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Our Trip to Louisiana |
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| We began our trip on Friday, April 4th, 2008. Went to Sidney to drop off the dogs and stayed over night to get an early start to Hershey Nebraska to look for the Common Crane that had been seen there that week. Wanted to be there by 8 and we made it just fine, headed out north of town where it had been spotted. Several other birders were also looking including Brent Nelson from Scottsbluff. A couple of gentlemen from California spotted it and waved us back. We got good looks through their scope, called Brent to the location, then drove around the field to the farm house. Bob talked to the people there and got permission to look at it from their drive. Quite a crowd arrived, people from several states were there. We found out later that it wasn't long before the bird flew off never to be seen again. Not in Nebraska, anyway. |
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After having such good luck with the Common Crane we decided to look for the Whooping Cranes that had been seen at Funk Lagoon even though we were told they couldn't possibly be there since they had already been in the area for several days. We called a fellow birder for directions to Funk Lagoon, when we couldn't find the sign we stopped and talked to a farmer who was working out in his garage, he had seen three of them that morning and directed us to the place he had seen them. About a mile up the road we spotted them near a pond and were able to get pretty good looks at them and a few pictures. Of all the birds that we saw on our trip these were one of the most exciting. |
| Afraid that we would never get out of Nebraska, and with two new life birds, we headed on down the road towards Kansas. The wind was blowing most of the day, and Kansas was no exception, not much birding to be done from the interstate, vultures were all we saw. Decided to stay in Salina for the night. When we unloaded the Rav I discovered that I hadn't closed the drain plug on the cooler and everything in my suitcase was wet so I spent some time in the laundry room at the motel drying my clothes before we headed to Red Lobster for supper. I was happy to find that the new wireless internet gizmo that I bought actually worked and I sent some pictures of the cranes to anyone that I thought would be interested. |
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Another windy day on Sunday but as we
drove south the dark clouds were behind us, and the cold. The
redbud and other trees and shrubs were blooming and things were
greening up in Wichita and beyond. Also started to see
Scissor-tailed Flycatchers. What a cool bird!! We got to Oklahoma before lunch, around Sand Springs OK we started seeing hundreds of trees that were damaged, the branches were broken straight down and still hanging on so I assume it was from the ice storms and not a tornado but was pretty sad looking. The thermometer in the Rav read 85 degrees and we turned on the AC. I was finally warm for the first time since last summer. We are starting to see lots of forest and ponds along the road. There are lots of turtles sunning themselves on logs and on the banks of the ponds. |
| While we were driving
through Paris Texas I noticed several funny names on businesses,
here are a few of them. TaMolly's Mexican Food, Buggy Bath Car
Wash, What-a-Burger fast food, and of course, Piggly-Wiggly
grocery store. We stayed in Texarkana for the night, ate yucky food at the Burger King (don't know what their problem was, and stayed in a cheap motel (actually it was a Day's Inn, but kind of old) the bed made funny noises when you sat on it but was comfy enough. |
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The next morning I was getting
everything packed up, got a pop out of the cooler and spilled
the Cherry M & M's that I had put in to keep them from
melting after we tried them. The water turned a lovely
shade of pink so I had to clean it out and get new ice. Maybe I
should have just left the cooler home. We headed south towards Shreveport, wanted to get to Lafayette by Monday night as I had reservations and wanted to get started birding in that area. There is a new freeway from Texarkana to the border which was really nice and not much traffic. Just the way I like it. |
| I got a Garmin Nuvii with money I got from my boss for Christmas and I really liked traveling with it. I wanted to find a visitors center when we got to Louisiana to get a map and info and it told us just how to get there. I never would have found it otherwise. It's summer in Louisiana, pretty amazing how far the seasons are ahead of Nebraska as you head south. And it was snowing in Nebraska that day. As we are heading south we start to see lots of Black Vultures ( and dead armadillos) and then, Great and Snowy Egrets flying over the interstate. Not long before I see my first Rosette Spoonbill (life bird # 3) and then Anhinga (#4). There is more and more water and more and more egrets flying around. Pretty amazing! |
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We arrived in Lafayette in time for
lunch. We ate at the award-winning (that's what the brochure said) Prejeans Cajun Restaurant and tried some cajun food.
