News on Sundown Island

Spring Workday Photos

Photos from the Spring workday, February 23, 2002, are online. To start...it was an incredible day, which included a cool morning, warm afternoon, and calm water. Chester Smith, the Sundown Island Warden, ferried work crews to and from the island in the brand new Audubon boat, the Egret III

Approximately 40 volunteers showed up from Houston, Port O'Connor, Baytown, Victoria, and Port Lavaca to help treat for fire ants, plant trees, clean up beach trash, build nesting stands and to complete the tractor shed. There were approximately 50+ Reddish Egrets and even some White Morph Reddish Egrets which watched over the work crew while protecting their selected nesting sites.

Lynn Travis from Devon Energy Corp. helped organize volunteers into various crews. Devon also paid for the lunch for the volunteers, organized by Barbara Van Horn. Approximately 20 of the volunteers were from Devon.

Jesse Grantham (Conservation Director of Texas Audubon Coastal Sanctuaries) and Don McKee of Pascagoula, Mississippi (President of the Mississippi Audubon Society Chapter) (photo) pitched in and surveyed the island's developing habitat.

While treating for fire ants and surveying the experimental plant plots, Mark Elwonger and Petra Hockey discovered a large rattle snake in a small clump of cacti. The snake is still there! Yuk!

The King Fisher dredge crew was working on Saturday also. They were adding dredge fill to the Northwest corner of the island to build it up. Last year this part of the island was used heavily by the Terns as a nesting site.