Category Archive

By Rebecca Bracken Weather has not been our friend this year!  I hope you’re reading this blog post while inside and dry, watching the rain through your window.  We’ve continued to battle heavy windows almost weekly at one of our sites, and sadly had another minor boat issue.  But we’ve still had a lot of fun out and about when … Read More

By Rebecca Bracken Whew, it’s been quite a month!  You may be wondering why you haven’t seen more diary entries…well, we’ve had an interesting season battling storms, wind, low tides, and a hole in our boat!  But rest assured, we’ve been going out when we could and not much is getting by us.  Rebecca, Sue, Alan Wilde, volunteers Amanda Hackney … Read More

By Rebecca Bracken Welcome back to the Oystercatcher Diaries!  The past two weeks have been a busy time for us, so Sue stepped in to help out again.  Those oystercatchers just can’t get rid of her! In East Matagorda Bay, LF and M4 nest still hasn’t hatched.  I bet it hatched right after we left!  Both were on their island … Read More

By Rebecca Bracken Welcome back to the Oystercatcher Diaries!  This is the first entry for the 2024 season, and boy, it has been a busy one already.  Over the past month the research crew and volunteers have been out to West Galveston and East Matagorda Bays to find all our banded birds, and we’ve found quiet a few changes!  Read … Read More

By Rebecca Bracken The day has finally come – this is the last Oystercatcher Diaries of the season!  Sue and I are both really sad it’s all coming to an end (temporarily of course!) but we’re both happy to have fewer days outside in this brutal heat! We switched things up a bit this week and went out to West … Read More

By Rebecca Bracken It was a busy week!  We had two oystercatcher chicks and a bunch of skimmer chicks to band, and needed to check on several chicks to check to see if they had fledged yet. On Tuesday, Sue, Taylor, Ben, Elena, and I (whew, full boat!) went out to East Matagorda Bay to band 25’s two chicks as … Read More

By Rebecca Bracken On Wednesday, Sue, Elena Duran, and I went out to East Matagorda Bay to band skimmer chicks and check on 25’s chicks.  I was initially concerned because we didn’t see 25 or his mate when we approached the island, but thankfully they both popped up as we circled around the backside of the island.  We ended up … Read More

By Rebecca Bracken On Wednesday, Sue, Ashley Van Wieren (our new education intern!) and I went out to East Matagorda Bay to count skimmers and check on 25’s chicks.  It was a bit choppy out there, but thankfully we didn’t have to go too far.  The skimmers are doing great – many chicks of varying ages scattered between the three … Read More

By Rebecca Bracken Happy belated 4th of July to everyone! With the holiday falling on Tuesday, Sue and I waited until Wednesday to get back out to East Matagorda Bay to check on the skimmers and 25’s chicks.  The water was definitely a bit choppy, but we had babies to check on!  We headed straight to 25 and unbanded’s island … Read More

By Rebecca Bracken This week, I got a chance to fledge, so to speak – time to check on the oystercatchers without Sue as she enjoys Mexico!  Time to sink or swim, fly the coop, spread my wings, be free as a bird…how many more bird or boat puns can I work in? On Tuesday, Taylor Bennett, our coastal biologist, … Read More

By Susan Heath On Wednesday, Rebecca and I headed out to East Matagorda Bay with GCBO’s research intern Ben Torres and David Newstead from CBBEP. David came up to set up some game cameras on the skimmer colony at Old Gulf Cut. It’s a short run out there and David got the cameras set up pretty quickly. So quickly I … Read More

By Susan Heath On Tuesday, Rebecca and I headed out to East Matagorda Bay with David Newstead (CBBEP), Diego Newstead (David’s son) and Trey Barron (TPWD) to put transmitters on the skimmers at the colony at Old Gulf Cut. While we were there, we checked on the only oystercatcher nest left in that bay, 25 & unbanded. They still had … Read More