It was pretty good, I had shrimp creole with dirty rice and Bob
had crawfish etouffee and tails with corn macque choux which was
really good. I found I could check the elevation with my Nuvii so I did it often. Elevation in Lafayette 26' After we had lunch we headed out to the Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge, on the recommendation of Helen's daughter, to start our official LA birding. I had printed off information on the Great Costal Birding Trail so had maps and info on how to find several areas for birding. It was about 30 miles from our motel, south of Welsh, so kind of late by the time we got there but well worth it. We were just inside the gate of the area of the refuge called The Pool and started seeing all kinds of birds. Common Moorhen (#5), Red-shouldered Hawk (#6), Fulvous Whistling Duck (#7), Glossy Ibis (#8), Purple Gallinule (#9), Tri-colored Heron (#10), Mottled Duck (#11). There were lots of other swamp/marsh birds too and our first of many American Alligators |
| There was a rookery out in
the middle of the lake with Cattle, Great and Snowy Egrets and
Rosette Spoonbills. The birds near the road were fairly
tame and easy to get pictures of so below are a bunch of birds.
We stayed as long as we could, but wanted to get back to the
motel before dark. Wish we would have done this for an all day
trip instead, but had other places to go the next day. Elevation just north of Lacassine NWR 4' below sea level. I think that is probably the first time I have been that low. But it won't the the lowest on this trip. |
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| We got back to the motel at dark, checked into our room. It was really nice, a suite actually. Wasn't expecting it but since we were staying there 3 nights it was nice. The motel was remodeling and the floor we were on was all new. They were doing the second floor and weren't using it at all, so guess that's why we got the big room. Bob spent the night getting caught up with his TV and I downloaded all the pictures off my camera and emailed them to everyone. |
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| We got an early start the
next morning as I wanted to get out and check the sites listed
on the birding trail. We headed south out of Lafayette towards
Abbeville to the costal area. There are lots of really really
big oak trees in the yards which is really neat, to bad they
don't grow like that around here. One is all they need to shade
the whole yard! We checked out several of the Vermillion Loop birding trail areas including Gladu Road, Palmetto Island State Park, Mouton Cove, Pine Island Road and the fishing piers on LA82 where we saw Boat-tailed Grackles (#12) and Fish Crows but the very best place we found was a rice field where a farmer was working in the field with a tractor in about a foot of water. There were birds all over the place including a Gull-billed Tern (#13) and White Ibis (#14). |
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Many of the farmers also raise
crawfish to sell to restaurants and for eating. This field
didn't have the traps but we saw lots that did. We were below sea level most of this day and very close to the gulf. Most of the houses were built up off the ground. Officially the lowest place in Louisiana is in New Orleans at 8' below sea level but several times the Nuvii registered 12-14' below so don't know if it's wrong or if the official low place is just with in cities? We saw some very interesting country on this drive. |
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| In most of the canals and off the piers there were people fishing, Bob talked to a couple of them. They had their coolers full of fish and would sell them to restaurants each day. There were also alligators in most of these places, just resting on the bank, waiting.... |
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We decided we had enough of searching for roads with out signs and driving around and not finding many birds so decided to stop off at Avery Island Bird Sanctuary to check it out. Below is Bob hugging on of the big live oak trees at the park. Avery Island is actually a giant salt dome that is 8 miles below the surface and rises above the swamps, hence the island name. It is also the home of the Tabasco pepper sauce company. |
| On Avery Island Edward Mcllhenny helped save the Snowy Egret from extinction back in 1895 by building an aviary, then capturing and raising 8 egrets there. In the fall when they were ready to migrate he turned them loose and the next spring they returned to the island to nest. Thousands of egrets and other birds nest and raise their young there now. I was amazed at how many were on the piers that he had built (actually they have been rebuilt since then, a few years and hurricanes have made that necessary) |
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| After Avery Island we headed back to Lafayette, decided to go back to Prejeans since it was near our motel and Bob wanted to try some other items he saw on the menu. He ordered the sampler with alligator, stuffed crab, crawfish, frog legs, catfish, stuffed shrimp, more shrimp and oysters. I had a salad and helped him eat his platter of food and we still didn't finish it all. It was a lot of food and most of it was pretty good. They also had live Cajun music this night. |
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Wednesday morning we had reservations for a swamp tour by crawfish boat on Lake Martin near Breaux Bridge (pronounced Bro Bridge). I chose this trip with Bryan Champagne because his boat could go back into the swamp, some of the other tours were on Pontoon boats. There were 12 people on the tour and we had a really good time and learned lots about the swamps and bayous. Saw lots of BIG alligators up close. Also lots of birds. I really wanted to see a Barred Owl but didn't have any luck on the boat seeing one. |
