Photo of Sunset LakeSunset Lake lies between Corpus Chisti Bay and Nueces Bay just north of Corpus Christi. The lake is flanked to the east by a natural oyster reef, and to the west by Highway 181/35. The peripheral berms along the highway (~ 20 - 50 meters from the shoulder) support nesting by flat-nesting guild populations, including Least Terns, Snowy Plovers, Black-necked Stilts, and Killdeers. Occasionally, American Avocets and Black Skimmers have also nested at these and adjoining sites.
The nesting areas have historically been impacted by people pulling off of the highway and driving through the nesting area. To prevent such impacts, Tammy White, a graduate student at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, adopted Sunset Lake and helped me set up a protective border of signs and fencing around the southern nesting area (the northern nesting area is usually not impacted by people). Materials for the border were donated by the Texas Department of Transportation. Tammy is monitoring this site on a weekly basis. She is conducting waterbird censuses, mapping nests, collecting habitat data at the nest site, and monitoring nest success. Together, we will be advising the Texas Department of Transportation about how to manage this area for waterbird productivity in the future.
June 1998 Update:
We've had mixed results at this site. Our efforts to prevent vehicular impacts have paid off. Visitors to the site have respected our fencing and signs, and remained outside of the nesting site. Early in the season, several Snowy Plovers produced nests that hatched. In June, however, a skunk found the nesting colony and within just a few days had depredated at least a dozen Least Tern and Snowy Plover nests. Nests located on the south end of the site, where more gravel is present, and where nests are better camouflaged, were not impacted by the skunk, but every nest in the northern half of the site was destroyed.
Photo of skunk tracks and egg shell pieces at Sunset Lake
Six Least Terns established nests west of the highway (along the berm of the southbound lanes of HWY 181/35). All of the nests failed, however. Four nests were depredated by a canid predator (presumably a feral dog), and the remaining 2 nests were crushed by vehicles.
Back to the Waterbird Watch Homepage
PageSpinner.
Website provided by:
