Discover the secret life of the American Woodcock!
This Saturday, Feb. 7, Our LMNNE Secretary, Louisiana Master Naturalist Suzanne Laird‑Dartez will again bring her lively, illustrated talk to the Black Bayou Lake Conservation Learning Center—and then will leads us into the field for a Woodcock Walk alongside her fearless bird‑dog Quill.
The adventure begins right after the short public LMN‑NE Q1 meeting at 12 pm. Bring your own packed lunch and walking attire. We’ll meet at noon at the Black Bayou Lake NWR Conservation Learning Center for a short public Board meeting then Suzanne will present for about 45 minutes on Woodcocks, then we’ll set out to find them in the field!
Photographers among us may want to practice snap shooting – these birds are fast!
What a great day! Dr. Terri Maness walked us through 23 orders of birds that occur in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, then some ways of identifying birds.
While my group was standing on the boardwalk out on the lake, a flock of maybe 20 American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) glided onto the water. This was my biggest surprise. I have seen White Pelicans before but never at BBLNWR.
She also showed us 3millionbirds.org’s video about the huge decline of birds since the 1970s, which identifies several sad and shocking truths about why it’s happening, from loss of habitat to cats, both pets and feral, that roam freely outside.
This little Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa)appears to be scowling at me. I think it is just the bandit mask it wears that makes it look that way!
Then we added some layers against a somewhat cold but sunny day and went out to count birds. Terri gave us a scoring system: 5 points for an order, 2 points for a family and one point for a species. Two teams then walked off in opposite directions from the Conservation Learning Center at Black Bayou Lake NWR.
At the end of the afternoon, one team had accumulated more points than the other, but… it was a totally friendly competition and it really didn’t matter. We all learned and had a great time!
While we were standing in front of the Conservation Learning Center tallying our scores, this Red-shouldered Hawk(Buteo lineatus) soared in and perched at the top of a tree nearby. My group had heard a Red-tailed during the count, but this was the first look we got.
Louisiana Master Naturalists - Northeast 