By Brandt Mannchen

Cullinan Park serves as a great place to go when you want a park that’s more natural but has a plethora of easily followed trails. This park used to belong to the City of Houston but now, via an agreement, the City of Sugar Land operates and maintains it.

The park is found north on Highway 6 from U.S. 59, next to the Sugar Land Airport.  The noise from private jets at the airport is one of the downsides of the park but it’s still a great place to visit.

There are several parking lots within the 754-acre park which provide easy access to trails, Oyster Creek, and White Lake, where a boardwalk and elevated platform give a great view of the lake and its wetlands. Signs have helpful information and are scattered around the park along with bridges for certain trails.

Remnant Columbia Bottomland forest provides a forested fringe along and between Oyster Creek and White Lake with Pecan, Live Oak, Water Oak, American Sycamore, Boxelder, Yaupon Holly, Deciduous Holly, Black Willow, Cherry Laurel, Cedar Elm, American Beautyberry, grape vine species, Green Ash, American Elm, Hackberry, Poison Ivy, Trumpet Vine, greenbriar species, and more.    

Many birds were seen on a recent trip including:

Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Tricolored Heron, Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron, Limpkin, Wilson’s Snipe, Killdeer, American Coot, Common Gallinule, Pied-billed Grebe, Mallard Duck, White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Red-shouldered Hawk, American Crow, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Bluejay, Northern Mockingbird, Northern Cardinal, Mourning Dove, White-winged Dove, Pileated Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Brown-headed Cowbird, Gray Catbird, Red-winged Blackbird, Eastern Phoebe, Orange-sided Warbler, Carolina Wren, Greater Yellowlegs, Ring-billed Gull, Tufted Titmice, and others. 

Limpkins were snatching invasive “Apple Snails” from the water.  The shorelines were littered with this snail’s shells, which the Limpkins prize as food. Gray Squirrels clambered up tall tree branches while Carolina Chickadees and other small birds swarmed Pecan trees looking for lunch.

It was a great introduction to Cullinan Park and certainly made me want to come back again, soon!  

Photo by Brandt Mannchen