[texbirds] Re: Rockport Black Skimmers - egg and hatchery farm for gulls

  • From: Brush Freeman <brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: MBB22222@xxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2012 23:07:53 -0500

I agree with Mark....I have seen this species drop in numbers so quickly it
is shocking in my birding years.....If we don't  protect the few breeding
places left carefully, I can easily see our Texas Skimmers going extinct
not to far in the future...They are just not producing enough young to
maintain the population anymore due to compromised breeding habitat...A
single hurricane or TS can wipe out a year's nesting effort...Humans with
off road traffic, dogs, predators including Laughing Gulls that take
advantage of human disturbance that forces adult skimmers to leave the nest
just for a few moments so LAGUs can rob nests are likely to doom this
species....I don't just considered the species threatened, I consider them
endangered, very endangered as the human population continues to swell
unabated and people demand the same beaches these birds need to
breed..........Next in line...Least Tern inland or otherwise....Just my
bent nickel.

We just did 60 miles of Padre Is. shoreline one way to the Mansfield
cut...In that entire route I counted only 13...All adults...no hatch year
vbrds at all.......
Brush Freeman

Other related posts: