Yesterday I visited Dos Vacas Muertas Bird Sanctuary on Galveston Island's west end. Dos Vacas Muertas is Spanish for "Two Dead Cows," and was given this name after Hurricane Alicia when two cows were found dead in the sanctuary. As I walked the property yesterday with caretakers Boogie & Lynn O'Conner, we found cow tracks and hoped that we wouldn't have to re-name the sanctuary to Tres Vacas.

There have been a number of birds visiting the sanctuary since Ike has passed. The O'Conners have reported buntings, warblers, and kinglets. Yesterday there were up to 20 night herons roosting in the salt cedars and White Ibis were feeding in the marsh.

The sanctuary experienced high water up to about 8 or 9 feet and therefore there is a significant amount of debris laying about. It poses a danger for visitors so please be advised that Dos Vacas is closed until further notice.

There is significant amount of vegetation loss to the sanctuary due to the surge of salt water. Many oaks and mulberries were affected by the salt but will hopefully make a recovery as more rain falls and salt leaches out of the soil.

Soon we will be asking for volunteers to sign up for a cleanup day at Dos Vacas. Contact me for more information and happy birding.

By the way, we won't have to re-name the sanctuary to Tres Vacas.

Saturday proved to be a very successful day of work at Boy Scout Woods. We had close to thirty volunteers come from all over Houston and even as far away as Magnolia! Our goal was to clear all of the brush, limbs, and debris from the trails and boardwalks. By the time we broke for lunch at noon, 80% of the trails were clear and walkable.

There were quite a few sightings of migrants around the sanctuary including a number of redstarts and warblers. Food for birds was diminished after the storm, but many trees such as oaks and mulberries are making a strong comeback.

Thanks to all of the volunteers who came down to work. Everyone pitched in and worked hard up until 2:00 when we packed up and headed home.

Our next work day in High Island is on October 25th. Please contact me if you would like to join the EMail list for our future coastal work days.

Finally, 28 days after Hurricane Ike, Edith L. Moore Nature Sanctuary has re-opened. The final push to open the gates to the public came on Wednesday of this week when Trees Unlimited climbed to the canopies of some very tall oaks and removed dangerous limbs dangling 75-100' feet above our trails.

Thanks to all of the wonderful volunteers, board members, BP, scouts and staff that made the clean-up so quick and successful. We couldn't have done it without you.

Please come by soon and see the great improvements, hurricane scars (if you can find them) and fall migrants!

Hurricane Ike decimated many Purple Martin houses and old buildings where Barn Owls nest. Houston Audubon is stepping up with an important recovery effort for these species on the Bolivar Peninsula. We are looking for donations of martin houses as well as owl boxes that will be set up throughout the peninsula in the upcoming months. There are many great resources on the internet for both buying and constructing your own houses. If you would like to make a donation to help purchase nest boxes and martin houses, please use this secure form. Contact Sanctuary Steward Andrew Beck for more information about the program.

Resources

• Barn Owl Box Plans: on the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society website
• Barn Owl Box Plans: on the Barn Owl Trust website
• Purple Martin House Plans: on the 50Birds website
• Purple Martin House Plans: on the Purple Martin Conservation Association website

Houston Audubon sanctuary steward Andrew Beck and I visited the Bolivar Peninsula today accompanied by a TPWD warden. We went to assess the condition of the Houston Audubon sanctuaries but looked at much more. It is truly a horrific scene.

Leaving High Island we first stopped by Mundy Marsh our 358-acre sanctuary that is behind the Audubon Village Development (no connection to us). This sanctuary appeared to be in good shape except that the sign and fences were down. From our vantage point we did not see a lot of house debris in the marsh.

Next we went to Bolivar Flats the roadside and marsh are in good shape there are a lot of plastic bags on the fences. The beach looks very different. When you get to the end of Rettilon Rd there is a large hole caused by water running out of the marsh. The beach has been moved back to the vehicular barrier that was parallel to the beach, and this barrier is pretty well destroyed. Much of the sand from the beach was pushed inland along with some debris, really not much compared to what is everywhere else. The vehicular barrier where everyone parks is still there but will need some work. The observation tower is gone but we may have found it in Horseshoe Marsh. I don't think we can get it back to Bolivar Flats. There is a large empty Del Monte shipping container in the grass and there appears to be another shipping container back in the marsh. We saw shorebirds, pelicans gulls and terns on the beach but not large numbers. We only walked ¾ of the way to the vehicular barrier.

Next we visited Horseshoe Marsh. The part of the sanctuary closest to the ferry landing is a mess, debris from the houses in Port Bolivar washed into the sanctuary and it will be a big job to clean it up. Fortunately most of the fences are still up. We drove around Port Bolivar and I think most of the trees in town are dead, but I hope I am wrong. The bridge on the 108 loop that goes over Horseshoe Lagoon has been damaged.

