2019--Out with the Old

Wow, it has been more than four months since I posted here.  We have been doing pretty routine things, so it did not seem appropriate to post about them.  However, things are picking up.  Before any posts on plans for the new year/decade, I thought I would include something about the past year.

Volunteering at LLELA.  Much of our time in 2019 has revolved around LLELA.  We continued to volunteer in the Visitor's Center once a month.  This year we also did turtle maintenance (cleaned water containers, added water and food) once a week during the spring, summer and fall, for the 24 juvenile turtles being raised in pens. This is part of the Box Turtle Recovery Project.  See here for an update on the turtle project.

iNaturalist.  However, by far our biggest involvement with LLELA was walking the trails and taking pictures of the fauna (and sometimes flora) we observed.

The Frog taking a picture of an armadillo on February 13, 2019

The Frog stalking a great blue heron (just above the water to the left of his left elbow) on an early morning walk on November 10, 2019--Redbud Trail next to the Trinity River at LLELA. 

We then posted the observations on iNaturalist. Click here for our 2019 iNaturalist stats.  It has cool graphics even if you don't care about the results.  Clicking on many of the graphs, including the circle presentations, brings up further data.

https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2019/alchemist2000

As you can see, we had 2023 observations of 472 different species in 2019.  Most of those observations were at LLELA, although some were part of our spring trip to High Island.  You can easily see, when looking at the observations vs time, when I was having serious health problems in August, i.e. no observations.  But things have picked up again.

My favorite pics are usually the butterflies or dragonflies, but some of the most memorable observations this year would probably be the beavers on their lodge on October 23

Beaver on the beaver lodge from the boardwalk on the Bittern Marsh Trail, October 23, 2019

 
or the many deer this fall, including a mature buck and multiple does in one group on November 19.

Deer on the Redbud Trail, November 19, 2019

If you scan down the page on the iNaturalist stats link above, you can see our pictures for the most commented or most faved of our observations.  Two of my favorites among those are the kestrel, which we saw repeatedly last spring, and one of the many osprey over the river, this time with a fish.

Female American kestrel (otherwise known as N/N due to the id on her leg band) hovering over the dam on February 13, 2019.  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20328949

Osprey with fish on October 23, 2019. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/34874638

An easier way to look at our observations for 2019 is from the iNaturalist calendar for us for the year:  https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/alchemist2000?year=2019

LLELA happenings for 2020.  What do we expect in 2020 relative to LLELA?  We will continue volunteering as needed, but our biggest involvement will likely continue to be walking the trails.  Part of LLELA will be closed in 2020 due to repairs to Lewisville Dam, but we still anticipate spending lots of time there.  AND...the new bird blind (with water drip, etc.) is to open this spring.  Hopefully this will provide many opportunities for photographing some of the smaller birds that are often hard to see.

Preparing for the Start of Construction at LELLA

I haven't posted for some time because we have not been doing much worthy of a post.  Most recently I have been doing very little because I have not been feeling well.  We have not been walking and I am behind in planting for a fall garden.  I have even been throwing away produce from my existing garden for lack of energy to deal with it.  After about a million tests the doctors are narrowing in on the  "what" but do not yet know "why", thus I will go through a more sophisticated set of tests this coming week.

Box Turtle Recovery Project.  One thing I have been able to do most weeks is continue our volunteer work as part of the LLELA Box Turtle Recovery Project..  Fortunately I felt well enough last Friday morning and this morning to help the Frog with our weekly trip to LLELA for turtle maintenance. We are part of  a team that is raising several populations of young Eastern Box Turtles for eventual release. Box turtles attempt to return to their home territory if relocated.  The idea for the current experiment is to raise young turtles in pens at LLELA, hopefully establishing LLELA as their home territory. 

A complimentary part of the project conducted by a different team which is capturing, tagging with a radio transmitter, releasing and following wild adult Eastern Box Turtles.  The goal is to learn more about when and how far they roam and to identify what habitats they prefer during different parts of the year.

Releasing the babies into the Anatole last October

There are currently two groups of captive turtles, slightly older (perhaps 2 years old?), which we refer to as the "teenagers".  These have been living in the Adolphus pen.  There are also babies that live in the Anatole pen.

Six babies that had been hiding under the water tray in the Anatole.

