Blue Goose ~ Day 222

January 4, 2015 ~ Natchez, MS to Hammond, LA

South from Natchez (after coffee and light in the sky) on a good road over rolling hills to St. Catherine Creek NWR:

WWW.FWS.GOV

We strongly recommend you do not rely on an electronic navigation device to find your way around the refuge. Inaccurate maps and limited reception can lead you astray...Roads are passible in a two-wheel drive vehicle, but some are in poor condition. Refuge access becomes restricted when the Mississippi River reaches 34 inches on the Natchez gauge. Click here to see the current river stages.

OK, I'm getting the message. I'm also reading a delightful book about searching for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the swamps. I see "Swamp Thing / Swamp People" T-shirts at gas stations. The floodplain here along the Mississippi and the Gulf is often a wet swampy, marshy, bayou-defined land. But with just a little more elevation, the flora changes, often to lovely savannah-like areas with sun lighting the brown pine needles and live oaks. My ignorance of the geography surprised me when I looked at the map closely: I had always thought the Mississippi River came from the north, flowing along the east of New Orleans and then moved in a "crescent" shape to the west, but it actually comes at a 45-degree angle from the northwest, moves south and east around the city and then out to the Gulf. The Pearl River is more to the east and forms the boundary between Mississippi and Louisiana near the Gulf.

St. Catherine Creek was still dry enough today, a highway compared to Bayou Cocodrie (cocoa-dree) yesterday. I first went to The Swamp and then drove part of Wildlife Drive, Wood Duck Lane and partway around the Sibley Impoundment.

St. Catherine Creek NWR - MS

Rather suddenly, mid morning, I felt spring had arrived. Mainly, the sun came out, but I also saw chickadees, a Downy Woodpecker, cardinals and what I first thought was an Ash-throated Flycatcher which would be rare here; however the Brown-crested or Great-crested would also be, so hmmm....I submitted it to eBird alerting them to the possibility but knowing they wouldn't accept it. Which is fine as I was not positive of the ID. Still....it could be....

I also saw ATVs, usually on trailers behind pickups. The refuge map shows "ATV trails." Nearly every refuge lately posts regulations for hunting and fishing, but also a refuge bird list and often lists of other flora and fauna. I know I seldom mention all the non-birding related animal and plant protections for which refuge managers are responsible, but they are significant. Refuges are also a hydrologist's dream....moving water around. I've probably mentioned this before. To have the great hurricanes sweep through and destroy so much of their work must be heartbreaking. Where do the birds shelter in these ferocious winds?

Bald Cypress trees in the swamp on St. Catherine Creek NWR - MS

As I drove south, I went back into Louisiana and tried to find Cat Island NWR adjacent to the "southernmost un-leeved stretch" of the Mississippi; thus, it is actually often underwater. 

WWW.FWS.GOV

The refuge is accessible by vehicle when the Mississippi River gauge reading in Baton Rouge is less than about 18'. The refuge is completely inundated by the river each year, generally between January and June. 

It is January but I tried anyway (since the Baton Route gauge was currently at 14'), driving deeper and deeper into swamp on Solitude Road and soon found myself next to bayous again on another marginal road. I came to a fork, took it, looked ahead and it didn't look good, turned back (carefully so I didn't get stuck in the swamp), took the other fork through more bottomlands but on a better road, saw a pretty Carolina Wren, passed by a long drive to a plantation out of sight over a small rise, went a bit farther and quit even though the road was now climbing. Later I realized that I was very close on the first fork choice and should have continued another half mile. But I had at least seen the habitat which must be amazing in a month or two with birds (and snakes and mosquitoes and alligators).

Cat Island NWR that-a-way - LA

As I continued south, I began to get in Baton Rouge / New Orleans traffic on Interstates 10 and 12. I stopped in Hammond for the night, eating a delicious meal at Applebee's: lightly crusted salmon with an artichoke sauce and a mix of steamed spinach, peas, asparagus and small diced zucchini. It was satisfying and tasty and just enough.