By Susan Heath Things are rapidly coming to a close in the oystercatcher world. We went out on Thursday to check on everyone. First, we had to do the skimmers on Struve Luci though. We counted 72 fledged chicks there! That is fantastic. They are having a really great year and there are still 68 nests with eggs too. Yay … Read More

By Susan Heath It was another hot day on the bay Wednesday. There was only a little wind which made for calm water but hot temperatures! Alan and I headed out with Elizabeth and Elisha Hehir on Wednesday because the weather report for Thursday was calling for rain. It is now Thursday and I can report that the aforementioned rain … Read More

By Susan Heath We had planned to go out and check the oystercatchers on June 30 but it rained that day (much needed!) and I had no flexibility to change to another day so we had to skip that week. This week Alan and I went on Wednesday. We were accompanied by Elizabeth and Elisha Hehir and Elena Duran. Elena … Read More

By Susan Heath Alan and I headed out to West Galveston Bay with Elizabeth and Elisha Hehir to help us with the skimmer counts. We had to make a quick stop at Alan’s house to pick up an extra pair of binoculars so we checked on the oystercatchers in Jones Bay while we were there. W5 & JC were incubating … Read More

By Susan Heath Alan and I surveyed the oystercatchers in West Galveston Bay on Thursday this week. For the first part of the survey, we were joined by Alexis Baldera, Audubon Texas Coastal Program Manager, and Stormy King, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Assistant Commander Game Warden. We have been working with the TPWD game wardens to try to curb … Read More

By Susan Heath This week I had to split the survey into two days because of the weather and the fact that I didn’t have an entire day free due to my participation in a pelagic birding trip from Freeport on Thursday and Friday. On Tuesday, Alan, John Wright, and I checked out the birds in West Galveston Bay. It … Read More

By Susan Heath On Thursday Alan and I were joined by Amanda Hackney of Black Cat GIS & Biological Services. It was time to do the colonial waterbird counts and Amanda is a great help doing those! The weather was beautiful for a change without much wind. So nice. We headed up towards Swan Lake. 20 & unbanded were incubating … Read More

By Susan Heath This week Alan and I moved our survey to Wednesday because of my schedule and the weather. The wind is back. Oh joy. A little wind is a good thing but I’ve had enough of 18-20 mph please. I had thought we would not be able to make it to Swan Lake this week because the wind … Read More

By Susan Heath This week was our Experience Auction trip on West Galveston Bay. Kyle Jones and him mom Joann joined us for a day on the water. Fortunately, the weather was beautiful and the wind was perfect at about 10 mph. That doesn’t happen very often! Right off the bat we saw three oystercatchers on the reefs by the … Read More

By Susan Heath On Tuesday, Taylor, Kenlynn and I headed out to check the birds in the Brazoria Bays. We haven’t been out to check on them in a month because the wind has been too bad and we had too many other commitments so it was great to be back out there. We headed straight to the mooring facility … Read More

By Susan Heath It was a busy week this week but I managed to get out and check on most of the oystercatchers. On Tuesday, GCBO education intern Adam Trujillo went with me to East Matagorda Bay to check on the two pairs that had hatching nests two weeks ago. Sadly, none of the adults were present so both nests … Read More

By Susan Heath It was too windy to check the Brazoria Bays this week so we had to skip it. We’ll find out what’s happening there in a couple of weeks if the wind ever dies down. It was windy again on Thursday and Alan was having a few back issues and didn’t feel he should be bouncing around on … Read More