Tuesday, June 5, 2001

Time to migrate to native species

Photo courtesy of Beth Hoekje

A colony of nesting black skimmers make their home at Sunset Lake in Portland.

Beth Hoekje, teacher, musician, artist, photographer, lives in Portland and enjoys Sunset Lake Park. She has taken many good bird pictures on her frequent visits there. The day before Memorial Day weekend, she called to tell me that, early that morning, she had seen a baby snowy plover with its parents beside Sunset Lake.
   Endangered snowy plovers are scarce and hard to find. We still have some, but with babies they are an exciting sighting. I could not get there until the next afternoon when the wind was up. What's new? But the lovely day was fine.
   Reclining skimmers
   As I turned off the Moore Avenue exit at Portland, close to the road was the colony of nesting black skimmers which Hoekje had also described. The only way to look at them is perilous, by parking in the right lane. They seem to be reclining, stretched at length above their eggs. Since skimmers are apparently not attempting to nest on the Kennedy Causeway this year, it is good that these seem to be making it.
   Among the skimmers are nests of least terns. The term 'nests' is used loosely here. They are mere egg-holding scrapes in the sand, but are obviously dear to their makers who attack any bird that looks their way.
   At the top of the hill, we turned right on the first street. For unknown reasons, a group of laughing gulls has chosen the middle of this road for their hang-out. They flew up to let us pass, but in my rear-view mirror I could see them settling back.
   This road, cutting through a hill and continuing down into the park, always stirs memories of old Corpus Christi when I was a child. It was then the main road in. As we drove through the pass, we watched for the first magical sight of the lights of the city. Now it is once again grandly paved, but goes nowhere except to the park.
   We studied the sand flats to the right where late afternoon sun reduced all bird shapes to silhouettes. At the next opening, we studied the edges as we traveled very slowly, birder style.
   Watch the parents
   We found several family groups. Anyone who loves baby animals is sure to be smitten by the sight of tiny balls of feathers, running on wispy, long, stick legs, wherever mama or papa says. Shore birds are all precocial, a term meaning that a chick is born covered with down, active and able to leave the nest soon after hatching if necessary.
   The babies we saw were black-necked stilts, and willets. All were barely visible, peeking out of vegetation. The secret of finding them is watching the parents. We did not find the baby snowy plover that day, but finally found an adult pair, feeding in the edge of the road. A Wilson's plover, also seen, probably was protecting a baby.
   Phyllis Yochem, a resident of Corpus Christi, has birded here since 1960.
  
  

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Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds in Texas since 1960.

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