Louisiana

Some of us drove and some took a plane, but we all ended up at the hotel in Iowa (“Eye-oh-way”), Louisiana at the correct time! Thank goodness for cell phones, so we could at least keep track of each other on our cross-country perambulations!

Our group, with leaders Simon Thompson (front) and Keith Watson (back left)
by Simon Thompson

Our “Beat the Crowds” rail trip that first afternoon was postponed due to the heavy rain earlier in the week, so we all joined a very pleasant, albeit foggy, trip along some quiet side roads in the rice country. One of our first birds was a Dickcissel, closely followed by great views of both Sedge and Marsh Wrens – all excellent birds to start our trip.

Sedge Wren
by Simon Thompson

Flocks of Greater White-fronted Geese flew over and we had our first (of several) Vermilion Flycatchers of the tour. A brief stop in a pine lot was amazing with a day-time roost of 20 or so Barn Owls – more seen in one day than many of us had seen in our lifetime!

Barn Owl roosting
by Simon Thompson

One of the attractions of the festival was the food, although vegetarian options can be challenging at times. After a classic Cajun sausage meal our first evening, we moved on to crawfish etouffee, catfish bites, shrimp and a veggie plate – definitely something here for all of us.

Our group having lunch
by Keith Watson

Our afternoon activity was walking (well maybe clambering) through a very tufty and overgrown field looking for sparrows. Sedge Wrens were the default little brown bird that we flushed, but eventually Casey spotted a very furtive sparrow which turned out to be a Henslow’s.

White-faced Ibis
by Simon Thompson

Waterbirds are a predominant feature of the area, with huge flocks of White-faced Ibis being abundant, along with White Ibis, and Roseate Spoonbill. Flocks of Snow and Greater White-fronted Geese were constant sights and sounds as they flew overhead and the most abundant duck was Northern Shoveler with smaller numbers of Gadwall, Blue-winged Teal, Mallard and Green-winged Teal.

Snow Geese
by Simon Thompson

Thankfully we had low ticket numbers for the combine rides, so we could head out birding before returning to the rice fields for our turn on the combine harvesters. One of our first stops was the wonderful water treatment plant in Crowley. Here we were able to walk around at our leisure and enjoy the vast numbers of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, Redhead and American Avocet.

American Avocet
by Keith Watson

A large flock of Tree Swallows was feeding low over the lake and it didn’t take us too long to find Cave, Barn, Northern Rough-wing and even Bank amongst the horde!

The combine rides and observing the rails as they escape from the harvest are the undoubted star attractions of the festival and while the rails are easier to see from the sidelines, how often can one ride a combine harvester?

A productive field
by Keith Watson

Covered in dust and chaff we all saw Sora, King, Virginia and Yellow Rails as they flushed from the fields, but the bumping of the combine made using binoculars and cameras almost impossible. However, as the combines cut the rice swaths into smaller and smaller sections, the rails became concentrated and soon flew out into the adjacent fields. This is when the photographers had a fighting chance of getting pictures.

Keith with a Virginia Rail about to be banded
by Keith Watson
Yellow Rail in hand for banding
by Tim Carstens
White-faced ibis
by Simon Thompson

Cameron Parish is probably the most bird-rich parish in Louisiana, so we spent the next 2 days exploring the marshes, cheniers (coastal woodlots), shore and fields of this coastal parish.

boardwalk at Cameron Prairie NWR
by Keith Watson

A flock of Sandhills soared out of the morning mist, revealing a single image of black and white flying alongside them – a Whooping Crane. Although it was a distant apparition, we all got to enjoy in-flight views of this rarity.

Merlin
by Simon Thompson

Loggerhead Shrikes, American Kestrels and both Vermilion and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers were “wire-birds” along the roadsides and pairs of magnificent Crested Caracaras sat on nearby fences and trees, as multiple Northern Harriers quartered the fields.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
by Simon Thompson

A picnic in Peveto Woods; a Baton Rouge Audubon Sanctuary was a great place for late migrants, such as Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Red-eyed and Yellow-throated Vireos, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Blue Grosbeak and a handful of warblers: Tennessee, Bay-breasted, Northern Parula, Chestnut-sided and Magnolia.

Magnolia Warbler
by Simon Thompson

The adjacent beach held the common and regularly-occurring Black-bellied and Semipalmated Plovers, along with the more uncommon Piping and Snowy Plovers, while the mixed tern and gull flocks contained all of the expected species, such as Ring-billed and Laughing Gulls, Caspian, Royal and Forster’s Terns, as well as Gull-billed Tern and several Franklin’s Gulls hiding among the many Laughing.

Snowy Plover
by Simon Thompson
Beach birding
by Keith Watson

Highlights of the trips had to be the stake-out Say’s Phoebe in a sports field, a picnic lunch in a quiet cemetery, a pelagic Harrier (why?) and a Hermit Thrush that we “chased” up a road in the marshes.

It was then off to the closing dinner for the 2019 Yellow Rails and Rice Festival; an evening of heavy hors d’oeuvres and socializing- a very pleasant end to the week. It was then some morning birding before some of us drove and some of us took a plane back to our respective homes.

Here are a few more birds (and one reptile!) from the trip:

Black-necked Stilt
by Simon Thompson
Stilt Sandpiper
by Simon Thompson
Inca Dove
by Simon Thompson
Tri-colored Heron
by Simon Thompson
American Alligators
by Keith Watson

One thought on “Louisiana”

  1. Great write-up of a fun trip! Did you mention the delicious jambalaya dinner given as part of festival? Yummmm.

    Simon is the most amazing guide, able to distinguish between alarm “chucks” of seemingly endless species of birds, to identify silhouettes and flight patterns with a quick, intense look, and to share the key views, so that guests could get the best look possible of any species. He also makes for a great birding partner with his interesting international background and hilarious asides.

    Keith was also a valuable addition, often finding species away from the madding crowd. He knocked on my door excitedly the first evening so I could run outside in my socks to see my first scissor-tailed flycatcher! He also did all the tedious but important work of tracking every sighting on eBird in real time. That enabled the rest of us to be free to observe as much as possible without stopping to record species for our own lists. eBird makes it so easy to share lists.

    I’ll be back with Ventures Birding for a longer jaunt. Thank you for my first southern birding experience, with dozens of new birds and many, many memorable and funny experiences.

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