WISN Surveys near Baton Rouge, LA and Pigeon Bayou, LA

Today we completed our township near Baton Rouge, LA. The habitat was not ideal, and the available roads were, for the most part, private or too busy to survey on. We did fit 9 surveys in the township, though, but didn't find any snipe. We did however see an osprey, a first of the year.

Next we headed to a township north of Morgan City, LA, in Pigeon Bayou. This area is part of the Achafalaya flood basin, and I really can't believe people live here, or anywhere in LA for that matter. People literally have built houses over swamps and bayous, and some of them just live in boats. The weather is great though, and after spending some time in these small communities, one begins to understand the appeal to living here. I can't help but hear the words of my college geology professor in my head, "Don't build your house in the floodplain!" over and over again...

We didn't see any snipe in the bayou, but did see a variety of other birds. I picked up common yellowthroat, house wren, barred owl, and laughing gull, all in the Pigeon Bayou area. This American pipit just roamed closer and closer to the truck, and before I knew it, he was right next to it.

American pipit

There were also many red-shouldered hawks in the swamps.

This barred owl was sitting on a fence post, and flushed when a car drove by. He was not at all disturbed by our presence, and barely opened one eye to watch us. Notice his very worn feathers.

barred owl, Pigeon Bayou, LA

Later we picked up anhinga and roseate spoonbill as soon as we entered Morgan City, both firsts for the year.

roseate spoonbill

anhinga

Tomorrow we we travel along the coast to a township south of Crowley, LA. We then will have four townships left to survey. Also tomorrow, we will start point counts (versus transect surveys) to compare if it is a better method to stay in one spot for a longer period of time while searching for snipe, versus driving by rather quickly. Sometimes, when close to the road, snipe "hunker" down, and flatten out their bodies. When they do this, they are very hard to find. Matt thinks a stationary point count will allow the counters to see these hiding snipe, which makes sense. We will test this out tomorrow. You do, however, lose the benefit of covering a larger survey area over small amount of time, which is beneficial when you need to cover a large region like the Mississippi Delta.