| Lake Martin also has the largest wading bird nesting area in Louisiana, or at least it used to be. Seems that there aren't as many birds as there once was. We saw nesting herons, egrets, spoonbills, anhinga, night-herons and other birds as well. Below are some pictures from the tour. There were alligators everywhere, some were 14-15 feet long or more. The lake is used for recreation such as fishing and water skiing. The tour guide said the gators don't bother anyone. He has a license to hunt gators and tried to catch one with a pole but it got away. |
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| As we were leaving Bryan, our guide, said we might try driving around the lake to the south because that was the area where the Barred Owls nest so we decided to give it a try since I really wanted to see the owl. We drove just a few hundred feet, stopped to look at a small bird when I saw a Barred Owl (#15)sitting in a tree near the road so we got some good looks at it and took some pictures. Also saw a White-eyed Vireo (#16) when we stopped a little farther down the road to look at another gator. Bob really liked the alligators! |
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 This is a honey bee hive hanging on a branch in the swamp instead of being inside of the tree. Kind of unusual. |
I had also asked Bryan were he recommended we eat lunch and he sent us to Cafe des Amis in Breaux Bridge. The restaurant was in an old building downtown. We had shrimp croissants with pickled okra, then white chocolate bread pudding for desert. After we ate we drove back out to the lake and looked around and checked out the rookery. In the afternoon we drove east to Indian Bayou to look for Painted Buntings and Wood Storks. We drove over a 18' bridge that went over the Atchafalaya Basin/River and Swamp Henderson. It was pretty cool. |
| At Indian Bayou we heard a
Painted Bunting but never did get it out in the open were we
could see it. We did see a Pileated Woodpecker, a new bird
for Bob. Didn't really see much else. The next morning we slept in a little later then loaded up the car to head to Covington for the next part of our adventure. We drove back over the Atchafalaya bridge then stopped at Tickfaw State Park which is listed on the birding trial. We had a hard time finding it because we used the directions on the birding trail printout but one of the roads was closed and we had to drive around for a while. |
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Once we found the park we took one of the board walks to look for birds. Heard at least two Barred Owls and there were lots of Cardinals around. We saw lots of little lizards on the railing. They probably aren't really lizards, I tried to look them up in a book, might be a racerunner of some kind.
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| We arrived at our motel in
the afternoon, Bob was tired and his back was bothering him so
we didn't do any more birding that day. I went shopping at a
near-by mall, didn't buy anything but supper at Burger King
which we ate at the motel. The first field trip for the Great Louisiana Bird Fest is at 6am the next morning and we had about 25 miles to drive to get to the Joyce WMA at Manchac so we went to bed early. The forecast is for rain most of the day. So far the weather has been really nice for our trip. |
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We were up at 4:30am (yes, am) so we can get to the first Bird Fest Field trip. It's not raining so the day is starting out good. We found the meeting sight with out any problems and as the sun was coming up the field trip started. Saw and heard Northern Parula and Prothonotary Warblers and blackbirds but not much else. We walked on a board walk and saw lots of interesting plants, the leader spent a lot of time talking and teaching how to id birds that we were seeing. We did finally see a Yellow-throated Warbler at the end of the board walk thanks to a young man that was about 14-15 and very sharp on bird id. Also saw a raccoon in a hole in a tree looking out trying to figure out just what we were doing disturbing his nap. |
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| Our next part of the tour
was a pontoon boat ride at Lake Maurepas which is adjacent to
Manchac Swamp. But, before we could look for birds we had to
attend a talk about the swamp that lasted about a half hour or
more. Lake Maurepas is just west of Lake Pontchartrain, they are
connected by a canal. I mentioned to the guide that I really wanted to see a Brown Pelican and he promptly told me that there wouldn't be any around this area. But, as soon as we got out of the canal which is actually many peoples back yard, guess was we saw? A Brown Pelican (16). Also saw a few Caspian and Royal Terns (17) |
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We went out to the lighthouse in the the lake hoping to see some migrants that might have stopped off but all we found was a Herring Gull and some terns. We saw Osprey and a Bald Eagle along the way. Considering it was supposed to be raining most of the day we lucked out and didn't have any rain until we were heading back in to dock and then it rained for a few minutes. By the time we got off the boat it had stopped. One of the Bird Fest organizers invited everyone to join them for lunch at Middendorf's Cafe on the shore of the lake. |
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| Bob and I joined several
others at the cafe which is famous for their thin fried catfish.
