Saturday, February 20, 2010
On the Oyster shells
Your looking at a scene that will soon be history in Port O'Connor as the rich take over all the water front property and the poor man can not make a dime at real work.Here is a pile of oystershell outside of Clark's Seafood packing house. Not active today, but when it is, there are birds all over it. Oystering has been slow going this year and gets slower by the year with all the imports, fuel, labor costs etc. Especially bad this year due to the influx of fresh (unclean/silty) water into the baysafter the drought. And most oysters that are being dredged are from San Antonio Bay instead of Matagorda!
Were the guys shucking today, the shell would be rolling off the conveyor steadily and the grackles, gulls, willets and turnstones, especially the turnstones would be all over this pile seeking nuggets of oyster flesh. One day I stopped here and counted no fewer than 61 Ruddy Turnstones working the pile! And for the very briefest of moments once I thought I had a Black Turnstone pop up and over the top of the pile still in its darker winter plumage that was a bit darker than normal. Oh man! Would a Black Turnstone have made Texas birding history or what!. Yep, these are the places I bird. Not the fancy pants birding parks like Bentsen or Smith Woods. Just the old stinky fish docks and muck holes. Something will show up someday. Heck a lot of times this is where I find California Gulls.
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