape of the leaf.  I love the shape of this leaf.

PR was our plant guide. She was amazing.

There it is - the purple blooms of the Railroad Vine. One was spent and the other not quite ready to bloom. Still, we know the color now for the next trip.

We didn't find the ghost crabs, but we did find ghost shrimp.

The Ghost Shrimp were sucked out of the sand.

The gang with seagulls overhead. KR was snapping photos for the group.

Tropical almond. I wouldn't eat it.

More Sea Purslane.

Bitter Panicum  (the grass atop the dunes).

Hamburger bean!

The group headed off to the jetties to check for sea turtles and we headed off for a shower and dinner with the kiddos. But we will be back on Mustang Island. And I suspect we will figure out an excuse to head to Cradle of Texas Chapter's activities as soon as we can.

NOTES:

* Sponsored by Cradle of Texas Master Naturalists, these were great training classes. DH went to two of them. We all went to the Shorebird class. We all should have gone to the "beach invertebrates" class and turtles/snakes and alligators - next time. While DH and I thought, at first, we were humoring BH we quickly fell in love with these people and plan to see them again. I will be following their online media. Just sayin'...

** They BROUGHT creatures in! What were we thinking? We missed it. We have to invite ourselves to their Chapter activities.

***It may be the thing I love most about TMN. Folks are generous of their time, talent, and expertise. And they are generous of spirit. And, most, are like little kids - taking joy in the wild and sharing the wild with others.

****https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary