By Susan Heath On Tuesday, Taylor, Taylor and I headed out to check the birds in the Brazoria County Bays. This includes the west end of West Galveston Bay, Bastrop Bay, and Drum Bay. We went to West Galveston Bay first and headed straight for the mooring facility which is on the east side of the mouth of Chocolate Bay. … Read More
Oystercatcher Diaries 2023: Week of February 27, 2023
By Susan Heath On Monday, Taylor Bennett and Taylor Snyder joined me for the first survey of East Matagorda Bay this season. We found only three pairs but I’m pretty sure there is at least one more that wasn’t home. The pair at Chinquapin was unbanded so we set up the noose carpets and caught the female. She is now … Read More
Oystercatcher Diaries 2023: Week of February 20, 2023
By Susan Heath On Tuesday this week I was joined by Taylor Bennett, our Coastal Biologist, and Taylor Snyder, our research intern, for our first survey of the Brazoria Bays. This includes the western end of West Galveston Bay, Bastrop Bay, Christmas Bay and Drum Bay. There’s only a few pairs of oystercatchers in Brazoria County but it’s a big … Read More
Smith Point Hawk Watch 2022
Howdy all. The Smith Point Hawk Watch started yesterday! Bob is back and the raptors are coming. This year we are going to try something different. Bob is inputting the data electronically onto the hawkcount.org website hourly so you can look there for updates. Go to hawkcount.org, on the menu down the left side under “data summaries” pick “daily”. Then … Read More
Oystercatcher Diaries 2022: Week of August 8, 2022
By Susan Heath Well folks the oystercatcher show has come to an end once again. The Hehir twins (Elizabeth and Elisha) joined me on Wednesday to do our Black Skimmer work and check on the last oystercatcher chick. There are still 18 skimmer nests and over 50 unfledged chicks so they won’t be done for several more weeks. It was … Read More
Oystercatcher Diaries 2022: Week of July 25, 2022
By Susan Heath We headed out on Thursday to check on the skimmers and the remaining oystercatcher chick. I was joined by Alan Wilde, Taylor Bennett, and Kenlynn Volz. We headed straight to Struve Luci and counted skimmers. Many of the fledged youngsters had left which made things a bit calmer. There weren’t nearly as many squabbles as last week. … Read More
Oystercatcher Diaries 2022: Week of July 18, 2022
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
Oystercatcher Diaries 2022: Week of July 11, 2022
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
Oystercatcher Diaries 2022: Week of July 4, 2022
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
Oystercatcher Diaries 2022: Week of June 20, 2022
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
Oystercatcher Diaries 2022: Week of June 6, 2022
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
Oystercatcher Diaries 2022: Week of May 30, 2022
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