Tuesday, October 16, 2001

Falcon flaunts splendor, good looks

As we pulled in to park beside the headquarters building at Matagorda Island State Park one recent morning, a falcon flashed in front of us, circling to perch on a tower over our heads.
   Dark gray blue above, its white breast contrasted with its black belly. Beneath a gray cap, pale eyebrows joined at the back of its head. Two fine black strokes marked its white face. It expanded its long tail. This was the hacked Aplomado falcon for which we had been searching.
   The driver, Dr. Wayne McAlister, seemed as surprised and pleased as the rest of us. He and his wife have lived on Matagorda Island for many years, learning everything about its history, inhabitants past and present, its flora and fauna. He is the perfect guide.
   Remote, romantic
   Matagorda now belongs to the Nature Conservancy. It is one of the five major barrier islands along the Texas Gulf coast, the only one completely separated from land.
   Fall is an especially good season for a field trip to the island. Flowers are starting to bloom. Bakris, false tobacco, was one of the first plants Dr. McAlister pointed out, showing us that the bushes with green tips were male, the others with white blooms female. Yellow flowers were everywhere and between them small, pale-blue coastal mistflower bloomed. Stands of silver leafed sunflower filled in all the spaces, and Dr. McAlister broke open a dried bloom to show why these are valuable food sources for many birds.
   Because water in the marsh was high, sending wading birds elsewhere, we went to the beach, down to Cedar Bayou, the water pass between Matagorda and St. Joseph Islands. A strange looking grebe at a shallow water hole came in for some intense study. It was plainly not the most expected pied-billed. Neither did it look like any other, too small for a western grebe, which is not on the Matagorda list anyway. We finally settled for an eared, but I put it down as a new type nicknamed "long-necked." It was a mystery bird.
   Mysterious bayoDr. McAlister made frequent stops to call our attention to something, sometimes a bird, others a plant, or a historically important spot.
   The beach was badly littered with refuse from boats, oilrigs, rivers, as are Padre and Mustang Island beaches. The birds were gathered in sociable little autumn clumps of many species, gulls, terns, peeps, willets, egrets, and finally a small group of red knots. Both white and brown pelicans were among them and were the first to get up as we approached.
   I was delighted to see Cedar Bayou. Fishermen who go there in boats have often told of seeing magnificent frigate birds perched on posts there. We looked through binoculars at birds loafing in the shallows by the channel. There were some blue-winged teal, black-bellied plover, many egrets, and roseate spoonbill. Some of our group walked a little farther and saw a magnificent frigate bird over head.
   We saw a northern harrier doing acrobatic flying with a smaller bird, and then a beautiful, show-off white tailed hawk, came from the horizon, circled and departed.
  
  

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

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