Summer Report From Warden, Chester Smith
August 9, 2004
Last Thursday , Warden Chester Smith and his granddaughter Tiffany made a trip to the island. They found that the vegetation was so dense that they could hardly walk through it. Even with the tractor, Chester said he was not able to find some of the old paths mowed just before the start of breeding season.
Towards the end of the summer, the Sunflowers are from six to ten feet high and can make it difficult to walk or even ride through the island. Chester said the pollen from the Sunflowers was overwhelming and that a mask would have been handy.
There are still lots of birds on the island, which is unusual for this time of year. This year’s breeding season was one of the longest that Chester could remember. Generally, by August most of the birds are gone and by Labor Day about all that you will see are large groups of Juvenile Pelicans that stick around.
There are still young birds on the far north end of the island. Chester and Tiffany spotted baby Pelicans still too young to fly. This is significant because Pelicans rarely nest on the far north end of the island and is it unusual to still have baby Pelicans that young in August.
 On the far south end of the island, Chester spotted about a dozen pair of adult White-faced Ibis. None were seen during the annual bird-count day, so he was happy to see they were still residents.
The most interesting find was the pair of Crested Caracaras nesting on the innermost navigation tower on the island. They had a large four-foot nest. Chester observed two young chicks about a month old in the nest. It is not unusual to see Caracaras hanging out on the island, but there has never been a recorded nesting there.
Perhaps the generous rainfall this year, dense vegetation and abundant nesting materials combined to make conditions just right for a really long successful birding season.
Carl Crittendon Water Well Service repaired the Sundown Island windmill at no cost to Audubon. The pump is now sending water to the nursery ponds that the young birds like so well. Thank you Carl! See earlier photo of volunteers trying to patch the windmill.
Chester left some Salt Cedar cuttings with a nursery on Seadrift Road to be planted later on the island. He also found a few Eucalyptus trees with seeds that were originally rooted by Dr. Lin (Formosa) about two years ago.
In early September there will be a Navigation District meeting at the Port Lavaca Community Center. There are big plans for the Matagorda ship channel from Alcoa to the Gulf, so there may be lots of beneficial dredge fill for the coastal birds.
Towards the end of September, the Corps of Engineers plans to visit Sundown Island to see what can be done about saving the Windmill from the impending erosion on the west end of the island (see photo taken Nov. 2003). Another problem is the quality of the dredge material. Chester described the dredge material as sloppy, but basically it is more like silt than sand and it is difficult to keep that type of fill on the island, even with barriers like Geotubes.
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Longer Than Normal Breeding Season