Twenty-four Sierrans and friends visited Seabourne Creek Nature Park in Rosenberg on August 11, 2018.  Seabourne Creek Nature Park covers 164 acres and is dedicated to wildlife and nature.  The park has walking and hiking trails, a restored prairie, prairie demonstration garden, butterfly garden, a lake stocked with fish, a wetlands lake, Seabourne Creek, Columbia Bottomlands Forest, a gazebo, picnic tables, restrooms, plenty of parking, and covered pavilions.

The Coastal Prairie Chapter of Texas Master Naturalists in Fort Bend County volunteer to keep Seabourne Nature Park in good shape with tree plantings, butterfly and prairie demonstration garden maintenance, interpretive talks and walks, prairie restoration work, and many other activities.

The Houston Sierra Club was fortunate to have the services of four Texas Master Naturalists on our visit to Seaborune Nature Park.  Diane, Jim, Carl, and Erik could not have been nicer and more informative about a place they obviously love and cherish.

We broke into three groups and a Texas Master Naturalist took us to see Seabourne Lake, the butterfly garden, and the prairie demonstration garden.  It was exciting learning about wetland plants growing around the lake including Pickerel Weed, smartweed, morning glory, Frog Fruit, sensitive briar, Rattle Box, loosestrife, and Boneset.  Turtle heads appeared and disappeared in the still waters.  We were told about the sunfish, catfish, and Florida Largemouth Bass that were stocked in Seabourne Lake and my mind envisioned a very successful fishing trip in the future!

Much of the park used to be treeless but now, via help from Texas Master Naturalists, Live Oak, Red Maple, Black Willow, American Sycamore, Buttonbush, and other native trees are planted on the shoreline and near Seabourne Lake.  We saw Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Green Herons, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, Tri-colored Heron, Gulf Fritillary butterflies, Monarch butterflies, Viceroy butterflies, skippers, sulfur butterflies, and darting dragonflies.

The butterfly garden had many blooming plants and as you might expect, butterflies, bees, and a hummingbird fed on nectar in the flowers.  We marched to the prairie demonstration garden and saw Texas Coneflower, passionvine, Eastern Gama Grass, Switchgrass, Little Bluestem, Big Bluestem, Indian Grass, and many other grasses and wildflowers.  The restored prairie, always a work in progress, still had the dew of the morning, which evaporated rapidly in the increasingly warm sunlight.  The small wetland pond near to the prairie glistened from sun rays which glinted off the surface.

We said goodbye to our Texas Master Naturalist friends and, since the morning was getting hotter, we hiked to the cooler Columbia Bottomlands Forest.  Among the native Pecan, Sugarberry, American Elm, Cedar Elm, and other trees we snaked along gravel paths and came to Seabourne Creek.  We had a wonderful surprise waiting for us!  A beautiful Rosette Spoonbill was feeding in Seabourne Creek and showed off its bright pink plumage.  We also saw, on the far side of creek, on the bank, a Little Blue Heron.

This Columbia Bottomlands Forest is important for migratory songbirds, waterfowl, and wading birds.  The tiny songbirds fly straight across the Gulf of Mexico in April and May of each year without stopping.  When these birds hit the Texas Coast they use the Columbia Bottomlands Forest as their diner to fatten up so they can continue flying north to their breeding grounds.  These connections and the saga they are a part of have continued for 1,000’s of years.  We are lucky to have Columbia Bottomlands Forest in Seabourne Nature Park.

On our way back, we marveled at the large, female, Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spider and her gigantic web and the webworm nest that hung in Pecan trees.  When we got back to the parking lot, just before we had lunch, someone shouted “Snake!” and we delightedly photographed a small Gulf Coast Ribbon Snake.

Several people had to go, but about a dozen of us had lunch together at two of the covered pavilions.  We regaled each other with descriptions of vacations and more serious or esoteric subjects.  Too soon it was over, and we had to go home.  Not a moment too soon as thunder rolled in the distance and dark clouds appeared on the horizon.

If you want to have fun, learn a thing or two about Nature and yourself, and relax, you couldn’t find a better place to go than Seabourne Nature Park.  And if you get lucky you may meet a friendly Texas Master Naturalist who will tell you stories and show you around!

Brandt Mannchen
August 13, 2018

Photographs by Janine N. Blossom (from Meetup)