Sundown Island Bird Sanctuary

An Audubon Bird Sanctuary
Port O'Connor, Texas

Location of Sundown Island

Map of Matagorda Bay Sundown Island Sanctuary, also locally known as Bird Island, is a low-lying, seventy-acre island built from dredge spoil in 1962. It is located near where the Matagorda Ship Channel and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway cross in Matagorda Bay, east of Port O'Connor and southeast of Port Lavaca, in the Texas' coastal bend. The Island is leased from the General Land Office and managed by the National Audubon Society's Texas Coastal Sanctuaries program, as part of the Society's 13,000-acre network of 33 islands that stretch from Mexico to Louisiana.

For additional views of the Sundown Island, click on the links below.

Satellite Image of
Matagorda Bay
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Satellite Image of
Sundown Island
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Geo map of
Matagorda Bay
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These satellite images were taken in 1995. Although they are a bit dated, they give you a better feel for the area than a flat map. They also show some of the older geotubes which were installed ... plus they show how easy it is to run your boat aground. I found out the hard way!
These maps are from the TerraServer on the MSN Web site. If you haven't discovered this site, it is well worth the trip. If your house has been on the planet long enough, you can even locate it. This is a cool site ... even if you have slow bandwidth! (http://terraserver.homeadvisor.
msn.com/default.asp)

Also check out the technology behind the TerraServer website at "What is TerraServer?"