Text by Paula Dittrick, TMNCPC blogmaster. Photos from Robbin Mallett, TMNCPC 2020 Communications Director. This is the fourth in a blog series of TMNCPC members’ favorite national wildlife refuges in Texas.
San Bernard is part of the Texas Mid-coast National Wildlife Refuge complex, which also includes Brazoria NWR and Big Boggy. San Bernard NWR covers 45,730 acres straddling Brazoria and Matagorda counties, and it’s located about 12 miles west of Freeport.
More than 400 species of birds have been documented in Brazoria County, with many of them found on the Texas Mid-coast refuges. San Bernard NWR also was designated an Internationally Significant Shorebird Site by the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network.
Visitors to San Bernard NWR can expect to see shorebirds, wading birds, and nearctic-neotropical migrants in season. TMNCPC members Lynn Trenta and Margo Johnson both listed San Bernard as among their favorite national wildlife refuges in Texas.
Shannon Westveer, 2021 TMNCPC Vice-President, said she and her husband, Scott, “love going there for wintering birds” such as ducks, geese, Sandhill cranes, and various types of sparrows.
A diversity of plants, including wildflowers and iris, also can be seen.
San Bernard NWR is home to an impressive live oak, which in 2000 was declared the largest live oak in Texas. The once-champion tree has a circumference greater than 32 feet and stands at least 67 feet high.
The ancient tree is situated in shallow bodies of water, remnants of shifting river, and bayou channels, the San Bernard NWR web site said. The tree’s crown extends more than 100 feet providing shelter to migratory birds.
The book, Finding Birds on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail: Houston, Galveston & the Upper Texas Coast,” warns that San Bernard NWR “can be boglike” after wet winters until April and May. Authors Ted Lee Eubanks Jr., Robert A. Behrstock, and Seth Davidson recommend rubber boots for walking the trails.
A 2-mile Moccasin Pond tour loop has willows along the road where visitors might find migrants. The end of the loop is good for Eastern Meadowlark, Crested Caracara, and Savannah Sparrow in winter. Bobcat Woods Trail provides dragonflies and butterflies in summer.
Least Flycatcher has been counted here on Christmas Bird Counts. Barred owls sometimes can be found in the trees along the entrance road. Eubanks notes reports of Bald Eagle sightings in San Bernard NWR during winter.
The NWR web site says 24 species of ducks and four species of geese winter on the refuge and can be seen October through March. Sandhill cranes are found in large numbers in winter among managed wetlands, including Rail Pond, Moccasin Pond, and Wolfweed Wetlands.
Driving directions
San Bernard Refuge entrance is 2.15 miles southwest of the intersection of FM 2918 and CR 306 on CR 306.