Blue Goose - Day 220

January 2, 2015 ~ Sulphur, LA to Eunice, LA

The rain had stopped but it was still overcast in the morning. I dithered about which route to take to get to Cameron Prairie NWR but decided to just use the route I took yesterday, back down through Sabine NWR, then east along the coast, and then north to Cameron Prairie.

Wilson's Snipe - Sabine NWR - LA

These little towns so close to the Gulf and backed by miles of bayous and marshes on the north of course made me speculate on who lives here. Fishermen? Bayou harvesters? Crawfishers? Shrimpers? Oil workers? People who have lived here for generations? I think money from Katrina was used to build the large impressive schools I saw in the few towns I passed through. What happens to the cattle when there are hurricane evacuations? Some homes are on small rises; some on various degrees of artificial elevation, but most were not on stilts like those on Galveston Island.

The several refuges near the Gulf were, of course, affected. The following is just one short example taken from a multi-page congressional hearing after hurricanes Rita and Katrina:

WWW.GPO.GOV 

Few people might realize it, but that impression might just as easily apply to the several National Wildlife Refuges that line the Gulf Coast from the Texas/Louisiana border across to the Florida panhandle. For example, it is my understanding that the Breton National Wildlife Refuge--formerly an offshore, low-lying chain of coastal islands valued as nesting habitat for endangered migratory birds and sea turtles--was virtually wiped off the charts by Hurricane Katrina. Not to be outdone, Hurricane Rita left debris piles--one six miles long and wider than the Washington Mall--littered across the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge. [Frank Pallone, Democrat from New Jersey]

Living here in southern Louisiana means living with heat, humidity, mosquitoes, alligators, venomous snakes and the oil industry. In my relative ignorance of life in the bayou country, it was utterly foreign to me.

I unexpectedly came on another little car ferry I had to take across the outlet from Calcasieu Lake, or Big Lake as the locals know it.

As I turned into Cameron Prairie NWR, the driver of an exiting vehicle rolled his window and asked if I were here "for the Eurasian Wigeon?" I had no idea that was why I was here. I had only seen a Eurasian Wigeon once before in flooded field in Montana mixed in with hundreds of other ducks. He told me exactly where to look and then another guy in a truck came by offering to turn around and show me with his scope. Cornell notes that this wigeon is a "sporadic visitor to North American...single individuals have turned up in nearly all states and provinces." And I guess this is the spot in Louisiana it chose. A nice serendipity for me!

I also got my scope out as the wigeon wasn't easy to find; other birders were stopping by. This was a big deal. My new friend spotted a Cinnamon Teal, also not expected here, but I was the one who finally found the Eurasian Wigeon. I am feeling much better about buying a scope and that scanning patiently through flocks of distant birds does produce results. They were difficult to see as the foggy grey sky seemed to drop down into the marsh briefly, but then, rather suddenly, all cleared, and I drove the rest of the auto-route seeing thousands of birds in what now seemed like a lovely spring day. It didn't last long (the fine weather) but long enough.

White Ibis - Cameron Prairie NWR - LA

I met up with the helpful birding guy again at the VC where there was another Cinnamon Teal, giving the locals good looks. ("Your'e a good luck charm...") This gentleman said he used to bird, but then his wife got breast cancer and eventually died and he was just now picking it up again. All so familiar. I love their accents. He was telling me all about a "minna" a "gambusia minna" and I finally figured out it was "minnow." This was in the context of some retired professor who is a friend, a birder and a "crawfish" authority. He flies all over the  world advising on crawfish.


Roseate Spoonbills and White Ibises were moving in the trees, gorgeous objects of pink and white feathers, impossibly lovely in the bare trees.

I then made a beeline for Lacassine NWR, 20 miles away and back in the marshes, while the sky darkened with impending rain and the afternoon lengthened. This refuge is accessed through oil property with warnings all over to not leave the main (marginal and pot-holed) road. Like I would do that. I didn't go far into Lacassine due mostly to its similarity to Cameron Prairie but also because night was imminent.

Spoonbills and Ibis - Cameron NWR - LA

I had seen the town of Eunice on the map and just had to stay there, so I drove an hour, finding a Walmart and then a Mexican restaurant. I ate one of the three objects they brought me which was a generous shrimp chimichanga in a sauce that looked exactly like milk but was thicker and tasty. It filled me up so I took the leftovers "home."