Waterbird bonanza at Bayou Sauvage (video)

There has been a tremendous concentration of waterbirds this fall at a particular impoundment of the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge.  It takes about a half hour to walk to a vantage point.

Across Chef Hwy from the kiosks/restrooms at the western refuge boundary (at the Snowy Egret sign) is a gated road (Recovery Rd) that heads south, tracking just inside the refuge boundary.  About a half hour walk in, past the dilapidated shed, a levee on the left can be climbed for a view of the spectacle.

Great waterbird concentrations are to be expected at this spot whenever there is a prolonged dry spell, so that lots of shoreline mud gets exposed for sandpipers and the open water becomes shallow enough for larger waders and dabbling ducks.  I am not sure how much rain it has received this weekend, and what effect that will have, but I expect it to remain good.

This video, taken by LSU professor Van Remsen, gives a feel for the enormity of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNZ3ujWF7ug

Awesome!

PY