Nature Done Wright

One of the many highlights of a recent trip to New Orleans and Bayou Country was a morning trip to Bayou Sauvage on the outskirts of the city.

My fellow birders were my wife Patty, Birding Pal Sondra Venable and two birder/authors from Hawaii, Hob Osterlund and Susan Dierker, who work to save  the endangered Laysan albatross (Google them and check out their fine work).

By the end of the morning, which included a quick stop at Lake Pontchartrain, we had seen at least 41 species, including some great Louisiana birds and many species we see up here — they probably had just flown into New Orleans during migration.

Highlights included the Roseate Spoonbills (above), a Bald Eagle (tussling with an Osprey at one point), Little Blue Heron, Common Gallinules, Glossy Ibises and White Ibises.

I hope to write a column with much more about the day and Birding Pals this winter.

Full list — and pix of a gator, gator sign, Boat-tailed Grackle and Viceroy butterfly — follows.