Island 16A in Lavaca Bay
"alias" Ibis Island, 2003
by Marcy Crowe (marcycro@tenet.edu)
Island 16A Photo
Gallery
 On
Sunday, April 13, Frank and I made a run to island 16A, located
in Lavaca Bay just off the ICW, in view of Port Lavaca and the Alcoa
Plant. I knew that it was really shallow all the way around
this island. Frank (my husband) and I picked an anchor spot
close to the ICW on the south west side of the island because it
was a bit deeper there...2 feet, instead of 2 inches. The depth
finder said two feet. I jumped in, expecting to hit bottom...and
instead, sank into about four foot of mud with water up to my chest.
I can't describe how gross that was. I could feel solid ground,
so I sucked it up and waded about 100 feet to shore.
 Purpose
of the trip:
The main purpose of this trip was to look for nesting Pelicans.
I took pictures of the birds as I walked the perimeter of the island.
The birds are breeding now, so it is not a good time to visit.
These birds are not used to anyone coming on the island. They
were not very happy about my presence either. Folks who live in
the area also call this island "Snake Island" ... another
reason not to go, except to sit in your boat and observe.
I did not find any breeding Brown Pelicans. If they were there,
they were not in easy view of my walk around the island.
Island composition:
The base of this island is made up of oyster shell and silt.
Maybe there is sand someplace, but it is so fine, it is more like
silt or muck, depending upon where you are standing. You will
find salt grass marshes on the west side of the island and closer
to the center of the island. There are lots of scrubby trees,
Weesatch and others, in the center and along the northeast shore.
Cacti are scattered throughout the island. The trees are heavily
distributed along the south side and the center of the island.
There was a smattering of Silverleaf Sunflowers, which were probably
exported by former residents of Sundown Island.
 Birds
identified:
There had to be thousands (maybe "gazillions") of White
Ibises. It seemed as though there were at least half as many
White-faced and Glossy Ibis too, but they were not as gregarious
as the White Ibis. I did not try to do an official count.
I was too busy watching for snakes. In one photograph that
I took, I was able to count over 100 White-face or Glossy Ibis.
This is a list of the birds that I was able to identify:
- White Ibis (gazillions)
- White-faced Ibis (lots,stayed mostly in the salt grass)
- Glossy Ibis (saw fewer of these, stayed mostly in the salt grass)
- Black-crowned Night-Heron (just a few)
- Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (some, not overwhelming numbers)
- Reddish Egret dark phase (pretty good representation)
- Reddish Egret white phase (some)
- Tricolored Heron (they seemed to be everywhere; loved the salt
grass)
- Great Blue Heron (a few)
- Snowy-Egret (pretty good representation)
- Roseate Spoonbill (pretty good representation)
- Black Skimmer (some)
- Royal Terns (some)
- Sandwich Terns (some)
- Laughing Gulls (lots)
- Franklin Gulls (quite a few)
- American Oystercatcher (some)
- Brown Pelicans (2 juveniles and one adult; they just seemed
to be "hanging out")
Close Call:
Because we anchored a bit too close to the ICW, we had a close
call with a large ship. No.. it did not almost run over us,
but the wake could have put our little boat on shore in the muck.
Boat US would have been hearing from us, no doubt. We got
lucky. The anchors held. In fact, one held so well,
we had to cut it lose and leave it there. Even with both of
us tugging on it, we could not get it up.
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