Why Bays Matter Texas needs bays, and Texas bays need fresh
water By Larry McKinney The wind on Redfish Bay was cold and
gusty as we prepared to launch our kayaks on an early morning
last October. We had to cross a shrimp-boat channel where the
north wind was pitching a steady train of high swells across our
path, but that was a minor impediment. Once across, we turned
into one of the myriad of tidal channels connecting the mangrove
maze, seagrass flats and lakes that border the southwestern
margin of the bay. The winds diminished rapidly and when the sun
rose fully above the horizon, we were treated to a scene that
Audubon should have painted. Hundreds of birds, from stubby
pelicans to elegant blue herons, had sought refuge from the wind
in the stunted mangroves. Only a few feet from the bows of our
kayaks, the common birds of the Texas Coast flapped and waded
and hopped in a riot of colors, ranging from the hot pink of
roseate spoonbills to the dun of plovers. We glided past one
another along the winding ch