From left to right: Iliana Pena, Amy Turner, Petra Hockey, Chester Smith, Josh Turner, Brent Ortego; back row: Brush Freeman, Jon Hayes, Tim Wilkinson. Photo credit: Peggy Wilkinson.

Volunteers for the annual census and their affiliations Audubon Warden of Sundown Island: Chester Smith. Audubon Texas: Iiana Pena, Director of Conservation and Education for Audubon Texas. Read more about the Spring 2010 Coastal Stewardship newsletter (.pdf). The first article is about Sundown Island. Texas Parks & Wildlife (TPWD): Amy Turner, Josh Turner, Jon Hayes and Brent Ortego. Amy is also part of the Wildlife Habitat Assessment Program-Victoria. Brent Ortego is also an active member of TOS. Texas Ornithological Society (TOS): Petra Hockey, Brush Freeman. Petra has been part of the Sundown Island volunteer group for many, many years. Sundown Island Volunteers: Tim and Peggy Wilkinson are both volunteers and members of Chester's family. They have been invaluable in securing corporate sponsorship for the island, donations of materials, coordinating volunteer work days, and assisting Chester in his many trips to the island to complete a task or to just observe the birds.

May 21, 2010

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On a calm Friday morning at the end of May, Chester Smith, Sundown Island Warden and a distinguished group of volunteers headed across Matagorda Bay to Sundown Island for the annual bird count. It was a calm morning, but a really "hot" day—especially if you are counting birds on the inside of the island—where there's no breeze.

Last year the entire Texas coast suffered under drought conditions. The hardest hit areas were between Corpus Christi and Victoria, Texas. Port O'Connor is approximately in the middle of this area. During the Sundown Island count in 2009 there was a lot of dead grass and some of the seedling trees did not make it. But this year, the conditions were quite different. After the Spring rains, the island was quite lush. Petra also relayed the fishing guides reported more abundant "bait fish" this year—here's hoping the food supply is sufficient to feed all of the chicks.

The counters saw lots of Brown Pelicans, Tricolored Herons, Laughing Gulls and both Royal and Sandwich Terns. The birds—unfortunately—don't pay any attention to "human plans." The bird count is once a year at approximately the same time each year. If you look just at the 2009 and 2010 numbers you might think that the numbers exploded from last year. There are many factors which contribute to the timing and success of each breeding season.

Petry Hockey and Brush Freeman noted that in their section of the count the "development phase of many of the birds was a bit behind last year's. There were no fledged chicks in the tern colony and pelican chicks were mostly very small. Perhaps the unusually cool and prolonged winter was a factor in this." The opposite happened in 2009. Because of the unusual heat and dryness, breeding season actually started at the end of February. Some birds were already on nests during the Spring 2009 workday.

In March 2010 Peggy Wilkinson took spectacular photos of the breeding activity. If you missed these before, be sure to take a look:

• March 27, 2010 (The Reddish Egrets are spectacular; look for the White Morph Reddish Egrets.)
• March 19, 2010 (Be sure to look for the pelicans with the "red pouch.")
• March 15, 2010 (Note the bright colors—legs, bills, lores—they really colorful during breeding season)

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

Photo Credit: Peggy Wilkinson

Breeding Pairs 2010 2009 Brown Pelican 2,507 536 Neotropic Cormorant 2 1 Great Blue Heron 109 128 Great Egret 141 155 Snowy Egret 19 89 Little Blue Heron 4 11 Tricolored Heron 619 574 Reddish Egret— 40 39 —Red morph 35 31 —White morph 5 8 Cattle Egret 2 19 Black-crowned Night-Heron 78 44 White Ibis 148 31 Roseate Spoonbill 71 110 Laughing Gull 6,245 3,322 Gull-billed Tern 0 25 Royal Tern 2,909 1,908 Sandwich Tern 1,484 592 Black Skimmer 88 Total 14,378 7,672

If you are interested in more information about colonial waterbirds on the Texas coast, also visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Texas Coastal Program site. This site includes census data on counts going back twenty or more years.