Warrior’s Weekend, 2022
Happy fishermen show off their catches.
Thank you, Warriors!
-photo by Mike Hessong

Warrior’s Weekend Hero

Al Becker
Warrior’s Weekend Volunteer

What would cause a trucker from North Lima, Ohio to drive down just to volunteer at the Warrior’s Weekend events?

Meet Al Becker, a self-employed trucker. Concerning Warrior’s Weekend he says, “I just come down here to give the veterans one day of pleasure fishing.”
It all started in 2013 when Al picked up a load in Indianapolis. The load were air conditioners and their destination was the Warrior’s Weekend event. It was just another trip for Al, but as fate would have it, it was the beginning of an adventure… Al Becker hasn’t missed a Warrior’s Weekend since then!

As a volunteer Al does whatever needs to be done that he can do and has a background in heavy equipment and outside lighting.

Al is proud to serve his country by serving its veterans!

-Tanya DeForest

Warrior’s Weekend Hero

Kenneth Matthews

Another Warrior’s Weekend hero is a veteran from Dunn, North Carolina. His name is Kenneth Matthews.

Kenneth served in the Army for nine years and was in a National Guard Unit. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan. His last year of service was in 2014.

Kenneth received an honorable medical discharge due to PTSD. He says, “I loved the Army because I wanted to serve my country.”

Kenneth is currently enrolled at Camp Hope. Camp Hope is a nonprofit Christian program for male combat veterans who suffer from PTSD. Kenneth states that “Camp Hope is an awesome program that I wish I would have known about when I first got out of the military.”

This year’s Warrior’s Weekend was Kenneth’s first time to go fishing. His comments are: “It was a great experience being with my brothers and sisters who served in the military.”
-Tanya DeForest

The Memorial Day Kids Fishing Tournament included 45 entrants this year. Kids were allowed to fish anywhere in POC, except in a boat! All sorts of fish were caught, including pin perch, hard heads, trout and more! Trophies were given in each age group for Most Fish, Biggest Fish and Smallest Fish.

Winners for age group 3-5 were Hudson Chavez (Biggest Fish 18 1/2”), Preslee McCord (17 fish) and Gus Ash (Smallest Fish 3 1/4”). Winners for age group 6-8 were Hunter Leiker (Smallest Fish 2 1/2”), Cora Pohler (38 fish), and Falisha Mendoza (Largest Fish 13 1/4”). Winners for 9-12 age group were Carrigan Pohler (Smallest Fish 3 1/2”), Karsyn Davis (Largest Fish 19”) and Carrigan Pohler for Most Fish (63 fish).
A HUGE thank you to those volunteers that help and sponsored this event… Brent Hart and The Two RV Park, Clark’s Bait Stand, Mike Overton, Debbie Michalek, Terri McGuire, and all the other volunteers assisting!

The winds were perfect for the Kite Flying Contest on Memorial Weekend. This annual event brought 20 contestants to show off their skills at King Fisher Beach. There certainly were some beautiful kites and colors flying in our skies! Awards were given for the prettiest, most effort, best tricks and highest flying for age brackets 2-5, 6-9, 10-12, and 13-adult. A VERY SPECIAL thank you to James and Shirley Harper for all their hard working in making this event happen!!!

Make plans to celebrate Americas Birthday with our annual fireworks display on Saturday July 2. This will be the 52nd year of the waterfront Fireworks Display, which is funded solely on donations and sponsors. It is not too late to donate and help us bring our community together and celebrate yet another beautiful July 4th weekend in Port O’Connor! You can donate on the Chamber website, at https://portoconnorchamber.com/chamber/donate/ , or you can drop your contribution in the mail to the POC Chamber of Commerce, PO Box 701, Port O’Connor, TX 77982. We also have donation boxes set up at our businesses throughout town. Please drop that spare change in…. every penny helps!

We will also hold our first Fourth of July parade on Monday, July 4th, starting at 9:00 am. Bring your golf cart, trailer, bicycle, boat, horse and join us as we make our way up main and turn on Washington and then on toward front beach. We will have several awards to hand out once the parade concludes, including best decorated, most patriotic, most unique, etc. To enter, submit your name, phone number and your entry (golf cart, boat, trailer, etc.) to info@portoconnorchamber.com.
We welcome our new and renewing members for this month Brookie’s Cookies, Marvelous Gardens, and Sharkies Bar & Grill.

Remember to visit the calendar to stay up to date on all the local events. https://business.portoconnorchamber.com/events/calendar

Kite Flying Contest
6-9 years Winners

Celebrate with Fireworks! Saturday Evening July 2 King Fisher Beach, POC
Join the Parade! Monday, July 4th 9:00 am On the Beach front

Summer Island Families Enjoying Beach Time

Greetings from the island everyone! I hope that all of you are doing well and surviving this brutal and oppressive pre-summer heat we have been experiencing lately.

Oh my goodness, other than between 6-10 am and 6-9 pm, it’s pretty much impossible for my manly sized physique to be out in the direct sun and take care of gardening, assorted chores and mowing yards right now. Just gotta schedule any outside activities to take place early morning or very late evening, and I GOTTA make myself keep vigilant about wearing a cap when outside, otherwise my poor forehead takes the brunt of the hot sun.

Thankfully, the island has received a small amount of rain over the past few weeks. I believe in three separate rains, exactly two inches total of heaven-sent fresh water fell upon the island. That amount of course is not gonna end the drought, but every little bit helps, and sure does take away the heat for at least a little while.

This time of year usually begins the three month stretch of more islanders coming out to the island. It is summertime and school is out, so families want to enjoy their little piece of paradise in which they have devoted countless hours of work to build and have, to occasionally get away from the rat-race and drama of the mainland.