When their shells are more developed and they are able to survive predation (probably around 3 years old) they will be released at LLELA in an attempt to create a self-sustaining population. There is someone assigned to clean their water trays and feed them every day.  Our day is Friday each week.

Lewisville Dam Safety Modification Project.  The two parts of the turtle project came together somewhat in the last week due to impending major upheaval at LLELA.  The Corps of Engineers is embarking on a massive six year, $150 million worth of improvements to Lewisville Dam, the so-called Lewisville Dam Safety Modification Project.  It is scheduled to start this summer.

At least during part of the work most of the road within LLELA will be closed, some trails will be closed, and the public will not have access to the dam outflow and river.  Major bummer!  Even though the Corps maintains a list of news releases and official documents for the dam, it is difficult to figure out exactly what is going to happen when.  They have not be forthcoming with much info even to the LELLA staff.  It seems likely work will begin soon since some of the construction signs are already in place. 

One thing we do know is that the construction company is going to place their mobile offices and parking lot in an area on the far west side of LLELA just off of Kealy Street.  Unfortunately that corresponds with the ranges for a number of the adult turtles being tracked (see map below).

Northwest corner of LLELA.  Lewisville Lake and the dam is at the top.  Jones Street is the road within LLELA that runs along the base of the dam.  The Visitor's Center and greenhouses are in the center.  Approximate location of the construction parking lot and mobile offices is within the red box.  Colored dots are some of the turtles being tracked and their locations over the past year.

What to do?  No one wants the turtles to be run over and crushed as the construction company clears that area.  The short term solution was to move the juvenile turtles from the Adolphus into the Anatole with the babies.  The tracking team could then put the threatened adults into the newly evacuated Adolphus pen.

The Frog and I moved seven juveniles (all we could find) into the Anatole last Friday.  That was actually fairly easy since they come running (yes, believe it or not, these little guys run) as soon as they hear us and look up at us begging for live crickets or live June bugs.  Whether or not they are actually chanting "Crickets! Crickets!" as the Frog claims, it is clear what they want.  It is also clear that they associate people with food.

With plenty of space in the vacated enclosure, the tracking team captured three adult turtles still in the area near the construction site and put them into into the Adolphus on Tuesday.  This Friday was the first we had seen all of the turtles in their new living arrangements.

Three babies and a juvenile begging for crickets while I try to work on cleaning their water trays.  When the Frog puts the crickets down in front of them they run toward them, sometimes multiple turtles fighting for the same cricket.

One of the adults. I am guessing this is a male since its eyes appear orange to me.  Females have dark red or brown eyes.  He is not scared, but not too sure about us either.  Note the gray pod (rf transmitter) on the right rear of his shell.   The antenna trails off towards the bottom.

Our group will "foster" the adult turtles until the construction site is established.  It is supposed to be surrounded by a chain link fence and material at the bottom that will keep the turtles out.  The adults can then be released again.  We only hope the bottom of the perimeter fence will be sufficient to keep them out.

Quail.  Although we have been visiting the turtles weekly, we have not been doing any hiking of the trails.  Even if I felt better it is awfully hot.  Hopefully when it gets a bit cooler we can check out all of the critters we have missed.  Among those are over 100 quail that were released yesterday in the eastern side of the preserve.  They are another declining species that LELLA staff would like to see grow.  Given the location of the release, we probably won't get a chance to see any.  However, we are still hopeful some quail may wander across our path someday.  They would be fun to see!

Wind and Fire

(WARNING--Lots of pictures.)

It has been quite awhile since I have posted.  It is not that we are not doing anything, it is mostly that our activities are not particularly exciting...at least until this past weekend.  More on that in a moment.

So what is our normal routine and what counts as "excitement" in our otherwise boring world?  Here are some examples of our normal things.

Backyard bird feeders.  The Frog feeds the backyard birds daily and we make sure they have clean water in the birdbath.  We have been guests to a full compliment of birds this spring:  white winged doves, blue jays, cardinals, finches, downy woodpeckers, red bellied woodpeckers, brown thrashers, wrens, and occasional eastern starlings and sparrows.  There are also mockingbirds, robins, kites and hawks around, but they are not on the bird feeders.  One moment of excitement was a new bird we spotted on the feeder this spring, a red-headed woodpecker.  He was only around for 2-3 days and was gone.  It was still exciting to see something new.

