Photograph © Jody Diehl

It isn’t really noticeable here in the Houston area yet, but it is officially autumn!  Can you believe it?  Summer just flew by.  One way or another, we’re past peak beach season, which never really made much sense to me.  In the autumn and winter months, I’m as likely to go to the beach as spring and summer.  Granted, the sorts of things I do on the beaches change with the seasons.  In the colder months, most of us are pretty unlikely to go wading and swimming, but shelling is often best in the dead of winter, and if you ask me, there’s no better time for beach kite flying than autumn!  Here in La Porte, TX, we are truly fortunate to have a spectacular organization that sends sea creatures into the sky on a pretty regular basis right at our very own Sylvan Beach: The South Houston Area Recreational Kiters, or S.H.A.R.K. for short.

Photograph © Jody Diehl

At the tail end of last autumn, Jody (my mom) captured some great photographs of some S.H.A.R.K. kites, and while we were there, the kiters kindly arranged it so that we could pet the dolphin kite (and while doing so, we got a chance to show everyone how big these kites really are!).  The only photo in this lineup that does not belong to Jody is the one of crab ground-kites, which were at Sylvan Beach on a different day and were photographed by F. Travis Riley.  I hope you enjoy the slideshow:

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If you like what you see, S.H.A.R.K. meets to fly beachy kites at beaches all over the Port of Houston/Galveston Bay area.  They have a great calendar of events that lets you know where they’ll be and when.

Have a great start to your autumn, everyone!  I hope you don’t miss a chance to see high-flying sea creatures at a beach sometime soon- E.G.D.