Spring's renewal brings birds back to island

About This Series

The Galveston Island Nature Tourism Council has partnered with The Galveston County Daily News, educational institutions and outdoor preservation organizations to provide progress reports on the recovery of the area’s natural habitats damaged as a result of Hurricane Ike.

Mort Voller, the nature tourism council’s immediate past president and an enthusiastic birder, provides the following report of a recent trip to some of his favorite birding spots on the east and west ends of the island.

The council is a resource for information about nature tourism venues and activities. Its annual festival, Galveston FeatherFest, is set for April 2-5.

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On The Web

www.galvestonfeatherfest.com.

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I know we needed the weekend’s rain, but it was hard to complain about the great weather that preceded it. The sun shone, the skies were blue and spring was in the air.

The pigeons and laughing gulls were courting, cooing and braying respectively. The teals and shovelers were in flocks on the marshes and getting edgy to leave. The sandhill cranes will be completely gone soon.

Those early spring migrants, the purple martins, were in the air but none has yet explored our new, “courtesy of Ike” martin house. Perhaps these seasonal visitors don’t like the fact the new model is all white, not with the green panels they might have been expecting. You just can’t please renters these days.

Corps Woods

Just a few days ago Brenda and I got a chance to visit and check the post-Ike status of Corps Woods.

It’s a small but favorite local East End birding site, off Ferry Road, across from the U.S. Corps of Engineers District headquarter offices, and along the outer-flank of the East End Flats levee. Its development was a direct result of the creation of the first Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, which was one of many that Ted Eubanks recommended and directed under contract with the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife at a time when its budget for such improvements was flush.

There is a narrow, normally quite fresh, waterway there, and the area is heavily wooded and with many bird-friendly fruiting trees. Cleared paths make it visitor friendly, but it is also fun to walk in the trees beyond where the paths end.

We were surprised and delighted to see that whatever offending debris accumulated there during Ike (and there must have been some) has all been cleared away.

While we were there, three young adults arrived by bike and explored the site. Aside from many yellow-rumped warblers (a.k.a. “butter butts”), some ruby-crowned kinglets, a cardinal, an immature moorhen and a swamp sparrow, the birding was quiet. Our only concern at Corps Woods was the heavy infestation by Brazilian pepper.

Sportsman’s Road

Sportsman’s Road runs parallel to the bay for about 1 mile, west off 8 Mile Road.

Some of the bayside homes are clustered into compounds, and many have wooden piers to get to deep bay water. These piers are favorite resting places for flocks of willets, oystercatchers, gulls and terns.

Along the entire south side of the road is a vast expanse of salt marsh and muddy tidal flats where great photos of herons, egrets, spoonbills — now in their breeding plumages — can be snapped year-round … and where flocks of sandpipers, yellow-legs, dowitchers and waterfowl are still to be seen voraciously feeding to fuel their flights to northern breeding grounds.

There still are pieces of Ike-strewn debris here and there and caught up in the fences, but its not enough to be offensive.

At the end of the road is a small turnaround and a great place to launch a kayak. Standing there, we were surprised to see a few oyster luggers busily working West Bay.

I don’t think I was even cognizant that West Bay supported commercial oystering. I asked Professor Sammy Ray about that and was told that Ike had badly hurt the oyster reefs and industry in East Bay and with the current low costs of diesel fuel, the remaining oystermen were willing to go wherever they could find oysters.

Lafitte’s Cove Nature Preserve

Last stop this trip was at the Lafitte’s Cove Society’s Main Nature Preserve in the neighborhood of the same name, and with its own parking on the east side of Eckert Drive about 100 yards beyond the cove’s neighborhood entrance.

This beautiful 32-acre area is owned by the city, open to the public but managed by the Lafitte’s Cove Nature Society.

The mott is a very important rest and refueling stop for migratory song birds and a remaining haven for many other locally native animals, including snakes.

Like all inland waters, the increase in salinity post-Ike has caused the demise of those preferring fresher waters and a “browning” of the aquatic vegetation. But the native brackish water wading birds such as the herons, egrets and spoonbills love it.

The Lafitte’s Cove Nature Society works to keep the preserve both natural but accessible. Fighting invasive species on land and in the ponds is a constant battle.

This is a sanctuary where plant and animal species that evolved only after Galveston became an island, might continue to flourish.

This is a place first for nature and second for people. Just standing under the large oaks is a humbling spiritual experience.

Mort Voller is immediate past president of the Galveston Island Nature Tourism Council.