Apr 8, 2008

Lifebirds #253-263 – Cajun Country

When I look back at our 2008 trip to Louisiana, I am surprised we were only able to find seventeen lifers. It was one of the birdiest places we’ve ever been. But of course many of the birds we saw were not lifers for us. We did have “life looks” at some familiar birds and a few of these are included in the photo album for this page (only lifers are represented in the thumbnails).

Bayou Sauvage

As I researched Louisiana birding references before our trip, I found one place mentioned often: the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge. Some of the references warned that damage from Hurricane Katrina continued to impact the refuge. Surely though, we thought, after the passing of almost three years since the hurricane, most of the refuge would be open. Not so as it turned out. But once we saw many areas of the city and whole neighborhoods still devastated and unrepaired, we could understand why the refuge was not yet whole. There were far bigger tragedies to deal with than the closing of access to Bayou Sauvage.

Nevertheless—feeling fortunate and even a bit guilty to be in the area not to help, but to have fun—we did visit ourselves the refuge that were accessible. The birdlife, at least, was mostly undisturbed and we found six lifers as we (mostly) birded by car on the refuge.

The Black Vulture was our first lifer of the day. We saw dozens, of course. Next we saw Brown Pelicans. No shortage of them either (the photo used above was taken years later in Belize).

The Boat-tailed Grackle was a bit of a identification challenge for us as fledgling birders. We had, though, done our homework before the trip. Both Great-tailed and Boat-tailed Grackles occur in the area. But the habitat—saltwater marsh close to the coast—and the appearance of the bird favored Boat-tailed. The eyes are a very good indication: darker in the Boat-tailed and much brighter in the Great-tailed.

While photographing the grackles, we stumbled on Bronzed Cowbirds at our feet in the gravel turnout by the side of the road. This was unexpected. Though guides show them in Louisiana, they are more commonly found farther west. For a cowbird, they are quite attractive with striking red eyes.

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Species	Black Vulture / Coragyps atratus
Species	Brown Pelican / Pelecanus occidentalis
Species	Boat-tailed Grackle / Quiscalus major
Species	Bronzed Cowbird / Molothrus aeneus
Species	Swallow-tailed Kite / Elanoides forficatus
Species	Forster's Tern / Sterna forsteri
Where	USA-LA-Orleans-Bayou Sauvage NWR
Species	Tufted Titmouse / Baeolophus bicolor
Species	Carolina Wren / Thryothorus ludovicianus
Where	USA-LA-Jefferson-Barataria Preserve
Species	Tricolored Heron / Egretta tricolor
Species	Little Blue Heron / Egretta caerulea
Species	Anhinga / Anhinga anhinga
Where	USA-LA-Orleans-Audubon Park in New Orleans
When	Apr 8 2008
With	Joann
Numbers	253-263