John K. Flores: Birds put on a show in March

oHave you ever bought concert tickets to see your favorite band or singer and absolutely couldn’t wait to see them? There was always one “but” in the way that in many cases you had to put up with … the opening act.
Typically, the opening act is a group or person that has less prominence than the main event you can hardly wait for and in many cases, you don’t recognize or even like their music. But then there was that one opening act that really got your attention and, on the way home you talked about how much better they were than the guys you couldn’t wait to see.

For those outdoor enthusiasts who chase and love the annual spring bird migration, March is always the “opening act” for the big show that takes place throughout the month of April.
That said, I have to say, the birds that showed up in March have been nothing short of spectacular.
I started probing around the countryside the second weekend in March at Palmetto Island State Park where I usually find prothonotary warblers and yellow-throated warblers. After walking and driving several miles in the park, I realized I was just too early in the month for these particular species.
I was just about to call it a morning when suddenly I heard the nasally buzz and high-pitched chirp of a northern parula along a hiking trail. I grabbed the binoculars hanging from my neck and searched the trees where the sounds came from and that’s when I saw them. A pair of parulas were chasing one another through some live oak trees that were smothered with Spanish moss.

All it took to get a few pictures was me making a few “pish” sounds that drew the parula’s attention and just like that, my first March birding excursion took a positive turn. I knew then it would just be a matter of days and the woods would be teeming with prothonotary and yellow-throated warblers.
A few days later I decided to go on another excursion. This time I started out at the Cajun Coast Visitors Center located off Martin Luther King. The visitors center has a super nice porch around the building and is a perfect location for bird watching.
I saw a few northern cardinals, a couple tufted titmouse, a red-breasted woodpecker, and a downy woodpecker. All of these birds are local and stay year around in the area, but they were not what I was looking for. I was hoping to see a yellow-throated warbler.

Yellow-throated warblers, like northern parulas, are also early migrants and specialize on cypress trees where they obtain material to build their nests.
Once again, I got lucky and spotted a striking male singing on the branch of a cypress tree. The nice thing about the visitor’s center is the walkways are elevated above the swamp behind the building. Quite often you’ll find yourself photographing birds that are often at eye level and therefore, providing you with an excellent composition with a woodsy backdrop.
By the last week of March, the prothonotary warblers showed up in bunches along the coastline and the show they’ve been putting on has been worth the price of admission.

New Iberia resident Frank Garacci is a fellow birder and nature photographer who birds daily. From nesting wading birds to raptors and songbirds, Garacci is like a sportscaster who provides a play-by-play analysis of what’s going on with the migration.
When I contacted him the last week of March, Garacci said, “It’s been good John. I went to the boardwalk on Bayou Teche refuge and shot some pictures of northern parulas that were only 10 feet away from me. I also went to the Centerville Unit off Stinson Drive and almost got photographs of two hooded warblers. They were close too but wouldn’t come out of the brush for a good shot.”

Now that April has arrived, the big show is just getting underway. Over the course of the next several weeks, birds of all shapes, sizes and colors will make their annual trek across the gulf. What’s more, depending on weather conditions, many will temporarily stop over to visit our marshes, swamps and woods before heading further north to their respective breeding grounds.
One of the places here in St. Mary Parish I recommend is Cypremort Point State Park following a rainy low pressure weather system. These systems cause birds that have been in the air for over 24 hours, in some cases, to fallout along the coastline. At Cypremort Point I’ve seen orioles, buntings and warblers along the park’s entrance road and boardwalk following a front.

There are over 400 species of birds documented in Louisiana, making it one of the top 5 birding states in all the U.S. There’s nothing quite like the spring bird migration and you may have missed the opening act this past month, but the good news is, there is a whole month ahead to see the main event. Happy birding.

John Flores is the Morgan City Review’s outdoor writer. He can be contacted at gowiththeflo@cox.net.