Red-headed woodpecker--a first for us

Actually, it is not uncommon to see unusual birds as they pass through, but it is still always a surprise.  Much earlier this spring we looked out to see a black vulture sitting on the back fence.  We have no idea what he was doing since there was nothing dead around and could only surmise he lost contact with his buddies as they migrated through.  (They are only here in the summer.)

Black vulture sitting on our back fence.

Spring also always seems to bring a new batch of young squirrels that have to learn the hard way that they cannot access the food in the feeders.  Being young and athletic, they try anyway.

We did end up moving the feeder this weekend since the squirrels were also jumping into the Japanese maple tree, the small tree/bush in the foreground with the thin yellowy green leaves, on their way to and from the feeder.  Their rough landings were breaking off the branches.   Squirrels are definitely problem rodents.

Vegetable garden.  The garden is doing fine.  We have had lots of green beans, lettuce, kale and tomatoes.  I will probably pick the first banana peppers this week.  The biggest "excitement" has been figuring out how to address the fungus attacking the tomato plant due to all of our rain or figuring out why the baby cucumbers are shriveling and dying...presumably due to lack of pollination because there are no bees around this year.  What has happened to the bees?

Lettuce in the middle is getting leggy but has still not bolted despite being June.  That is likely due to the cool wet weather so far this spring.

Banana peppers being crowded out by the bush beans on the left and the kale in the background.  Also visible are a few green tomatoes on the right.

LELLA activities.  Lake Park has been closed for weeks and hence not available for walking due to high lake levels.  The Army Corps of Engineers is releasing a large amount of water in hopes of bringing the lake level down, but that means many of the trails at LLELA are under water and not available for hiking either.  We hike when we can on the trails that are still open.

We do continue volunteering one Saturday morning a month in the Visitor's Center at LLELA and feed the turtles once a week at LLELA, part of the turtle project I posted about in January.

Three of the baby turtles looking at the June bug we had just thrown into the pen

We have been trying to avoid the drama surrounding what to feed the turtles.  We don't need that excitement.  We did spend one entire morning last week going to area Walmart stores and talking to their produce workers until we found fresh cut napolitos for the turtles, something I had never shopped for before.  I know, the excitement never ends.

Real excitement hits this weekend.  We were blissfully muddling along until some real excitement hit this weekend.  Fortunately we were spectators at best for most of this.

Fire in the neighborhood.  I was in the shower Friday evening about 8 when I heard a siren and what sounded like a fire truck out front.  I told the Frog to see what was going on.  He came back immediately and said to get dressed.  He could not tell where it was coming from, but he could see heavy smoke filling the street when looking out the front window.

It was quickly obvious that the house across the street was on fire due to smoke pouring out of the roof and around the eaves, although I never saw flames from the front. 

 

Below is a short film clip of what I saw from our front yard when I first came out. 

First responders from Lewisville, Highland Village, and Flower Mound were quickly on the scene. Not visible from here was at least one ambulance around the corner.

According to the policeman that had the traffic blocked just south of our house, an electric fire started in the garage and spread to the attic.  The garage opens to the back, so we could not see the garage.  They obviously were using fire hoses through the front door.  The policeman said the firemen were also pulling drywall from the ceiling. 

Fortunately the fire was extinguished fairly quickly, although it continued to smoke for some time.  Best of all, the guy that lives in the house got out safely.

Since this was our first time so close to a fire, it was interesting to see some of the details.

The Lewisville Fire Department put up a drone early on in the process and left it up throughout the event.

Fire department drone over the fire

The fire fighters had a number of chain saws which we think they used to cut into the roof.

Chain saws and other gear spread out on the front lawn.

Even well after the fire was apparently out we could see fire fighters on the roof.

Firemen on the roof as seen from the front

It was interesting to see what they did to pack up their equipment.  They drained the hoses, squeeged them, them folded them into a box for carrying back to the truck.

Packing the hose into the carrying box

I saw a fireman near the utility connections relatively early in the event.  I thought he was likely turning off the gas but later realized when looking at pictures that he was also pulling the electric meter.  Near the end of the clean up a worker completely disconnected and removed the gas meter.

Removing the gas meter

The first fire trucks arrived a few minutes after 8.  The last fire trucks and the police were gone a few minutes after 10.  Other than a piece of plywood over one of the windows beside the front door (and the lack of an electric meter or gas meter), it was impossible to tell the next morning from the front of the house that anything had happened.

