Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge

This morning we got up and were excited to notice that it was not raining, as it had been predicted by the Weather Channel last night. The atmosphere was densely foggy all morning, but it burned off around noon. After breakfast, we drove across a draw bridge spanning Lake Pontchartrain from the city of Slidell to the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge. Bayou Sauvage is in the eastern portion of Eastern New Orleans. Most of the refuge is inside massive hurricane protection levees, built to hold back storm surges and maintain water levels in the low-lying city.

Many waterfowl migrate south to New Orleans and spend the winter in the Bayou Sauvage marshes. Some of the birds that we saw included the Common Merganser with their large brown crests, the Ruddy Ducks who kept diving while we scoped them, lots of Scaup, and a pair of Bufflehead. We also identified the cute little Pied Billed Grebe and several clunky Common Moorhens. Waders included the golden footed Snowy Egrets, the larger Great Blue Herons, the Little Blue Herons, the Green Heron, and the White Ibis. The Double Crested Cormorants were numerous. The Loggerhead Shrikes were more numerous than expected. We saw Belted Kingfishers and lots of Northern Harrier.

The Brown Pelican is an endangered species and is a year-round resident at the Refuge. We saw several Brown Pelicans as well as American White Pelicans while exploring today. We looked for alligagtors, but did not see any today.

Leaving the Refuge, we drove in to New Orleans and had lunch at Mandini's. After waiting over thirty minutes for a table, Robert had the Gulffish LaFitte with green beans, and Berry had the Creole Eggplant and a side salad. We took a serving of bread pudding To-Go for use later tonight. We explored New Orleans after lunch until it started getting dark, then got a hotel room in the downtown area. Tomorrow we head to the ocean.

Berry and Robert