I have been asked about the Johnson Place where many of us bird. The house didn't appear to have sustained much damage but several of the big oaks are down and all are brown.

Considering that it is late September the prime time for migration we saw few birds today. There were some herons and egrets plus the birds we saw along the shore. No Mockingbirds or shrikes the only raptors we saw were Merlins at High Island. There was one Collared Dove in Port Bolivar and a flock of starlings. I saw one swallow on the peninsula. The Bolivar Peninsula is a very special place, a place that is usually teeming with life.  It was sad to see it so damaged.

For photos of this trip, see link at top of the page.

Yesterday I met Winnie Burkett at HWY 146 and I-10 in Baytown. We rode out to the town of Winnie and then down to High Island to asses the damage caused by Hurricane Ike. At Farm Road 1985, state troopers were checking for proof of property ownership, Winnie has a house in High Island, so we proceeded. The damage on HWY 124 was substantial, there were very few power lines and poles still standing. There was debris caught up in the tops of the poles 25-30' in the air from the high water. All of the spartina, and other marsh grasses were dead due to the saturation by salt water, for miles and miles north of the inter-coastal had been submerged under the surge of water. We saw dead cows, bloated like I have never seen, they were un-recognizable. The air smelled like plant decay, petroleum, and dead fish.

Closer to High Island, we passed by the oil fields where all of the wells were shut down, and petroleum odor filled the air. The vast amount of water still in the marsh and ditches was inundated with oil and gas. The oil fields are leaching petroleum and it will seep into all channels of the area's hydrology and biology. Because High Island is 40' above sea level, the highest points were not flooded, but the area did experience heavy wind damage. We went by Boy Scout woods and walked the boardwalk trails. As soon as we got in the sanctuary, a bull a cow and a calf walked down 5th street. Later we found that folks were corralling them in the high school football field. There were more trees and limbs down, and leaf litter everywhere. It was as if Ike took care of some of the trees that Humberto and Rita missed. The water had risen around the ponds at Boy Scout Woods and lifted sections of the boardwalk, stacking them like pancakes. We birded as we assessed the damage. We saw many migrants including Canada Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, Redstarts, and Gnatcatchers.

We rode by The Texas Ornithological Society's Hook Woods. There was bad tree damage there as well. There were houses broken apart like matchsticks in the sanctuary that must have been pushed by the rising water and then ended up in Hook Woods. We stopped by Houston Sliger's house. Normally from their front yard, you can stand in the lawn and look south overlooking the Gulf. During the storm, the water rose to about 200 feet from their front door. Imagine looking outside and seeing the ocean coming at you slowly, but not that slowly, and all you can do is hope that it stops soon. We then headed to Smith Oaks and the Old Mexico neighborhood.

Although Smith Oaks didn't experience high water, the neighborhood did. More trees fell at the picnic area of Smith Oaks, and the island at the Rookery was covered with broken trees and limbs. Many trees were down on the levee trail, and Yellow Warblers were everywhere. I found a large turtle on the first platform that I put on the trail. It hurried down the bank and into the water like it had been looking for the pond for days. Gators were everywhere, but except for the occasional noisy call of the Moorhen, there were few rookery birds. The woods of Smith Oaks were littered with branches and leaves, but not too many trees were down. The salt water from the bay, inter-coastal, and the gulf threaten the plant biology and therefore the food web of the coastal areas. The badly beaten oil fields will forever threaten the fragileness of the ecosystem as well. Thousands of homes were destroyed, virtually wiped clean and displaced piece-by-piece all around the Gulf of Mexico. Hummingbirds are having a hard time finding flowers because they were all stripped clean. Even the trees lost their leaves. The closer to the heavy hit parts of the storm, the more and more it looks like wintertime. Just about every tree looked dead or dormant. But as Winnie and I found, the migrants are still using High Island for rest and fuel before their migration across the Gulf, it is as important as ever to make sure they have a healthy habitat for there journey.

A link to the pictures can be found at the top of the page.

Andrew Beck and I went to high Island on September 19 to check on the condition of the Houston Audubon Sanctuaries there. Click here to view photos. I know the pictures look bad but Ike did not do as much damage to sanctuary woods as Humberto. We were able to go because I am a homeowner. There are road blocks and you have to show proof of home ownership. We saw warblers, orioles, gnatcatchers, hummingbirds and flycatchers. We will all need lots of help with cleanup but it will most likely be a while before we can have work days as there are no services there. This means no water for flushing toilets.

Donations to Houston Audubon to help cleanup efforts would be very much appreciated. If you wish, you may designate your donation to the sanctuaries.