May 21, 2010

View the photos taken during the annual census!

The annual Texas Waterbird Colony Census for Sundown Island found conditions similar to last year. The entire Texas coast has been suffering under extreme drought conditions from east of Palacious to the west end of Aransas Bay. Sunflowers, Quintana, and other vegetation were more sparse and there was a lot of dead grass.The island apparently has a new visitor/resident—a racoon. Volunteers brought some bait and a trap to see if they could catch it. It has been hanging around the tractor shed.

This year's counters included Diane Nunley, Chester Smith, Brent Ortego, Trent Teinert, Amy Turner, Josh Turner, Jon Hayes, and Marcy Spears. Petra Hockey suffered a neck injury and was not able to join us, but she did come to chear us on and brought a ladder to help count the terns.

Other census reports are available in the archived news section.

Chester Smith and Audubon wishes to thank all of the counters and volunteers for "making a difference" in the life of these birds and their dedication to preserving wildlife.

Estimated Breeding pairs 2011 Brown Pelican 2,029 Great Blue Heron 54 Great Egret 26 Snowy Egret 5 Tricolored Heron 191 Reddish Egret—red morph 15 Cattle Egret 6 Black-crowned Night-Heron 46 White Ibis 85 Roseate Spoonbill 29 Laughing Gull 3,143 Gull-billed Tern 11 Royal Tern 4,625 Sandwich Tern 622 Black Skimmer 34 Total 10,921
Postscript: The annual bird census trip to Sundown was one of Chester's last visits to the island. He drove the boat with eight volunteers--and at 90 was still "in-charge" of us all.