I certainly thrive on the peace and solitude of being on the island, but I also (occasionally), like seeing the weekend Islander families having a great time being out here with their kids on the beach. The beach always has a soothing and calming effect, watching the surf waves roll in and out, and seeing the seagulls and various little ocean birds feeding and scurrying along the waters edge looking for a meal. And when the sea grass is thick during the Spring and early Summer, the birds are very abundant on the beach, gobbling up tiny crabs and fish that have become entangled in the sargassum grass. The beach is just a great place to spend time.

I’ve had my little Club Car golf cart on the island for over 9 years now, having bought it new in April 2013. Those little Club Car carts are great little buggies to have out here, mainly because they have an all aluminum frame, meaning the frame will not rust out here in this brutal salty corrosive environment. I do keep mine inside a shed that I built for it, so that absolutely helps prolong its life out here. Of course there are still mechanical issues and breakages that occur with it, as with any vehicle, and not being a mechanical minded person (far from it, unfortunately ), I am thankful to fellow islanders Ronnie and Joe for helping me fix the occasional problems. As much as I would like to be absolutely 100% self-sufficient out here, there will ALWAYS be issues arrive where a helping hand is needed and appreciated. Such is island life.

Well, that’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and stay cool in this hellish south Texas heat.

Team members from Braskem took a day away from their usual duties at the Seadrift Operations site to cleanup a popular Calhoun County fishing spot.
The Coloma Creek Bridge on highway 1289 is so popular that unless the weather is blowing, folks can be found there all times of the day and night.

Why this beloved spot has become so trashed is dumbfounding. But thanks to the caring, hard working group of folks from Braskem, the Coloma Creek Bridge was cleaned up on Friday, May 6, 2022.

An entire truck load of beer cans, beverage cups, water bottles, food containers, fishing line, socks, pants, a cooking grill and a desk chair was removed. Other dumped items removed included a mattress and three tires.

Braskem partners with San Antonio Bay Partnership to identify areas in need of care and coordinate cleanup efforts. Last year they cleaned up Hog Bayou boat ramp and fishing spot, and the Seadrift Marina.

Thanks to both organizations, Calhoun County is a much cleaner place.
Brigid Berger

Reddish Egret in Breeding Colors

It is late Spring, and the Colonial Waterbird nesting season is in full swing. And not far from Port O’Connor, nearby Chester Island is covered in birds, nests, eggs and chicks. Much of the year, this island is mostly uninhabited except for a healthy population of Eastern Diamondback rattlesnakes. But from February to September, it becomes home to a great number of nesting Colonial Waterbirds choosing to have their families in this relatively safe environment. In recent years, more than 20,000 nesting pair of 20+ different species take part in this annual migration to nest on Chester Island – with some birds traveling from as far away as Florida and the Mexican Pacific Coast!

You may wonder how all this got started. Chester Island is a man-made island, formed 60 years ago from sand and silt dredged up during the creation of the Matagorda Ship Channel. It didn’t take long for the new island to be discovered by waterbirds, and for them to start nesting on it. Like many other sites along our coastline, Audubon Texas leases this island from the Texas GLO in order to protect the birds that rely on it. With the help of conservation efforts, this low-lying ±70-acre bird island near Port O’Connor has become one of the top 3 largest rookeries along the Texas Coast for Colonial Waterbirds. Local resident Chester Smith managed the island for 25 years as its Audubon Coastal Warden, and his dedicated efforts helped the Brown Pelican population recover from the endangered species list. Also known as Bird Island and Sundown Island, the island was renamed Chester Island in his honor after he passed away in 2011. Coastal Wardens Tim Wilkinson and his wife Peggy (Chester’s daughter) are the current stewards of the island – with tremendous help of many partners and volunteers. They conduct beach cleanup and other projects outside of nesting season. During the nesting season, their main jobs are minimizing disturbance to nesting birds by predators, and by actually counting the birds!

Each year in late May, a Bird Census is conducted on Chester Island in order to determine the current number of nesting pairs of each species. The island is first surveyed aerially from a drone. As the drone flies in a pattern across the island, a high resolution camera pointed downward captures nearly 4,000 high resolution digital images – from which birds and nests are then identified and counted by trained volunteers using computers. The drone survey is then followed by a human survey, where teams of experienced bird counters walk through and count birds in areas with trees and bushes which the drone cannot see through. The results of both surveys are then carefully merged to generate the census results for the entire rookery.

Year round, many forces combine to erode spoil islands like Chester Island, and threaten the bird’s nesting sites. Fortunately for the birds that nest on Chester Island, some of the eastern shoreline was protected many years ago by articulated concrete matting that was placed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Much of the unprotected shoreline does experience rapid erosion, however this is partly offset by occasional renourishment with additional sand and silt from nearby maintenance dredging operations. Audubon Texas has plans to provide more permanent shoreline protection for Chester Island in the near future, as well as for building additional bird islands in nearby bays, and is securing funding sources for both efforts.

Please be aware that Chester Island is closed to the public, and its nesting birds are protected by federal law. We kindly ask the public to do your part by staying off of Chester Island, and by keeping your distance to avoid disturbing nesting birds – wherever you encounter them. Remember to “Fish, Swim and Play from 50 yards away”.

Birds make Port O’Connor a better place for humans to live and enjoy – and with all of us pitching in, we can help make it a safer place for our birds!
For more info, visit: tx.audubon.org and texanbynature.org/projects/audubon-texas/

White Pelican Visitors on the Beach

Nesting Royal Terns – taken from drone