After taking a few pictures, we fled from the blistering heat, back to the comfort of the air-conditioned car, and as we drove, saw lesser nighthawks dozing on the wires above Swearingen's grandfather's deep ditches. In this year of drought, the fields would have been glad for a dousing of the long-ago unwanted water. Eastern kingbirds and some recently arrived scissor-tailed flycatchers escorted us off the property. The season's first meeting of the Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi will be tonight, with a covered-dish supper at the Fred B. Jones Sanctuary in Portland. Come by at 6 p.m. or earlier.
Guests are welcome.
Bring a dish to share, as well as your own eating utensils and a drink, and a chair or picnic table if you have one. Take U.S. Highway 181 over the Harbor Bridge and across the Nueces Bay Causeway. At Portland, exit at Moore Avenue. Turn left onto Moore and follow it 6.5 miles to its intersection with Farm to Market Road 1074. Turn left on 1074 and travel a half-mile to the sanctuary.