Before he ever began work on a book, he said, "I would spend an hour sitting here with the sketchbook looking at dunlin and white-rumped sandpipers."

The Matagorda Bay area contains American Oystercatchers, Hudsonian Godwits, and White-rumped Sandpipers.

Both blackish and Magellanic oystercatchers feed on the rocky reefs exposed by the ebb tide, while two-banded plovers and white-rumped sandpipers seek out little crustaceans and marine worms in the sand.

Birds for which the site is of conservation significance include breeding Falkland Steamer Ducks, Ruddy-headed Geese, Gentoo Penguins (500 pairs), Magellanic Penguins and White-bridled Finches, as well as migratory White-rumped Sandpipers (15,000 individuals).