Seasons of Wildlife
February – April: Migrating shorebirds feed in drying farm fields. Wood ducks, hooded mergansers, and screech owls begin nesting in boxes and natural cavities.
April – June: Songbirds nest in forests and fields.
July – August: Post-breeding concentrations of wading birds use drying oxbows and ponds.
November – February: Waterfowl concentrate to feed in flooded farm fields and moist soil units. Tippo Bayou and associated oxbows heavily used. Northern harriers and other raptors are frequently seen hunting over fields and reforestation areas.
Featured Species
The old oxbows and low-lying fields along Tippo Bayou flood each winter and hold large concentrations of waterfowl, including mallards, northern shovelers, blue-winged and green-winged teal, and northern pintails. Wood ducks abound here and the unit has a very healthy deer herd. Peregrine falcon, bald eagles, merlin, least tern, barred owls, great-horned owls, loggerhead shrikes, and red-tailed hawks, great blue herons, eastern meadowlarks, northern flickers, pied-billed grebes, and loggerhead shrikes are common year-round residents. Summer visitors include indigo buntings, blue grosbeaks, dickcissels, white ibis, and prothonotary warblers. Although less common wood storks and black-bellied whistling ducks are some unique summer visitors.