Skip to main content

Skip the plastic, save a pelican.

Every spring, Houston Audubon and other conservation organizations along the Texas coast participate in the Texas Colonial Waterbird Surveys to help monitor population trends in our state’s seabirds and wading birds. Houston Audubon, Audubon Texas and several additional undivided interest owners co-own North Deer Island, the largest and most productive breeding colony in Galveston Bay.

During the 2020 survey of North Deer Island, Houston Audubon staff noticed a pelican chick with an unusual bulge in its gular pouch which, upon further inspection, staff realized was caused by a discarded plastic bottle. Thankfully, Audubon Texas Warden, Dennis Jones, was able to approach and remove the bottle from the lucky young Pelican’s pouch.

Though this story has a happy ending, many of our coastal birds don’t get as lucky. Single-use plastic poses a threat to wildlife and is particularly dangerous for seabirds and other marine animals. In fact, nearly every species of seabird has been documented ingesting plastic. In some cases, like with the North Deer Island pelican chick, large pieces of plastic will prevent the bird from being able to forage. Plastic of all shapes and sizes, though, can cause devastating damage to these birds, from causing internal damage upon ingestion to entangling foraging birds.

The solution isn’t easy. Kicking our single-use plastic habits at all levels is necessary to slow the flow of plastic into our waterways and oceans. Plastic Free July is an excellent opportunity to not only challenge yourself to limit the amount of single-use plastic you purchase and use at home, but to challenge local restaurants, stores, industries, and government to do the same.

Houston Audubon and partners will be participating in Plastic Free July for the second year and invite you to join us! Throughout the month of July, we will be challenging our staff and volunteers to limit their use of plastic and sharing tips and tricks for limiting your use of plastic at home!

By Anna Vallery, Conservation Specialist, Houston Audubon
---
Be the solution to plastic pollution. Sign up for the Plastic Free July Challenge

Click here to read more about Houston Audubon’s Plastic Pollution Prevention Initiative

Join the Plastic Free Houston Facebook group to connect with others and share resources and tips for reducing plastic use.
Plastic Free Houston
Private group · 28 members
Join Group
This group is a place for the people of the Houston-Galveston region to learn how to limit their use of single-use plastic and to share resources, tip...
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to DIY a Dripper for birds

Are you running out of home projects to keep busy during the quarantine? Here’s one my hubby made for me that you can try: a DYI Dripper. I’ve long wanted a bird dripper to complement my yard’s wildlife habitat, and with spring migrants on the way, I was keen to provide a drip that will attract new birds that don’t visit feeders. I had a problem though. There is no water line or power source near my feeders. The idea of stringing a hose or wire across the driveway just isn’t practical. Enter the engineer. My husband thought about the location and the limitations for a bit, and came up with the concept of sourcing water for a dripper off the sprinkler system. By using a toilet tank that fills every time the sprinklers run, water can be constantly available for the drip. I nixed the idea of a toilet tank sitting in my yard though, so he made some aesthetic modifications by installing a toilet tank float inside a 5 gallon bucket hidden inside a custom wooden box with a handsome copper p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Beak of the Week - Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron ( Nyctanassa violacea ) Family: Ardeidae Our Beak of the Week is the official Bird of Houston , the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron! This seemingly hunch-backed bird can be a difficult one to spot. Both species of North American night-herons, yellow-crowned and black-crowned, forage mainly at night and spend most of the day hidden among branches near a body of water. These two birds can be differentiated easily by their plumage on and around their head. The most obvious difference is stated in their names: Yellow-crowned Night-Herons have a yellow crown and Black-crowned Night-Herons have a black crown. But that’s not the only difference! Yellow-crowned Night-Herons have a black head and face with a distinct thick white cheek stripe, whereas Black-crowned Night-Herons have a black head with gray on their face that extends down the whole front of the body. Yellow-crowned Night Herons also have a gray front and neck, but it contrasts greatly with their facial patter...
Post a Comment
Read more

Beak of the Week - Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Ruby-throated Hummingbird ( Archilochus colubris ) Family: Trochilidae Did you know that Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are able to fly in all 6 directions with wing beats of 53 times per a second? Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are bright emerald or golden-green on the back and crown with gray-white underparts. Males have a brilliant iridescent red throat while females and immatures have fine, dark throat streaking. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds feed on the nectar of red or orange tubular flowers as well as at hummingbird feeders and sometimes tree sap. Hummingbirds also catch insects in midair or pull them out of spider webs. In preparation for their migration, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds double their weight from 3 grams to over 6 grams prior to departing. In the fall, millions of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds will pass through Texas on their migration to points south of the border with many crossing the Gulf of Mexico in a single flight. They arrive from breeding grounds as far away as Nova Scotia...
Post a Comment
Read more