Wind storm.  Clearly the fire was more than enough excitement for us for one weekend, but there was one other event yet to come--a major wind storm blew through the metroplex a little after noon on Sunday.  We watched the trees blow in the ferocious winds (later reported to be 64 mph in Lewisville), but we did not think much about it.  A few minutes later our power went out.  I quickly found online (my iPhone is great!)  that almost all of Lewisville was without power due to lines down.  Fortunately this turned out to be a non-event for us.  It was now cool outside and our power came back on after about 90 minutes. 

Little did we know until the tv news that night of the devastating destruction throughout the metroplex.  Over 300,000 customers were without power, many many trees were down, power lines were down everywhere, windows were blown out, and at least one person had been killed in a crane collapse in downtown Dallas.  Last night, more than two days after the storm, there were still 100,000 customers without power.  That number is down to about 30,000 this morning.

Impact of storm on LLELA.  We did go out to LLELA the next morning to assess damage there.  We still couldn't get along the river due to the large outflow from the dam but we could see from the other part of the loop there were multiple huge trees down now over the trail along the river.  They had already had there roots undercut by the high river flow earlier this year and the winds were the last straw that pushed them over.  That is going to be a major problem, but cannot be attacked until the river levels go down.

Continuing on down the trail through the woods, there were lots of limbs and small branches down.  We could push most of those to the side (our small contribution to trail maintenance.)  However, we encountered a much bigger downed tree on the south side of the marsh which we reported. 

Yes, the Frog is standing on the trail.  No, we can't push this mess to the side.

Another picture of the trees over the trail

I also almost stepped on a wasp nest when trying to bushwhack around this mess.  The nest had been in the tree but was now essentially on the ground.  These paper wasps are usually pretty docile but are known to aggressively defend their nest.  For that reason I did a rapid retreat and decided we had gone far enough for one day.

The wasps that I almost stepped on when trying to bushwhack around the fallen trees.

Unfortunately, these downed trees mean the trail is now closed and may remain closed for quite some time since access is so limited due to the other problems.  It is a very minor problem compared to the major problems throughout the metroplex, but it still will be interesting (although hopefully not too exciting) to see how it gets resolved over the coming months.

Little Rodents and Big Birds: Cotton Rats, Deer Mice, and Whooping Cranes

Hi!  I am back.  I ended the previous post rather abruptly (although I have edited it at the end slightly) because this year's iNaturalist City Challenge (international, Texas, and DFW) was upon us.  We needed to get out and take pictures.  We did not make as many observations as last year due primarily to high water and hence limited access to large parts of LLELA.  Despite all of that, as of today I finally got posted 273 observations of 179 (or maybe 183) unique species (both plants and animals) for the four days of the event, April 26, 27, 28, and 29. 

One slightly different thing we did this year was go with a person from Texas Parks and Wildlife to recover 33 live mammal traps in a normally restricted area of LLELA.  We were in hopes of recovering some small mammals.  Mission accomplished!   After only being in the field overnight with a little chicken feed for bait, the traps contained two cotton rats and a deer mouse.  That was fun and allowed us to see some critters up close and personal that we would otherwise likely never have seen at all.

Picking up the first trap.  It was empty.

One of two cotton rats transferred into a clear cage so we could see it.

Trying to get the deer mouse to come out.

One deer mouse.

A close up look at one of the cotton rats before letting him go.  Look at those teeth!  They are orange just like beavers and nutrias!  Who knew?!

Thanks, Rachel, that was fun.

Now back to High Island...

One of the interesting aspects of our trip to High Island was talking to the other people we encountered at the birding sites or in the motel.  Although we felt like pretenders among all of these very serious birders, and we were pretty open about being beginners, it did not seem to bother the other folks.  They were friendly and sharing.  Multiple tidbits came from some of these conversations.

Swarovski optics, yes the high end spotting scope people, had a van at Boy Scout Woods.  The Frog talked to their rep at length about the products they carry to fasten a spotting scope to the front of a DSLR camera.  This is probably not something he will do since it does not fit with our birding-while-hiking approach, but the Frog did not know it was even a possibility and came home with a handful of literature.

A Houston store had a kiosk showing binoculars, scopes, and accessories.  The strap they were featuring was actually a sling camera strap with a binocular adapter.  I talked at length with the rep about the strap and realized it might be the perfect solution to get the weight of my camera off my neck.  I waited to order it until after I returned home, but now have a new Peak Designs strap which I love.

A couple we met told us about the annual Attwater Prairie Chicken Festival going on that weekend and the opportunity on the second weekend of April each year (the only chance each year) to see the male birds in their spring mating dance at the Attwater Prairie NWR near Sealy, Texas.  We did not know such a place existed and did not pursue it this year, but will keep it in mind for future years.

However, by far the greatest buzz was about some whooping cranes in a farmer's field outside of Winnie.  I asked one woman for directions and realized it would be only 5-10 minutes from our motel.  I did not know if we would be able to find the birds but figured it was worth a shot since they were so close.

We found the field easily and after some searching saw two white dots in the distance.  There they were!  We drove around to the side of the field to get as close as we could, which wasn't very close.

The two white dots on the left are the cranes as they appeared with minimal magnification (equivalent to a 90mm lens).  For calibration. the farmer's red pickup truck on the right is closer to us than the birds.  BTW, the birds seemed totally oblivious to him digging with that large back hoe in the middle of the field.

Reaching out with my camera's zoom lens, they were definitely recognizable as whooping cranes.  Although the pictures were unclear, we think we watched one of them eat a snake.

With my zoom lens at equivalent to 3000 mm. Good thing they are the tallest birds in North America, up to 5 ft 3 in, and not camouflaged or we  never would have seen them.

Why such a big deal?  Eighty years ago these birds were on the brink of extinction.  A population in Florida died off and a hurricane in 1940 killed or scattered the individuals in a flock in Louisiana which never reproduced in the wild again.  By 1941 there were only 15-21 (the number varies with different sources) wild whooping cranes and two captive whooping cranes left in the world.  The wild birds were those that returned to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas coast. Apparently all of the remaining birds today are descendants of those Aransas survivors...tough Texans!

There was so little known about the birds that efforts to raise them in captivity were initially largely unsuccessful.  However, slowly but surely through various efforts the birds are making a recovery.  There are now two migratory flocks, one that winters on the Texas coast and summers in Canada.  The other winters in the east and summers in Wisconsin.  There are also two non-migrating flocks, one in Florida and a newly introduced experimental flock in Louisiana (although the birds don't read maps well and have spread into Texas).

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whooping_crane#/media/File:Grus_americana_map.svg

The total population as of 2018, according to the International Crane Foundation, is 849 birds.

2018 data from the International Crane Foundation, https://www.savingcranes.org/species-field-guide/whooping-crane/

849 is not a large number, but is large enough that the USGS this year ended their 50 year captive breeding program.

The non-migrating Louisiana flock is from a reintroduction program (also see here) that started in 2011.  The first bird hatched in the wild from that project was in 2016.  Based on the reports of multiple baby birds born last year in the wild, the Louisiana non-migratory reintroduction project seems to be succeeding.  I have not confirmed this, but several folks at High Island indicated the cranes we saw near Winnie are part of this non-migrating Louisiana flock.

We went back to the field multiple times as we went in and out of Winnie.  We spotted the birds each time, but they were always a considerable distance from the road.  Early Sunday morning as we left for home we decided to swing by for one last chance at seeing them up close.

We did not see the birds at first, but it was easy to tell where they were given the large number of people on the road as we drove up.

Yep, there they are.  They were closer than previously, but not all that close.

Note the two white dots in the center of the far green field

We took pictures for quite some time and most of the other people left.  Then the birds began walking towards us!  We couldn't believe it, but didn't ask questions.  We just kept clicking.  We kept walking down the road away from them to avoid shooting directly into the sun but they just kept coming.  They finally stopped about 30 yards from us.

 Despite the tall grass, we could see the colored id bands and the radio transmitters on their legs.

Bands and radio transmitter on left leg.

They mostly walked around with their heads down pecking at the ground, but would occasionally raise up. However at one point they suddenly stopped and started "whooping", which was the first time we had heard them make noise of any kind.  I did not think to turn on the video on my camera until it was almost too late.  There is no decent picture in the clip, but you can hear them briefly.

I am not sure what set them off, but they almost immediately went back to feeding and did not seem bothered by us.  We hung around for just awhile longer, then headed towards home.  We may not have seen many migrating warblers on our trip to High Island, but that didn't matter since we had such a great experience with these two big birds.

