San Antonio River water quality near Joske's Pavilion has suffered in recent years, and river scientists believe the birds could be a reason.
Chris Vaughn, watershed monitoring supervisor at the San Antonio River Authority, tests water near Joske’s Pavilion in Brackenridge Park.On a recent early morning in Brackenridge Park, just south of Joske’s Pavilion, hundreds of egrets and other migrant birds squawked from the tops of a few dozen trees, their droppings crusted like white paint on the ground below. The air reeked of bird feces.
An aquatic biologist who works for the river authority as a watershed monitoring supervisor, Vaughn said dead birds impact bacteria levels as well as feces from the rookery. That revelation focused many activists not just on saving the trees, but also on protecting the birds and their nests. E.coli levels in 2021 averaged 3 to 4 times higher than recreational standards, according to river authority data. Bacteria levels go down when aquifer spring flows are higher, such as in 2018, Donavan said, but even then, E.coli levels are higher at this spot in the park than most other places on the river.
Birds also tend to be healthier when they don’t interact with humans, who feed them bread and other nutrient-free foods, Donovan said, displacing their natural, healthier diets.
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