Overdue Visit to New Orleans

This weekend I finally made my way over to New Orleans.  On the way into the city, Eamon and I stopped to do some birding at Bayou Savage.  We missed out on the reported Calliope Hummingbird and Say's Phoebe, but it was still a beautiful day.  We met up with a fellow birder, Glen, who had come to the refuge to  see some Yellow Rails.  The trail that we followed went along the large coastal marshes with plenty of opportunities to see Anhingas flying by, as well as our first Cattle Egrets of the season.  In addition, we got a couple of early Barn Swallows making their way back up from Latin America.  There were plenty of Purple Martins flying around as well as several Tree Swallows.  As usual, there were also plenty of Yellow-rumped Warblers.  After a day and an evening in the city (New Orleans was really a lot of fun, and it is quite a beautiful city!),  we went to Audubon Park to check for more early migrants, and to get Black-bellied Whistling Ducks to add to our list of birds during our time in Mississippi.  We came across many other great species, including the closest I have ever been to Wood Ducks.  One of the first warblers that we spotted was a Northern Parula, which was a really exciting way to start the day in the park.  We also had an unexpected pair of Peregrine Falcons that greeted us at the end of the day.

 Male Wood Duck

 Female Wood Duck

 Mute Swan

 Blue-winged Teal

 White Ibis

 Cattle Egret

 Green Heron

 Anhinga

 American Coot

 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

On a sad note, we come across two birds that had materials stuck to them.  This Ring-billed Gull had some kind of material stuck to his wing, while the Anhinga had fabric stuck on the top of his bill.

 Ring-billed Gull

Anhinga