“Snowbirds” are popular visitors along the Texas coast -- people who flee the cold northern winters for the warm beaches. And over the last third of a century, those beaches have been getting a little warmer. At Corpus Christi, for example, the winter temperature has climbed by about five degrees Fahrenheit.
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But the warmer winters appear to be chasing off some real snowbirds. Three species of bird that winter on the beaches of Mustang Island, near Port Aransas, are spending less time there than they did in the late 1970s.
A scientist at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute has been counting birds on Mustang Island since 1978. He also counts the number of people, dogs, and cars, and logs the weather and ocean conditions.
An analysis shows that, by 2005, three species that winter on Mustang Island -- the herring gull, eared grebe, and double-crested cormorant -- were arriving later than they used to, and leaving earlier. In all, they were spending about three weeks less on the Texas beach than they did when the count began.
A count of summer visitors -- three types of tern -- showed much less change in their migration patterns. In part, that may be because the summers haven’t warmed up as much.
The team that analyzed the bird counts suggests that the change in the winter visitors may have less to do with the warmer Texas weather than with the warmer weather in their summer breeding grounds. The snowbirds may not need to spend as much time in Texas to escape the chill.
