Blue Goose ~ Day 258

February 9, 2015 ~ Louisville, MS to Madison, MS

On the way to the "Brake" refuges, I stopped by a little museum in Koscuisko, Mississippi, right at an entrance to the Natchez Trace Parkway, and discovered this is the birthplace of Oprah Winfrey. "You've heard of Oprah Winfrey?" the volunteer gentleman at the desk asked me. I felt like saying "No...who is she?" just to see his reaction.

The town was named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko, an intriguing man who was born in Poland, came to the US to fight in the Revolutionary War with the Americans and was an important architect for West Point. He became friends with Thomas Jefferson "with whom he shared ideals of human rights [and] wrote a will in 1798 dedicating his American assets to the education and freedom of U.S. slaves. He eventually returned to Europe and lived in Switzerland until his death in 1817. The execution of his will later proved difficult and the funds were never used for the purpose he had intended." (Wikipedia)  

I added this most interesting man to the short list of the people I found fascinating while on this trip. 

The volunteer also asked me where I lived, and when I said "Holland" he was delighted as Holland is the only place he has been in Michigan...on a "bank" bus tour at Tulip Time one year. (At least I think he said "bank," but I don't always understand the thickly accented words.) 

Next, I got the oil changed by a man with no personality and a grudging attitude before I went on through pleasant Mississippi countryside, up and down small hills, past open fields and woods. There are country estates with man-made ponds scattered here and there, usually near large cities. 

And then I was in cotton and crop-duster country with kestrels on the wires and killdeer by the dozens in the fields. Everything was muted, and I saw few signs of spring yet...no new buds or leaves, just grayish-brown branches and fallow fields. There was the green of Saw Palmetto in some woods but the landscape was mostly drab.

Cotton fields MS

Here is my vocabulary lately: 

Brake means thicket. 
Bayou means slow moving water usually with an abundance of vegetation.
Slough means a river side channel intermittently filled with water.
Oxbow means a crescent-shaped lake when a "meander of a stream or river is cut off from the main channel" (www.thefreedictionary.com)

There are seven Mississippi refuges in what is known as the Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Complex. It seemed to me they are mostly hunting preserves. I was seeing and reading more about hunting regulations and permits to the exclusion of much else on these refuges, with seasons for deer, raccoon, squirrel, rabbit, opossum, coyote, beaver, bobcat nutria, and turkey; ducks, geese, mergansers and coot; fish and frogs. Dogs / Retrievers are permitted. ATVs are allowed, as are hunting blinds. So the term "refuge" is hardly that. And, in fairness, Mississippi isn't the only state to allow hunting on the refuges; most do, but my impression lately has been that the shooting of animals is the main business once they had improved the habitat enough to attract birds and animals. 

I went first to Mathews Brake NWR which was down a dirt road behind a locked gate next to private duck camp.

Mathews Brake NWR - MS

Mathews is small at 2400 acres with no pretension from what I could see that this is anything else than land for hunting and fishing. I proceeded on to Morgan Brake NWR (7400 acres) which did have at least one nature trail; however, their web site states: 

WWW.FWS.GOV

Although occasional visitors stop by to observe wildlife and take a few pictures, most wildlife observation and photography is associated with hunting and fishing.  Environmental education and interpretation are provided upon request, but there are no refuge specific programs and no staff available to develop and conduct effective education and outreach Programs.

Driving through on a main road, I went by several water impoundments with thousands of waterfowl. The phrase "sitting duck" came to mind.
 

Hillside NWR - MS

And then I went to Hillside NWR, a much larger refuge at over 15,000 acres, and drove on a levee for several miles along open marshes and wooded swamps. The hills in the distance are loess hills, unique in Mississippi. It seemed more of a REFUGE. I watched an immature Bald Eagle in the distance scattering waterfowl and dozens of Great Egrets. There is a half-mile Alligator Slough Trail in this 11,000 acre refuge and the public can drive refuge roads.

Hillside NWR- MS

The issues of hunting and fishing on refuges are surely complex. Invasive fauna like feral swine, armadillos, coyotes and nutria are a problem. Wading and shorebirds (I assume) are never harvested. Neotropicals use these refuges to rest and/or nest. But the reality of people going onto National Wildlife Refuges to kill animals and birds, and ride ATVs does not set easily.

Kill your frogs elsewhere people....







I always wondered what the Mississippi Delta actually was:

WWW.FWS.GOV

The “Mississippi Delta” (Delta) is an alluvial plain created by meanderings of the Mississippi River. The Delta extends from Memphis, Tennessee to Vicksburg, Mississippi, and is 75 miles wide at the widest point, tapering on each end. The Mississippi River flows along the Delta’s western edge, while the eastern edge is bordered by steep bluffs that rise 300 feet above the elevation of the Delta. The Delta is composed of alluvial soils deposited primarily by the Mississippi River, with surface features resulting from the meandering of the Mississippi River and lesser streams such as the Yazoo River. The Delta has a slight downward slope to the east as a result of natural levee formation. This slope causes most of the drainage to be away from the Mississippi River, eventually flowing into the Yazoo River before joining the Mississippi River at the lower extremity of the Delta. Old channels, oxbow lakes, brakes, sloughs, and other features developed in areas that bordered the main river channels, while low-lying slackwater areas separated from currents and the channel resulted in broad flats. These features intermixed as the Mississippi River meandered across the Delta.