A Windy Day at Suter
I spent the morning out at Suter Wildlife Refuge, and the first thing that was obvious was the wind—steady out of the east-southeast. Along the straightaway—the boardwalk that runs beside the channel—there really wasn’t much bird activity at all. A few American Coots were swimming around, and I picked up a couple of Neotropic Cormorants, but noticeably absent were the usual Night-Herons I’d expect to see along that stretch.
My guess is if any were there, they were tucked in tight with their backs to the wind, staying out of it.
I posted up at the second rest stop for a bit and tried working on some bird-in-flight photography. I got a few usable frames, but it wasn’t nearly as productive as I’d hoped. The angle just wasn’t right for the birds’ flight path, so I wasn’t really in the best position to capitalize on the movement.
Down at the end of the boardwalk, the tide was still fairly low, leaving a lot of exposed mudflat. There was a decent group of Laughing Gulls hanging out, along with a large concentration of Black-necked Stilts. Off in the distance, near the island between Suter and Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, there was a massive cluster of birds—what looked like a couple hundred Redheads, maybe fifty to a hundred American White Pelicans, and a mix of other species spread throughout.
After that, I walked back up and headed along Ennis Joslin Road toward the bridge over the creek. I picked up a single Anhinga there—it took off, circled back, then took off again—and that was about it.
Overall, it was a pretty quiet morning for Suter. The wind definitely seemed to be a factor, pushing birds away from the exposed end of the boardwalk and into more sheltered water along the island. One of those days where conditions shape everything you see—or don’t.
| Species | Count |
|---|---|
| Blue-winged Teal | 21 |
| Northern Shoveler | 79 |
| Gadwall | 17 |
| American Wigeon | 16 |
| Northern Pintail | 63 |
| Green-winged Teal | 9 |
| Redhead | 339 |
| Greater Scaup | 2 |
| Lesser Scaup | 73 |
| Greater/Lesser Scaup | 25 |
| American Coot | 10 |
| Black-necked Stilt | 55 |
| Black-bellied Plover | 12 |
| Long-billed Curlew | 1 |
| Short-billed/Long-billed Dowitcher | 196 |
| Laughing Gull | 210 |
| Forster's Tern | 4 |
| Neotropic Cormorant | 3 |
| Anhinga | 1 |
| Yellow-crowned Night Heron | 1 |
| Little Blue Heron | 1 |
| Tricolored Heron | 2 |
| Snowy Egret | 2 |
| Great Egret | 12 |
| Great Blue Heron | 18 |
| American White Pelican | 139 |
| Brown Pelican | 6 |
| Turkey Vulture | 1 |
| Osprey | 2 |
| Belted Kingfisher | 1 |
| Great Kiskadee | 1 |
| Northern Mockingbird | 4 |
| Swamp Sparrow | 1 |
| Red-winged Blackbird | 13 |
| Northern Cardinal | 2 |