Rare hailstorms that tore through Corpus Christi and the Coastal Bend over the weekend left behind more than shattered windshields and dented roofs. The violent weather also carved a devastating mark on the region’s coastal bird populations, in what scientists are calling the largest avian mortality event from a hailstorm in North America in decades.
Early assessments from the Harte Research Institute (HRI) show the scale of the loss: roughly 2,000 birds, mostly brown pelicans, were killed or severely injured on rookery islands across Corpus Christi Bay and near Baffin Bay during the Nov. 1 storms.
HRI scientists deployed drones to survey the battered islands, combining aerial footage with on-the-ground assessments to measure the extent of the damage and guide recovery efforts. The work has become a coordinated response involving multiple agencies, including the University of Texas Marine Science Institute’s Amos Rehabilitation Keep (ARK), the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, Texas Parks and Wildlife and The Nature Conservancy.
The first alarms came from fishermen who spotted dead birds on Monday morning. When staff from UTMSI-ARK reached the islands, they found grim evidence of the storm’s power—pelicans with injuries matching hail impacts, and hundreds more birds dead or dying. An estimated 1,400 birds, primarily brown pelicans, were killed outright, while another 600 were injured. Survivors were transported to the ARK facility in Port Aransas for treatment…