So, that's what I ordered, Bob had barbeque shrimp. The catfish
was delicious, probably the best food we had in Louisiana, it
was served with coleslaw and hushpuppies. After lunch we headed
back to the motel so Bob could rest up for the evening tour to
see the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers at Big Branch NWR near Lacombe. Bob took a nap while I did some window shopping at Pet Smart which was across the street from the motel. |
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The evening field trip meet at the refuge headquarters, we then took a van to the main parking lot of the Big Branch National Wildlife Refuge. Some of the nesting trees for the woodpeckers were right on the edge of the parking lot so no problem getting to them. The refuge manager said that the Red Cockaded Woodpeckers come back to roost in the trees about the same time each night and should be coming in soon. Since this was the main target bird for our trip I had no problem waiting to see it. |
| Most of the other didn't seem very concerned weather they saw the woodpeckers or not and decided to head up the board walk that went around part of the swamp. I wasn't leaving without seeing the birds! About 5 minutes after they left two of the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers (18) came in to the trees in front of me. They were some distance away but easy enough to see. The young man that was with us on the boat ride was also along on this trip, he didn't go on the walk but was looking around it some trees at another bird but came right over to see the woodpeckers when I told him they had come in. Bob was the only other one around at the time. We did find out later that the walkers had seen one of the woodpeckers up the trail a ways. |
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| After the others were done with their walk, and I had looked at the woodpeckers for a good time we loaded up in the van and drove into the wildlife area that is normally closed to traffic. There were more woodpecker nest sites in other areas. We went back to a overlook and saw Mottled Ducks fly over, as we watched the sun set we heard Least Bittern (19) and Clapper Rail (20). We heard and didn't see the last two life birds so not sure I will actually count them or not. I usually like to see them to count them. |
 Yellow-crowned Night-heron at Lake Martin |
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Bob isn't feeling very good and would
really like to head for home so we decided to skip the rest of
the bird fest and head back a day early. We left Covington on Saturday morning and decided to let the Nuvii chose the best route to go. We went back through Shreveport, then west to Marshall, TX, then north. It was interstate or 4 lanes most of the way so was better then the route we had gone down on. |
| I drove most of the way
home, part of it was along the Texas Wildflower Trail and we did
see lots of pretty flowers for several miles north of Mount
Pleasant ,where we stayed that night. The next morning I did a little birding around the motel which was near a creek. Saw quite a few birds from the parking lot such as Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-throated Hummingbird and Cedar Waxwings which brought my trip bird total to 132. I was surprised how much swampy area was in that part of Texas and we were still seeing ponds with egrets north towards Paris TX. We stopped near Tulsa for lunch and stayed in Salaina KS that night, this time we decided to stay in a nice motel and ended up at the Hampton Inn, it was very nice and didn't cost any more than the Super 8 in Covington LA, we ate supper at Chili's and got to bed early. |
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| The next morning we headed north to York then to Sidney to pick up the dogs, we got home about 5. We drove 3316 miles on our trip and were very glad to be home. | |