Trip to High Island Day 3 -- Bolivar Flats

Friday, April 12, we did several things.  The biggest adventure was a trip to the west end of the Bolivar Peninsula to yet another Houston Audubon Society Bird Sanctuary, Bolivar Flats.  Bolivar Flats is a combination of salt marsh, mud flats, and beach on the Gulf side of the peninsula outlined in red below.   It is an important site for resting water birds and is also a nesting site for some birds such as plovers.  For all of these reasons it is one of the few places on Bolivar Peninsula where vehicle traffic is not permitted.

Another interesting characteristic of Bolivar Flats is a result of the five mile long jetty shown in the satellite view.  The jetty was built by the Army Corps of Engineers to protect the entrance to Galveston Bay.  However, it has the interesting side effect of causing the beach at Bolivar Flats to grow with time, perhaps as much as 30 feet a year.

Access to Bolivar Flats is by driving along the beach from Rettilon Road to the vehicle barrier.

Frog and RAV at the vehicle barrier on the beach at Bolivar Flats.  The tall building in the distance is on Galveston Island and is probably the Palisades Palms in Galveston, two 27 story buildings which according to my maps are about 4.3 miles away.  Between here and there are several ships that were not moving, so presumably are anchored.

Driving on the beach requires a Bolivar Beach Parking Pass.  They are available in many locations, but we stopped in Crystal Beach on the way down the peninsula at the Gulf Coast Market, better known locally as The Big Store.  Their claim to fame is they have everything. "They don’t call us The Big Store for nothin’ – there’s no other place on the Bolivar Peninsula where you can find both 1-1/2 inch screws and 1-1/2 inch T-Bone Steaks all in the same place!"  I am glad we stopped there because it seems to be part of the Bolivar experience.  

I was a little worried about driving on the beach, but the sand was wet and mostly well packed.  It turned out not to be a problem.

What was a problem was the wind.  I don't know how strong the sustained winds were, but based on my crude use of completely extended flapping flags, the sustained winds had to be at least 35 mph if not more.  

Once we started looking carefully we realized there were many types of birds on the beach.

But most impressive is what originally looked like red sand just off shore in the distance.

Frog looking at the rusty red "sand" just offshore..what turned out to be.thousands of avocets!

As we got closer and zoomed in it was clear it was not sand but thousands of American Avocets. They are beautiful birds and were especially impressive as they took off in mass.

We felt lucky to see all of these birds before they migrated north to their breeding grounds, some as far north as Canada.

These and the many other birds were great fun to watch, but we had come to the end of dry beach and the wind was brutal so we made our way back to the car to look for a place to eat.

Fort Travis.  We drove briefly through Port Bolivar but did not see any place to eat, so went to Fort Travis Seashore Park for a picnic lunch.  Fort Travis is slightly further down the peninsula from Bolivar Flats on the Gulf coast.  It is the site of numerous fortifications and batteries from multiple wars starting in 1814 and going through World War II.  Many are still in place and can be explored.  Unfortunately the brutal wind seemed like it was getting worse. It was all we could do to get the picnic supplies out of the back and into the front seat so we could eat, let alone explore the park.

A shot out of the windshield while we were eating lunch at Fort Travis.  Note the palm trees and flags blowing in the wind, including the center flag that has been partially ripped off.

At least from Fort Travis we could see the famous Port Bolivar lighthouse.

Port Bolivar lighthouse.

A bit further to the left we could see the ferry to Galveston.

Ferries to Galveston.

The trip down the peninsula was very interesting, although it left me wanting to explore again someday when the weather was a bit more cooperative. It was especially interesting to see what was now in place since much of the peninsula, especially near Rollover Pass, was destroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008 by the storm surge that was at least 17 feet and possibly more.  The elevation of the land here is only 5-6 feet. 

Bolivar Peninsula September 16, 2008 showing what little was left after Hurricane Ike. The channel perpendicular to the road in the foreground is the cut in the peninsula at Rollover Pass.  Except for the one structure in the center of the picture, everything appears scrubbed clean. (Public domain image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Hurricane_Ike_in_Texas)

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of the region as it exists now, but below is a shot cropped from a picture of birds we were trying to see in a park.  This is part of development just west of Rollover Pass .  Like everything on this end of the peninsula, there are lots of homes crowded together on multiple streets off the main road.  A quick look at online real estate sites suggests these are probably at least in the $300,000-400,000 range, with some considerably more.  As with all homes there, they are on stilts.