One’s first sight of such a nesting place is a vivid experience. On the sand and shell of the beach lie the speckled eggs of shearwaters and terns. In the low-growing brush are nests of ibis, egrets, spoonbills and herons. Pelicans pick the more open portions of the islands to hatch their young in nests that are little more than flattened places in the grass. When flying into these areas in a small plane, as research workers often do, birds retreat in stampedes.

Green Island, nearby and lushly overgrown with forests of ebony and cactus, lures birds that ride the winds for hundreds, or even thousands of miles; flamingos from Bermuda, yellow-billed tropic birds from the Antilles come to visit. Most frequent visitors are great black-winged fliers known as frigate birds. These pirates (who are too lazy to hunt their own food), force, with buffeting wings, the gulls to disgorge fish in their craws, seizing the prey while still airborne.

Among Padre’s most interesting birds is the small contingent of falcons that stops on or near the island instead of continuing with the mass migration to South America. These big handsome duck hawks, with bluish-grey feathers narrowly banded in black, are said to have a cruising speed of fifty miles an hour. In the downward swoop to strike their quarry, known as a “stoop,” they have been clocked by pilots at speeds close to two hundred miles an hour. Many sportsmen feel it is more humane to hunt with trained falcons than guns, since the game is either killed instantly or escapes unharmed. The fact that it was not generally known falcons winter on Padre Island until recently made them comparatively safe, but their numbers are rapidly diminishing now that they are being molested.

Hundreds of thousands of redheads and canvasbacks, both diving ducks, spend the cooler months around the Atascosa Wildlife Refuge. They arrive about the middle of August. Blue-winged teal, or pintails, arrive in October. By November first there will be a quarter of a million ducks; sometimes two million birds in all are on the refuge at one time. Flights of ten thousand ducks in one flock are not uncommon. Visitors say several small islands, which are favorite breeding places, can hardly be walked upon for fear of crushing nests, eggs, and young birds.

Echelons of geese and whole hosts of many waterfowl varieties end their winter migration here. Wood ducks, the most beautiful and gentle of all, nest in the trees. Rare and almost extinct whooping cranes, huge and stately, come from Canada to spend winter months in nearby marshy areas. At the last count there were only about thirty-six of them left.

“Mr. Paisano” is the most colorful and interesting bird to inhabit the tip of Texas. He is the plucky little roadrunner, who looks as though he were assembled from spare parts. Imagine, if possible, a long striped snake on two legs, a feather duster on his head and another trailing behind. He is about two feet tall, with a tail as long as its body, a ridiculous crest, stubby wings, rarely used and blue, mocking eyes, circled with yellow rings and shaded with eyelashes a movie star might envy. He is famous for his cocky self-assured air.

Lore has it that the roadrunners surround a rattlesnake with a fence of cactus while the reptile sleeps. When the fence is completed, the snake is aroused. He frantically slashes at the fence, becoming so entangled and bedeviled by spines that he falls an easy victim. Some Mexicans, who named the bird Mr. Paisano, believe it to be good luck if he crosses the path from left to right, and bad luck if he crosses in the opposite direction.

For ages Laguna Madre has sheltered myriad varieties of fish and shellfish, providing bounteous banquets for wildlife frequenting her shores.

Among the animals native to Padre are ’possum, jackrabbits, ground squirrels and pocket gophers. The days of the Padre coyote are limited due to encroaching civilization. People along the border swear the coyotes are fish eaters, also, and use their tails for fishing.

Once the colorful little Padre coyotes claimed top billing in a widely publicized coyote hunt. Accompanied by newspapermen and cameramen, under the direction of Dr. J. A. Jockaday of Port Isabel, five hundred men planned the hunt with the precision of military strategy. It piqued public interest like a Hollywood premiere. The coyotes were to be driven into an amphitheater to meet their destiny. The coyotes, however, outwitted their predators and only twenty-six were killed.

All along the beach, pale colored and square shelled, are the ghost crabs, skuttling across the sands, returning to their holes when danger threatens.

With a little time to leisurely explore, one can roam the island and peek into intimate secrets of Padre’s wildlife.