September 28
Today we headed out for a morning of birding. Tomorrow
is a travel day, so we normally don’t do a full day of anything, so we can get
ready for the move.
There was a reported “hot spot” for the Red-cockaded
woodpecker close by so we went there. We looked in several areas last year and never spotted any.
The woods, bayous, and marshes of Big Branch Marsh National
Wildlife Refuge are home to diverse wildlife. Habitats at the Refuge include
lake shoreline, near shore grass beds, freshwater and brackish marsh,
cypress-tupelo forest, bayous, hardwood forest hammocks, and long-leaf pine
savannah. We drove a short distance along one road and didn’t see much. I spotted
a sign that had the woodpecker on it, so we went back to check out the area. We
saw a car stopped with a huge camera pointed out the window so we stopped as
well. The lady gets out of her car to talk to us. She lives near the area and
said she had only seen a couple of birds, but no Red-cockaded woodpecker. She
did say she had one in her yard a while back. There were a lot of trees in the
area marked with the white band of the trees they nest in, but alas we didn’t
see one. We saw a couple of Red-bellied Woodpeckers and a few other birds.
Southeast Louisiana Refuges Visitor Center
Red-bellied Woodpecker
nesting box for the Red-cockaded Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Next, we headed to the Boy Scout trail that also reported
them. It was a nice walk on the boardwalk and then through the woods, but still
no Red-cockaded. The area had pine savannah and marshes of Big Branch on the
two-mile long trail from the interpretive boardwalk at the trailhead to an
overlook of Bayou Lacombe. So, the Red-cockaded eludes us still.
dragonfly love.....
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks & ducklings
Wood Duck nesting box
Red-cockaded nesting box
the white lines on the trees are ones marked where they have nested
We went to lunch and the food was good, except my toast
which had been grilled on a surface that was used for fish, since it tasted
like stanky fish not toast.
we have seen many of these across the country - on cars, trucks, walls, barns, fields & more
tasty crackers for each table
shrimp platter
Oyster Po'boy
It was a great week in Louisiana. The Big Easy, Nawlins, NOLA
or whatever you call it, New Orleans is just a great place to visit and take in
the sights, the sounds and the smells. Especially the great food, the
architecture of shotgun houses, southern homes, balconies, galleries,
cemeteries and more.
Tomorrow we leave for Pensacola, Florida. We are on the home stretch now......
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