Tuesday, August 21, 2001

Wacky weather brings frigate birds

Birding in South Texas in August is always hot, and we always look for magnificent frigate birds. If there is an area of disturbed weather in the Gulf of Mexico, it can give the frigate birds a current to ride.
   The physical thrill of looking off in the distance and catching sight of a great slender plane of a bird, black wings set, tail out straight, head set in line, coasting, is one of the best moments in birding.
   The other day, we left home about 6 p.m., trying to will the sun to go down early. At this time of year it eternally shines in someone's eyes or on their shoulders, the heat of its light like a hot hand.
   We traveled north on Ocean Drive, over the Harbor Bridge, looking at the shallow marsh on the north end of Corpus Christi Beach. There, a single great egret, white feathers, yellow bill, black legs, waded in one of the many shallow pools. Where does the water come from in this marsh? Is it tidal, or rain?
   Sunset Lake findings
   I held the steering wheel, didn't let us get off Nueces Bay Causeway at Indian Point, continued to the next exit, up the hill, then right, toward Sunset Lake. Once I saw a yellow-billed cuckoo in the thick woodlot on the right, so I always look in there for a sneaky back.
   Then down the slope on the road that used to be the road to Corpus Christi, but now dead ends in the park.
   Sun was still scalding our eyes from the west. We parked in the third space on the Corpus Christi Bay side.
   A resplendent reddish egret stood in the shallow water at about the second wave.
   Just like Popeye
   He stayed so still I was not proved by typical clown compulsive movements that, just like Popeye, he was what he was.
   The surprise was in front of him, closer to the shore, and there were two of them, American oystercatchers.
   We watched them with the binoculars as they fed and moved south in the water. Their feet were no longer bright orange, but a pale, civilized pink, their bills, however, were still gaudy.
   Beside them appeared a tiny peep which I thought at first was a snowy plover. On closer examination it proved to be a Wilson's plover, probably young.
   Varied species
   On the bar, out in the marsh on the sunny side, we could, by now, make out many young laughing gulls, dressed in soft brownish gray.
   With them were a pair of Caspian terns, a number of royal terns, and many adult and young least terns.
   Willets were also roaming around.
   A black bird darting overhead proved to be a black tern, still in beautiful breeding plumage.
   They will be gathering to migrate soon, in fading plumage, at Little Shell Beach on Padre Island. Two brown pelicans came to dive in the surf offshore. A black-bellied plover strolled into view.
   Sharing the beach
   A five-member group of a different kind of creatures then took over the beach.
   They were a father with shoes on, a mother with a bright scarf on her hair, two young teen-aged, barefoot daughters in bathing suits and a small boy, also barefooted. The birds seemed to accept them, moving over to give them room to play.
  
  

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

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