Blue Goose ~ Day 257

February 8, 2015 ~ Columbus, MS to Louisville, MS

What better to do on a warm and sunny Southern Sunday morning than head for the swamp...in particular, Noxubee NWR. The Mississippi refuges seem trickier to find than in the other states but my very smart phone usually comes through. On the way I drove through Starkville, home of Mississippi State, the largest university in Mississippi.

Noxubee has recently been renamed Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee NWR. Sam was appointed the 15th Director of the USFWS in 2009 but he had a heart attack and died six months later. He was not a Mississippi native but DID receive his Bachelor's Degree from Mississippi State. He was active in the aftermath of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. He also worked hard on behalf of the Florida Everglades, but I was curious why he would have a refuge named after him.

Noxubee NWR - MS

Noxubee is another refuge whose mission includes habitat for the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. Yes, I admit I have a bird obsession going on here and did walk through white-ringed trees on the Woodpecker Trail down to a cypress swamp, listening and looking in vain, but no matter - it was a lovely day. Here the woodpecker trees are mostly Loblolly Pines whose needles are slightly twisted, 6 inches long and in groups of three, but the RCWs preferred tree is the Longleaf Pine with needles of 12-14 inches which grows a bit further south. The Longleaf forests of the Southeast have been nearly decimated by lumbering so many refuges work on restoring this important habitat.

The brown needles were soft underfoot; sunshine glinted off fallen oak leaves; there were no insects and no humid heat. Perfect hiking conditions. Although most warblers, vireos, etc. haven't migrated back yet, there are Eastern Bluebirds, woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, all the waterfowl and wading birds, hawks, grackles....

Eastern Bluebird - Noxubee NWR - MS

The area around the closed VC which is nicely situated on the shore of Bluff Lake had trails, an overlook and a Native Plant Garden but no kiosk with refuge information. Often a small entryway of the VCs are open on weekends with pamphlets for the visitor.

A couple came by, put up a hammock and enjoyed a couple of hours lazing in the sunshine, moving with the slight breeze.

There are two lakes, four Green Tree Reservoirs (GTRs) and 16 small impoundments on this 48,000 acre refuge. About half is bottomland (wet) hardwood forest. The GTRs are shallowly and seasonally flooded bottomlands. Again, it's all about water.

A boardwalk went into a cypress swamp where a few Ring-necked Ducks and Coots were moving in the distance.

While the refuge literature here in Mississippi is all about the wintering waterfowl, I have not seen an abundance of such. What I am seeing more and more in this state are refuges geared to hunters. Maybe there is a connection? Few ducks; many duck hunters?

I thought I might stay in a state park campground near Louisville and drove through to get a feel for  what it offered. Legion State Park is one of four "original state parks developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps" on what had been Choctaw Indian land. The grand Legion Lodge, built of "hand-hewn logs" was at the end of the road, but the rest of the park had a deserted air with no other campers and I left. The temperature was 70 degrees by now and an air-conditioned McDonalds (supper for me) was too cold, so I left there also and hung out in the nearby Walmart parking lot, sleeping well as it was warm. It rained for a short time during the night but was clear again in the morning.

Noxubee NWR - MS