By the shores of....

...Gitche Gumee? Nah....here in the Coastal Bend acutally!

Many times, I've mentioned here and on my bird photo blog about an area just outside the 'skirts' of the city, along the intercoastal waters of the Gulf ...the area is Oso Bay. For the most part, the bay is salt water, mixed with canal water from several outlets from around the city. Mostly canals and drainage from irrigation creeks. During the summer months it's quite dry. The landscape changes dramatically and the mudflats created by the high use of irrigation arise in the 'bay'. Hence, you're able to walk along the banks [traipse through mud quite often] and peruse the shores with your binoculars at all the bird life. Surrounding the bay inlet, there are two trails. On one side, an adjacent park with a short boardwalk and observation decks and a trail that winds along the Ennis Joslin Rd along the North side of the bay. On the other side, along Ocean Drive, there is a longer, paved trail that begins from the Gulf, to and around the back side of the TAMU-CC campus. [That's Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi]. But there is some history connected to this 'island'. Prior to, and during WWII, this peninsula [called an island, Ward Island to be specific] was where the original [and still very active] NAS Flight Training Center is. That's Naval Air Station. President George Bush [the older] trained here to be a Naval Aviator in the 1940s.

To cut to the background of my post, during the last couple of weeks Bud and I have frequented the area because of a special, rare, bird spotted in the area. And since the bird spotted is always too far for our binoculars to really get a good view [nearly 1/2 mile into the bay's center], we just began walking along the grassy area that borders the shore. We found a bit of history left behind!!!

The two of us figured by the location and the area's history, these are probably remnants of a foundation of perhaps barracks or a Gymnasium. Altho the site I found tells me it could be a number of facilities; perhaps hangars. The reinforced "I Beams" [the rusted metal with the "I" shape in the block is an I Beam] are encased in cement...clearly marked U S N

...as we walked along checking out all the different deterioration of some, I spotted more foundation work remnants of the air station...

Linking to: Rubbish Tuesday - Our World Tuesday

Several yards out in the bay, a Yellow Crowned Night Heron had just flown in and watched me watching it on some more naval base 'ruins'  Sorry it's a bit blurry, I was in a hurry to capture the image before it flew off at my presence.   Which it did almost instantaneously.
Normally, the water level covers this area and the remnants aren't visible....

linking to: Wild Bird Wednesday - Nature Notes

photos of aerial views of the NAS Corpus Christi are courtesy of Wikipedia via Google Image Search
...Read more history here and here