My Cats Hanging Out with the Eagles

For years, I tried to tell people who opposed my presence in the rookery, that I had a relationship with the wild nesting birds, that was not disruptive of nesting activities.

This was back before the Nature Conservancy started draining the lake and really disrupted things.

First Quarter Report 2011

From all indications this year appears to be the best I have seen since Y2K.



The tupelo are refoliating and blooming too, and the Bald Cypress are starting to really turn green as well.



A couple of weeks ago, the swamp was still mostly grey with moss being the predominant color factor.



And the White Ibis were really coming into the rookery to roost at sunset.



If you would like to view them,



you can go to Lake Martin Landing just before sunset any day,



and there are 20-30 thousand flying over the landing from the north to roost.



What is really interesting is how evident the floating mat of plants is as a foundation of the nesting birds food supply,

(as seen below, where Ibis are feeding on aquatic snails, shrimp and crawfish)



yet the Nature Conservancy continues to support the policy of spraying herbicide to decrease the plant mass as seen in the 3 photos below taken in the rookery at the Cypress Island Preserve on Sept. 28, 2010. The state with the Nature Conservancy's approval came out and sprayed around and in the rookey last year two times in September.



In spite of the fact that three sides of Lake Martin has been sprayed so much



that the ecology is in my opinion completely destroyed, there doesn't appear to be an end to this insanity. I thought the Nature Conservancy policy was protection of plants and wildlife and preservation of ecology.



That's right three sides of Lake Martin no longer has the floating mat of plants it once had and almost all the button bush was destroyed as a non targeted casualty of the war on plants that has gone on for 15 years.

You can see the evidence of this overkill in the photo below where floating mats of plants and button bush once were as thick as they are in the rookery today.



If I got this right it would appear that certain individuals are being decieved or perhaps bought and used to promote the chemical company agenda of selling chemical products to the state government at tax payer expense to create profit for the chemical company. If the plants were ever a threat, that threat ended over ten years ago when we wiped out the hundreds of acres of pennywort, frogbit, trifolium, and button bush on the north side of the lake.

The noth side of the lake is now in my opinion an aquatic desert compared to what it was 12 years ago when glossy ibis regularly visited their feeding grounds there.

Hopefully the emerald green that is emerging now will be here for our appreciation of the natural beauty of the swamp, as well as the nutrient value it brings to the ecology of all species, especially the birds, throughout spring and into the summer.



My Louisiana swamp tours have been a great source of inspiration and pleasure for many people for over 25 years and



in spite of 15 years of plant control, 5 major hurricanes in five years and an oil spill last year,



it would appar that the birds are back in record numbers and I will be here to watch over and defend the ecology and all species therein, as I conduct my tours. What has made my swamp tours special amoungst the 50 or so such companies in Louisiana is Lake Martin. de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours is still the premiere tourist attraction in the tri-parish area primarily due to the abundance and variety of plants, birds and alligators present in Lake Martin.



If you would like to come out and see the birds and alligators from Rookery Road(no charge), you can go to my site for directions, by clicking the link at the bottom of my new Lake Martin Swamp Tours site.



You can make a reservation for a swamp tour with me by calling my cell phone @ 337 298 2630.

If you are out at the lake touring, hiking, kayaking, fishing, birdwatching or doing photography, and begin to feel the hunger pains, I want to refer you to a really neat little restaurant on the main drag from Interstate 10 leading into Breaux Bridge at 124 Rees Street.

It is called Le Cafe.



Now I can imagin you may have been eating too much fried food lately, but if that is what you are looking for, these folks do it right.

Just my opinion, but this is the place for shrimp poboy in Breaux Bridge!



You can call them at 332 2500 and order in advance and pick it up at the drive through. Nice...



As you can see, there is a lot more to the menu than just shrimp.



This is not a fast food restaurant, so call in advance if you are in a rush or be prepared to sit and wait for them to cook your order, and that is what makes it so good.



Along with the fact that it is cooked to order, they bread their own and that is how it is supposed to be done.



They are located at the corner of Rees and Thibodeaux streets in Breaux Bridge.

It Has Been A Long Time Coming...

A White Ibis by Claude Nall



If my memory serves me here, I estimate about 10 years since I have seen so many White Ibis roosting at Lake Martin.




As I wrapped up the swamp tour yesterday,





I decided to shoot some sunset photos





and wave after wave of Ibis





began to fly over heading for the rookery to roost.




I have been distressed to say the least regarding the decline of the nesting bird population at the Lake Martin rookery.



The Nature Conservancy last drained the lake in September of 2008,



which led to low water levels during the nesting season of 2009,



and there was still considerable application of herbicide to control the aquatic plants in 2009 as well.





Then in 2009, after I started writing articles about the corelation of lower water levels and the decline of the nesting bird population,





the Nature Conservancy stopped draining the lake for the first time in September 2009





and last year the birds came back as I had hoped and predicted they would.




This year, I am anxiously awaiting to see where this positive turn of events goes.




In the meantime, as winter comes to an end, and the Bald Cypress refoliates,




It appears we birdwatchers, photographers, and nature lovers have much to look forward to this spring!

Why Just The Birds?

Everytime we overstep our bounds as human beings, we affect the natural environment, and all other species around us in profound new ways we often do not anticipate or even realize until it is too late.





I started this blog a year ago in order to separate the Lake Martin political issues regarding water, plant, wildlife, ecology, and the so called ecotours, from my Louisiana Swamp Tour Blog.

Photo of me and Christina by Philip Gould






My swamp tour blog was originally set up to help people find quality tours
My friend Butch, guiding a swamp tour


and at the same time expose the destructive activities of corporate, small business, and government entities that were disruptive of ecology at Lake Martin.





I soon realized that the positive results of my writing posts about ecopolitics in Lake Martin were so overwhelming,




I needed to put those posts in it's own blog.





So here we are. The Birds Of Lake Martin Blog.




I can now write in great detail about manipulation of water levels, herbicide application,



and bird nesting activities without creating an information overload



for people who are just wanting to find a quality swamp tour.









A lot of people live, work and play at Lake Martin.




Because of so much overlapping activities of resident wildlife and human recreation,





we humans(with the power and money to make gross alterations to ecology), need to be careful of the things we do in the name of protecting and managing the area,




and consider that we may cause more harm than good if we are not all working together, and value the presence and coexistance of all people, and plant and wildlife species in the Lake Martin ecological complex.

A Cricket frog, which lives in the floating mat of plants, and is often a hatchling alligators first food.


But, unity of service amoungst the entities dedicated to using, managing and protecting the area is grossly lacking or completely nonexistant for the most part.

Nutria, a very much misunderstood and undervalued non-indigenous species


Because of this we have lawnmowers in the rookery, cutting down Bald Cypress trees planted by the girl scouts, and drainage of the water resources during periods of drought, not to mention, excessive application of dangerous herbicides to kill and destroy the natural beauty and function of the swamp plants.




And all of those above mentioned activities are proposed to benefit the area ecology as a whole, when in fact, the big money management policies and activities are almost always designed to target one species or group of species to the demise of the rest of the eco-matrix.



Until we can all work together,





and protect all species in the ecosystem,



the delicate and thus very vulnerable well being of the birds at Lake Martinhangs in the balance.

All photos are copyrighted and courtesy of Claude Nall unless noted otherwise.