Tuesday, November 6, 2001

Wetlands are worth ducking out for

What: Meeting of the Coastal Bend Audubon Society When: 7 p.m. today Where: Corpus Christi Museum of Science & History, 1900 N. Chaparral St. Information: 852-6418

Birding field trips are the way to go. If you bird with a group, you see more birds and new places, and no one doubts the validity of what you saw.
   There was once an excellent birder, who retired in Rockport. Local birders invited him to go out with them and he always replied, "Thanks, but I prefer to bird alone." The phrase became an inside local joke. When someone found a rare bird, the Rockport man, for whom it would have been a life bird, got his come-up-ances. Local birders teased him by not telling him the location of the bird.
   Recently Jo Creglow, field trip chairman of the Audubon Outdoor Club, had scheduled a trip to the DuPont Wetlands, near Victoria, about 80 miles north of here. Audrey Humphries, with whom I started my birding career, called about a different matter. I said, "Are you going Saturday?" "Yes," she replied, "Jean Abney and I are going, want to go with us?" I had already planned to take Kathy Griffith so I said, "You haven't gone with me in a long time. Why don't you come and ride with us?"
   "Fine," she said. Then we arranged for them to come to my house at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday. They were there on time and we loaded up and took off. When we got to the other side of Portland, Jean Abney called in alarm from the back seat, "Oh, you missed your turn for Welder." "No," I said in a carefree way, "I am going by Bayside to Refugio."
   Refreshing unfamiliarity
   It turned out Jean and Audrey had been planning to attend a Main Group of Sinton bird trip to Welder Wildlife Refuge. Oops.
   But they were good sports and went on the 80-mile trip without a whimper. We all enjoyed the lovely day.
   Birding is between seasons here, so seeing an unfamiliar wetlands was a treat. This beautiful, environment-enriching area is a by-product of DuPont's large manufacturing complex and turns the water it uses from the Guadalupe River back into productive, pure water.
   Wetland educational educator John A. Snyder proudly showed us around the pleasant paths and boardwalk overlooks of the large area. While his time is spent entirely at the wetland, he told us he is employed by the school system of the nearby city of Victoria. As is any healthy wetland, this one is filled with the sounds of birds.
   A magical detour
   We first heard and eventually saw coots, as well as black duck-like birds sometimes called mud hens, red-winged blackbirds, egrets of all species and pied-billed grebes. Some ducks had already arrived to spend the winter. There were mottled ducks, ruddy ducks, blue-winged teal, northern shovelers and a few pintails.
   We had brought a picnic lunch and Snyder took us to the country club where tables were placed outside under the trees. There we could do two of our favorite things together: watch birds and eat.
   On the way home we strayed to visit Magic Ridge, a bird sanctuary recently acquired by the Texas Ornithological Society. Located on Zimmerman Road, a block back from the beach at the end of State Highway 316, the aptly named area is an oyster shell bar behind a shallow pond.
   Foliage there is dense and stickery. Wild flowers bloom in all seasons. Mesquite trees have thrust up through the ebony forest. An old cemetery provides an open space where birds feed.
   Magic Ridge, though hard to find, was well worth the extra miles.
   A flock of black-crowned night herons roosted across the pond as they used to do near Goose Island State Park before their trees were removed. Among them was a prize bird, a seldom-sighted yellow-crowned night heron.
  
  

---

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

| Discuss about birdwatching | | Home |

---

---

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND

---

2000 Caller-Times Publishing Company, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.