Great birdwatching opportunities in St. Charles this winter
Instead of hunting for a meal, many local enthusiasts are hunting for a glimpse of rare birds that are wintering in St. Charles Parish this year.
The Crescent City Bird Club and the National Audubon Society were in the Bonnet Carre Spillway last month counting all of the birds they could find.
“We saw 70 different species of birds in about six-and-a-half hours of birding,” said Joelle Finley, with the Crescent City club.
Finley said the spillway is a great place to see birds this winter, including bald eagles, merlins, American kestrels, red-tailed hawks, osprey, northern harriers, ring-necked ducks, Bonaparte’s gulls and Forster’s terns.
She said that many bird watchers are drawn to the spillway this month to get a look at a particularly rare bird called LeConte’s Sparrow.
“A great winter sparrow that can be found there is LeConte’s Sparrow, a very special bird that likes to run through the tall grasses,” Finley said. “It is very difficult to see and usually has to be flushed out by a group of birders walking through the grassy field.”
Rene Schmit, with the LSU AgCenter, said that people can look out for robins, blue jays, oreoles and finches in almost any wooded area in the parish. The trees give the birds perch protection and a food source in the insects that live there.
“Just hunting in my stand I saw birds this year that I’ve never seen before, I heard (bird) songs I had never heard before,” Schmit said.
If you want to have wild bird visitors all season long, the key is providing an incentive for them to choose your bird feeder. To maximize the variety of birds that come to your home, place feeders at different heights and fill with seeds. All-black sunflower seeds are a favorite of blue jays, cardinals and finches, but millet is a good option for attracting sparrows and juncos.
Other nearby places which offer a good opportunity for bird watchers to see rare species in the wild include the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, Lake Pontchartrain and the West Pontchartrain-Maurepas Swamp.
For more information on bird watching in South Louisiana, visit www.jjaudubon.net.
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