Anyone who lives in the Coastal Bend knows weather can surprise us, but the hailstorm that hammered the Corpus Christi area on Nov. 1 was unlike anything most of us have ever seen.
Golf ball sized hailstones rained down across neighborhoods, battering roofs, denting vehicles and leaving a trail of property damage that residents are still tallying. But the most heartbreaking losses weren’t the shattered windshields or broken shingles, they were the birds.
Over the past week, researchers in the Harte Research Institute’s Conservation and Biodiversity Program, along with regional partners, have been working to understand the scale of the mortality event triggered by the storm. Updated assessments estimate 1,860 birds were killed or injured, a staggering number that speaks to the storm’s intensity…