Monday, November 24th, I participated for Houston Audubon in the 3rd year of an ongoing grassland bird banding project at the Hall's Bayou Unit of SBNWR. The project location alternates every other year with the Buffalo Creek Unit of SBNWR. This first banding day for overwintering birds was late in the season due to rain earlier in November.

The sparrows and wrens were abundant. We banded over 30 Savannahs, 2 LeConte's, and 2 Grasshopper Sparrows. We only completed one net run. A graduate student (Chris) from SFA was processing the birds slower than our normal pace in order to acquire additional information (isotope data from blood and primary feather samples) to help determine what latitude the birds migrated from. This is potentially valuable habitat information about our overwintering grassland birds that are in such steep population declines, primarily due to habitat loss.

On a cool partly clear Saturday morning, volunteers started pouring into the little 7-acre sanctuary on Galveston Island's west end. Dos Vacas suffered from piled up debris and vegetation loss from salt water during Hurricane Ike. Cleaning it proved to be quite a chore.

We met at 9am and hit the ground running. Volunteers started first on the trails and oak grove by removing the storm debris and piling it at the main gate. We then loaded up a trailer and pickup as full as we could and repeatedly took loads to HWY 3005. David Burkett operated the trailer/truck combo with ease and grace and made the removal process flow smoothly. Volunteers were so efficient at hauling from the inner sanctuary to the gate; we soon had to add another pickup into the equation to expedite the hauling. Thanks to Phyliss Frank and her trusty Toyota Tacoma!

By lunch time, we had successfully completed 12 loads of debris to the highway. After lunch, some volunteers headed home and others stayed for a few more loads. I left Dos Vacas at 3 PM and was very impressed at the cleanliness of the trails and the large pile of debris on the highway.

Photos of Bolivar Flats Post-Ike

As we have wandered around the sanctuary we are getting a better idea of the changes brought by Ike.

The most obvious change is that the vegetation line on the beach has moved back and there is less beach. It appears that much of the beach sand was deposited inland. Some of the sand is in the vegetation, some in the marsh, and some of it is out on the mud flats. There is now a sand ridge in the marsh that should be good nesting habitat for Least Terns and small plovers. There is also a new sand bar out on the mud flats that is regularly used as a roosting spot by many birds. The rearrangement of the mud flats is going to make birding more challenging for a while, but I anticipate that the beach will get a more "normal" contour in a couple of months.

An interesting line of holes formed in the vegetated area. Holes are 3-5 feet deep and 10-50 feet across. It appears that the holes were formed by water action on the old dune line. Aerial photos of the sanctuary show other lines of holes inland most likely from other hurricanes. Some of the holes have fish and all have healthy colonies of fiddler crabs.

They were brave souls the volunteers who showed up for the Horseshoe Marsh Work Day Nov 8. They had no idea what there were getting into. Actually Andrew and I didn't have any idea of how to cleanup such a big mess until the day before.

Ike's storm surge pushed Garza's store and the home upstairs across Hwy 87 and into the sanctuary. There was stuff everywhere, roof, walls, clothes, videos screens. We knew we would need help with the big stuff so we had hired a bobcat and operator for a day to see how it would work. Julia Garrett, Andrew and I met Robert and his Bobcat on Hwy 87 mid morning and talked about strategies. Our goal was to get as much debris to the highway right of way as possible as it will be picked up there.

First Robert went after the roof pieces while we started picking up clothes and plastic filling up bags and taking them to the right of way. The ground appears to still be saturated from the storm, and everything is covered by a 1" layer of mud, maybe from Bolivar Flats, so everything is dirty. The bobcat made it even muddier but was an effective way to get debris to the highway. Robert suggested we pile up boards and other heavy debris and he would carry the piles to the street this worked very well. So we spent most of the rest of the day pulling and piling. Andrew and I also walked up and down the edge of the sanctuary evaluating what else needs to be cleaned up.

Julia Garrett and I went to the Bolivar Peninsula to figure out how to remove debris from Horseshoe Marsh and to look at how sand was moved around at Bolivar Flats.

Clean-up on the peninsula finally started 10/31. Piles of debris are being picked up and taken to a central staging area where it is "sorted" and put in larger trucks to be taken to a landfill somewhere. Once again not many land birds or any wildlife was seen on the peninsula. There were fewer Mockingbirds then the last couple of times we have looked. We did hear one in Port Bolivar; we also saw a Loggerhead Shrike. There are still several hundred Starlings on the peninsula - the number of yaupon berries is diminishing. There seem to be a few more insects around, mostly things like dragonflies, butterflies and flies. I still have found no fire ants on the peninsula, but they are still on High Island. We saw one grasshopper in 3 hours of walking but most of the area we walked was in Bolivar Flats.

10/26 Notes:

I went down the peninsula to look at everything and try to figure out what happened to wildlife.

I tried to count all birds just to see what is around. Brown Pelicans, gulls and terns are obvious as they sit on the beach along 87. There is more flagging on the Cade Ranch. It is hard to imagine that it is still there from before the storm. None of the pump jacks are working in the oilfields - storage tanks are still on their sides.

Monarch butterflies are moving - 9 were seen.

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. Just note that wooden boxes and houses should be made from pressure treated material. 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