View photos: Volunteers in Action and Bird Activity

Article by Marcy Spears

February 2008—Possibly nothing—puts you in a good mood like a beautiful morning on the water! We had early-morning cool temperatures and a mild afternoon, clear water, light winds, partly-cloudy skies and a smooth ride to Sundown Island for the annual Spring workday. Why is the weather important? It can make or break a workday!

Eighteen volunteers met at Clark's Restaurant on February twenty-third for the trip to the island. Two volunteers from Corpus Christi, Gregg and Eric Giggleman, missed the last boat from Clark's but managed to hitch a ride with a GLO friend to the island. Nancy Posey brought her boat, the Pelican and Tim and Peggy Wilkinson volunteered their boat, the Gull to provide transport to the island along with the Audubon boat, the Egret II, navigated by Ed Taylor and Ronnie Zetik.

When we arrived we were treated to early nesting activities—about two weeks early in fact. The south end of the island (a prime spot that fills up first) was already nearly full of Brown Pelicans, many already sitting on eggs, others working on their nests. In the ponds close by were American White Pelicans and American Avocets—staging to migrate back to their Spring nesting grounds.

The week before workday, Warden Chester Smith and his friend Ed Taylor mowed trails to make it easier for the volunteers to move about the island. Ed has done so much volunteer work on Sundown Island that he should be recognized as Assistant Warden of the sanctuary!

Tim and Peggy Wilkinson organized the workday activities. Tim lined up the list of activities and assigned volunteers; Peggy took care of the volunteer picnic lunch. Something about being on the water and working on the Island creates really hungry volunteers. Many thanks to both Tim & Peggy!

Volunteers accomplished a lot! Tim Wilkinson and Chester Smith assigned jobs to the volunteers. It helps to have a list!

• Cleaned beaches, bagged and hauled the trash to the dockside
• Installed the pesticide spreader and treated for fire ants
• Planted new Cedar seedlings, cleared vegetation around old tree plantings and fertilized
• Dismantled one section of ladder from the tower near the shed and installed it on the platform with the old observation tower
• Cleared vegetation and old lumber and burned near the shed
• Cleared vegetation around the Oak trees near the shed, watered and fertilized.
• Painted the wanter tanks and cleaned the shed gutter.

It was a terrific workday! Much was accomplished. View the photos of both of the bird activity and the volunteers' hard work on SundownIsland.Smugmug.com. There was so much bird activity during this workday that the albums have been split in two: one for the birds, and one of the volunteers in action. Don't forget to read the captions—whose doing what!

Many thanks to all of the volunteers: Abel DeLeon, Jeremy King, Linda Barley, Nancy Posey, Tim and Peggy Wilkinson, Nelson Marek, Larry Tisdale, Greg and Eric Giggleman, Ronnie Zetik, Ed Taylor, Robert and Jackie Kings, Diane Nunley, Robert Fairchild and Marcy Spears.

Postscript: Although Spring workday is in February, behind the scenes activities go on all year to make each of the workdays as productive as possible. In January, Chester Smith and Ed Taylor fixed the tractor and checked on the windmill. A week before the event, Chester and Ed mowed trails on the island to make moving around safer. A friend of Chester's, Joe on POC road, grew cedar seedlings to be planted on the island during the Spring workday. Chester made arrangements for Carl, the water well guy, to fix the windmill before workday but that didn't work out. Parts had to be ordered.