Sundown Island Bird Sanctuary

An Audubon Bird Sanctuary
Port O'Connor, Texas

Spring Workday 2007

Sundown Island, Workday February 22, 2007. Most of us have never seen the island in weather as foggy as this.

February 22, 2007
By David Newstead
Manager, Audubon Colonial Waterbird Program, Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program Partner

Photo Gallery Online

The morning started out extremely calm but VERY foggy! The visibility became worse and worse the farther out into the bay we went, but we managed to navigate our way to the island by good old fashioned 'dead reckoning' (with a little help from a compass and GPS). The trip back to port to pick up the second crew went much smoother and soon we were all on the island, boat unloaded, ready to work. We were greeted on the island by several squadrons of brown and white pelicans, and Double-crested Cormorants.

The water collection tank had fallen off it's mount, with the faucet broken and the water all leaked out. Andy Kasner and Jason Hardin set to work helping Chester to put a quick fix on that situation and clean out the tank, while the rest began picking up trash on the shore.

After the fog burned off and the dew had started to evaporate, we began on several other projects. The staff divided labor like a well-organized army of fire ants, to accomplish, among other things: treating parts of the island for fire ants, pulling invasive Guinea Grass from the native brush plantings at Plot 2, spraying the Guinea Grass with a grass-specific herbicide there and on a few other patches, watering the established live oaks, and planting eight more live oaks in the area around the barn. I'm beginning to think Chester is planting all those oaks so that once they are established in a few years, he can retire and move out there permanently, swinging in a hammock under the oaks!

Chester Smith, Warden of Sundown Island and David Newstead, Manager of the Audubon Colonial Waterbird Program, lead other Audubon employees for the 2007 Sundown Island spring workday.

Great Blue Herons were already in various stages of nesting - displaying, site selection, nestbuilding, and I suspect some were already incubating eggs. A resident pair of caracaras was kept busy supervising everybody's activities. The most surprising bird of the day was a wintering Short-eared Owl! This bird is on many watch-lists. It prefers very similar habitats to the Northern Harrier, and the two species divide their hunting time into the day-shift and night-shift. They are a treat to see on some of the larger islands up and down the coast in the winter.

By about 2:00 in the afternoon, all of our major objectives had been accomplished, with pride and flair. I feel that the island is in good shape for the nesting season, and it's time to leave it to the birds until the fall. There will certainly be more work to do at that time.

I know that Chester shows his gratitude, but I, and the Audubon Texas staff, would also like to thank all of the volunteers who have helped make Sundown Island a success story all these years, for all of your hard work and dedication. When you see a pelican diving, or a heron stalking a meal, take pride and give yourself a pat on the back.