Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Bayou Lacombe Centre & Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge - Slidell & Mandeville, Louisiana


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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