Along the Creole Nature Trail, there are numerous birding opportunities, especially in the wildlife refuge areas. Since this section of Louisiana is located both on the Central and Mississippi Flyways, the Creole Nature Trail plays a vital role in the lives of 300 bird species, ones that live year round and other that migrate to the area. Several sites along the Creole Nature Trail rank among the best birding locations in the country.
If your passion is waterfowl, the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge is known as the largest waterfowl sanctuary on the Gulf Coast. Visit the refuge during the months of February, March, and April to see migrating warblers that stay to nest, as well as tree swallows, kingbirds, kingfishers, Orchard Orioles, and Yellow-billed Cuckoos. February is also the perfect month to see thousands of ducks, anything from common moorhens to Blue-winged Teal. Fill your camera with photos of White-fronted and White Ibis, along with Purple Gallinules, Roseate Spoonbills, Great Egrets, and Great Blue Herons.
The Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge is home to ducks, geese, coots, numerous shore birds, wading birds and migrant neo-tropical passerines from Central and South America. The winter months will treat you to the thousands of waterfowl, as the refuge is located at the edge of the Mississippi Flyway. Over the years, more than 400,000 waterfowl have chosen this as their wintering over spot.
Roseate Spoonbills Along the Creole Nature Trail (LA) [3]
Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge has birding opportunities year round, such as common snipe and woodcock, shorebirds and songbirds. This area is considered a water bird wonderland, so if that's your taste in birding, make sure you visit this refuge. Known as a nesting ground for colonies of egrets, herons, cormorants, ibis and anhinga, it also hosts Roseate Spoonbills in the later summer to early winter. The best time to spot the wading and shorebirds in spring and summer, but the songbirds travel by in the spring and fall migrations.
Less than ten miles away from Holly Beach is the Peveto Woods Birds and Butterfly Sanctuary, a favorite birding spot. If you visit the Sanctuary in the spring, you'll see the beautifully plumaged spring warblers, tanagers and orioles, as well as the more rare species of the Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Cerulean Warbler, and Cape May Warbler. If you are seeking out the hard-to-find, you have the chance to see the Townsend's Warbler, Hepatic Tanager, and Hooded Oriole.
At any time of the year, the Creole Nature Trail lets you not only glimpse the myriad numbers of birds as they take refuge from the blustering northern winds, but those that nest in the area year round. You don't have to go far to see the vast collection; as many as half of all land birds that breed in eastern North America pass through Louisiana twice each year.
