Tuesday, May 1, 2001

Purple gallinules drop in to rest a spell

Exotic, tropical marsh bird flaunts many colors and builds decoy nests

Beautiful visitors are dropping in this month, birds on their way north to nest. Howard and Darlene Rash have had a purple gallinule in and about the canal side of their Flour Bluff yard for several days. This marsh bird is an exotic, tropical type. Its plumage is many-colored, from the greenish bronze body to the shimmering, iridescent purple of its head, to the red on its upper bill, surrounded by an ethereal blue frontal shield.
   On delicate, long-toed, yellow feet it walks about on the fresh water marshes along the Gulf coast and up the East Coast.
   Gallinules manage to migrate great distances in spite of a feeble-appearing flight. During migration they often crash in an urban backyard with a lily pond where they rest among the foliage until ready to continue their journey. Sometimes they blunder into an open garage and then attract much attention when the owner, trying to help them escape, sees their fine coloring.
   Decoy nests
   Gallinule nests are 8- to 10-inch baskets, woven of and suspended from reeds. Several decoy nests may be built nearby. In wet years gallinules nest locally. One year a community of nesting purple gallinules was found in a marsh on the outskirts of Riviera, south of Kingsville.
   The gallinule has made himself at home at the Rashes, wandering freely from yard to boat to neighbor's yard. Howard fed him shrimp, which he ate with gusto. Then chicken, also well-received. The bird helped himself to side orders of birdseed, put out for the mourning and Inca doves, and of course house sparrows. On their own, gallinules eat seeds of aquatic plants, frogs, beetles, and aquatic bugs.
   The Rashes lived in San Antonio where he was an insurance adjuster before his retirement. Several years ago they moved here to be near children and grandchildren.
   They are birders on their own, and had identified the gallinule. They told of other birds seen that morning in their yard, including Baltimore orioles and a common yellowthroat. Many flowering plants furnish their backyard to the edge of the canal where their boat is docked.
   Howard likes to fish, and both of them enjoy gardening. They have a pet pigeon, which attached itself to them in San Antonio.
  

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

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