• Mike Forman •
• Originally published January 17, 2009 at 12:25 a.m., updated January 17, 2009 at 12:25 a.m.

INDIANOLA – Waterfowl are lacking many freshwater hangouts along the coast this year because of the long drought, but one refuge offers a small oasis.

Slowly creeping through the Myrtle Foester-Whitmire Unit between Powderhorn and Foester lakes in Calhoun County, one biologist keeps a watchful eye on how different species of waterfowl use the 750 acres of created wetlands.

Two sandhill cranes loaf in the foot-deep water. Twenty red-winged blackbirds sit together above cattails. Thousands of pintail ducks and white geese rest in the cool water.

“There are no birds anywhere except for locations that have manipulated the water,” said Chad Stinson, wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Aerial bird surveys haven’t had much to count between those spots, he added.

The installment of an improved 2.65-mile-long freshwater canal in October has helped the staff at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge better manage the refuge’s Whitmire Unit. But some waterfowl hunters think more can be done to attract birds.

Biologists counted 16,000 birds on 1,500 acres of the Whitmire Unit during one day in December, Stinson said. A midday tour on Wednesday showed about 6,000 birds in just a couple of the bodies of water.

Stinson and others at the refuge hope to expand the wetlands by four more impoundments, or bodies of water, by late 2010 if funding comes through. They will work with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority and Guadalupe-Blanco River Trust on the expansion.

Refuge staff had always flooded the Whitmire Unit they bought in 1993 with water from an old 1950s canal, where it would take three weeks to fill the 12 impoundments of wetlands. Now, that process takes four to five days.

“We’re much more efficient at it,” Stinson said.

Staff can quickly adjust the habitat for birds that come during different times in the fall and winter. For instance, quicker flooding for the arrival of blue-winged teal in August would keep from wasting water that would evaporate.

But three waterfowl hunters who often visit the land next to the refuge say the Whitmire Unit isn’t managed properly.

Bill Stransky, who leads a conservation group in Wharton County, had helped construct some of the impoundments on the refuge. He often comes down on weekends to hunt geese next door.

Counting 16,000 birds is a far cry from the numbers he used to see fly off the land, going back 15 years, he said. He remembers counts reaching at least five times that number. But those counts would be for all of the unit’s 2,800 acres.

“This place just ought to boil, just absolutely boil, with birds,” Stransky, 49, said. “We’re fighting tsunamis of habitat loss. We really need these refuges at 100 percent quality all the time.”

Casey Smith, former manager of the Hubbard Ranch next to the refuge, agreed. The 28-year-old Clear Lake agronomist thinks the refuge has “collapsed” because grasses are “overgrown.”

He would volunteer to help the refuge staff out. Yet, Smith understands that the whole region’s bird numbers are suffering this year.

Dr. Nabil Baradhi from Lake Jackson agrees that all down the coast, bird numbers have declined at least by 60 percent. The Houston area cardiologist often hunts next door to the refuge as well, but the issue isn’t that hunters want birds to kill.

He remembers taking his son to hear the rumbling of hundreds of thousands of birds on the Whitmire Unit. The refuge now doesn’t compare.

“It is depressing. It’s just sad,” Baradhi said. “It was just like a wildlife heaven.”

He hopes the new refuge managers can get the place hopping again, but wonders if the decline of rice farming and lack of food leaves the area unable to sustain those kinds of numbers again.

Managing wetlands isn’t rocket science and staff are following the best available science, Stinson said. “If it was mismanaged, there would be no birds out there,” he added.

Biologists create an ecosystem that’s most productive for all waterfowl, not just geese or ducks.

The refuge is closed to the public and units along the perimeter haven’t been developed because of soil leakage, Stinson said. That’s why the hunters aren’t seeing the geese right next to their blinds.

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