By Susan Heath

On Wednesday I headed out to the Brazoria Bays for what I hoped would be my last check of the season. While crossing West Galveston Bay to get to the mooring facility, I spotted a strange silhouette on one of the channel markers. As I got closer I saw there was more than one strange silhouette. Brown Boobies!

I haven’t seen any of this species in West Galveston Bay since the freeze in February 2021. What a fun surprise! I hope they decide to stay. I proceeded to the mooring facility and as expected, F2A & E3A and their chick were not there. That chick fledged a while ago so I’m sure they were out touring the bay. There weren’t any oystercatchers at Alligator Point so I headed back to Bastrop Bay (saluting the boobies as I passed!).

In Bastrop Bay I went to check on CH & unbanded. I really hoped they wouldn’t have a nest but doggone it they did! Two eggs. It wasn’t in the same spot I saw them last time so if they laid a nest there it was already gone. I suspect this one will get predated by a mammal but we’ll see. This means I’ll have to go back out in two weeks and check on them again.

I checked all the other spots and there weren’t any other oystercatchers present so I headed back to the boat ramp. So close but not done yet!

On Thursday I headed out to West Galveston Bay with Alan and my replacement Rebecca Bracken. Yes! I will get to retire! I was excited to introduce Rebecca to the birds and she was excited to meet them! We headed up towards Swan Lake and checked on 20 & unbanded and their chicks. They were on their island but there were a couple fishing boats quite near the island and I couldn’t move in and see if the chicks would fly. I decided to try again on the way back.

LR & unbanded were on their island with their chick. The chick was laying down but when we moved closer it got up and made a short flight to another part of the island. Yay! Fledged. How wonderful it must be for a chick to suddenly be able to fly. I wish that would happen to me!

We entered Swan Lake and 11 flew out and landed on the breakwater. Hum. Where did he come from? We were pretty sure he came from where they keep the chick hidden. We didn’t see his mate anywhere but when we motored along the shoreline, 11 flew over and made sure we didn’t stop so I feel certain they still have a chick. His mate must have been off procuring provisions.

K7 & unbanded and their chicks weren’t home. 39 was still incubating two eggs and two beautiful Fulvous Whistling-Ducks were nearby. I hope they are nesting there. I’d love to see some baby Fulvous!

X3 & unbanded and their chick were on their island. The chick was wary but we didn’t get too close as we already know that one is fledged.

We headed back towards West Galveston Bay and went to do another check on 20 & unbanded and their chicks. They had moved to the mainland shore in an area where I couldn’t get the boat close enough to push them to fly but I’m pretty sure they probably flew over there from where we first saw them. They could have walked but they are plenty old enough to fly so I’m counting them as fledged. Yay!

Back in West Galveston Bay we headed to Struve. 12 & unbanded’s chick had not returned and E5A & unbanded’s nest had failed. There are three gull nests right by where it was so it’s not surprising it didn’t make it. Surprise, surprise though, LT & JA had finally laid a new nest! Two beautiful eggs. Yay! I really don’t want them to not fledge a chick in my last season. They are one of my favorites. Oh ok, they are all my favorites!

L9 & unbanded and their chick were on their island. We haven’t seen them in a couple weeks so that was nice.

We counted the skimmers and terns and then headed to Jigsaw. LH & JX and their chick were out on a reef. That one is fledged too so we didn’t approach. YE & unbanded will never let me see them incubating so I had to go up and check again that their eggs were still there. They were! It should be hatched by next week. X2 & W2Y were hanging out on a reef. For the first time in a while they didn’t try to convince us they have a nest when they don’t!

We headed over to the Galveston shoreline but neither YK & unbanded or 16 & W8W were there. There was only one youngster at 8 Mile Road but we saw a group of three or four fly back into the marsh to the north of 8 Mile Road. So that’s where they go when the tide is too high in the bay!

We went and checked the birds on South Deer next. F1A & E2A and their chicks must have been out touring the bay because they weren’t home. Y7 & unbanded and A5A & unbanded were also not home. A1A & unbanded and their chick were still hanging out in A5A & unbanded’s territory. Wonder what’s up with that?

At Gangs Bayou none of the pairs were present. C8A & unbanded’s nest failed a long time ago and we haven’t seen them since and A4A & unbanded’s chick was fledged last week so they were probably off exploring. A lot of the skimmers and all of the Gull-billed Terns from Struve Luci moved to this location so there is a lot of action there now!

Since I’d seen Brown Boobies in the other end of the bay earlier in the week, we went and checked the channel markers where they used to hang out prior to the freeze. No luck. Bummer. We headed to North Deer and discovered that E8A & unbanded had a new one egg nest. They laid this one in a much better place than their previous two but there are still a lot of gulls around so we’ll see how it goes.

C1A or mate was in the veg presumably protecting a chick so we left it to its business and moved one.

YM & JH and their chick were hanging out on their beach. The chick made a short flight (yay!) and then ran to hide. I guess it isn’t quite sure of its flight skills yet. Next week it’ll be a champ!

Next up was J6 & UF. I just knew they had a chick and I wanted to confirm that so we snuck up on them on the backside of Marker 52 and then approached slowly so we could see where they popped up from the vegetation. When we got pretty close, two oystercatcher heads popped up and I saw right where they were. Bingo! We went ashore and I found their chick trying to hide but not doing a very good job of it.

There’s so much vegetation there that it doesn’t really have to try to hide. It’s hidden by default! I think it’s about two weeks old. Way to go J6 & UF! This pair is probably the most persistent pair out there. When their island got too low for nesting, they moved to a wholly unsuitable area for oystercatchers and they are managing to make it work. Such good parents!

Sadly, next we discovered that JJ & P4’s nest had failed. I wasn’t surprised given the number of gulls and pelicans in that area but it’s still sad. They try so hard! In happier news, E4A was still incubating her eggs and so was JC. Good deal you two!

FR & unbanded were at one end of their island and their chicks were at the other end out on a reef. When we motored by, the adults flew over to where the chicks were. Fred is not letting us get near his babies again! Go Fred!

CA & Y2 were on the breakwater with their chick so all was well. I showed Rebecca a couple of the islands in Jones Bay (or former islands to be more correct) that the Galveston Bay Foundation is going to restore specifically for oystercatchers. I thought that was going to happen this fall but I found out it won’t be until 2024. I hope these birds can hang in there that long. It gets harder and harder every year for them to be successful on the remaining nesting habitat.

If you like oystercatchers and you want to support this project, you can make a donation (thank you!) on our website here. And how could anyone not like oystercatchers!

Current Stats for upper Texas coast from Dickinson Bay to East Matagorda Bay: 7 nests being incubated, 25 failed nests, 3 nests with unfledged chicks, 0 nests with undetermined status, 22 chicks fledged

Note: All trapping and banding for this project is in accordance with federal and state permits issued to Susan Heath, GCBO Director of Conservation Research. Bird handling by volunteers is only permitted in the presence of Susan Heath and volunteers are trained in proper bird handling techniques.