Baton Rouge Audubon Society

Finally got the video of our April program uploaded to our YouTube channel! Enjoy hearing about the Benefits of Bugs presented by Dr. Frank Rinkevich with the USDA Bee lab.

The Benefits of Bugs by Dr. Frank Rinkevich Insects are among the most underappreciated but most critical components of a healthy ecosystem which provide many benefits to natural systems and greatly in...

Thank you so much to LOS- Louisiana Ornithological Society for donating this picnic table to Peveto Woods Bird & Butterfly Sanctuary, and to Paul Zimmerman for helping with the delivery and setup! It will get plenty of use.

The trails are currently flooded at our Amite River Sanctuary with as much as 36 inches of standing water. Proceed with extreme caution!

Special day at our Amite River Wildlife Sanctuary! Last year, researchers installed 4 geolocators on Prothonotary warblers at the sanctuary. It took a while but finally one of the 4 birds was rediscovered at the sanctuary. Today was the day to try to capture the bird to retrieve the device. Unfortunately, it was also the day after 3 steady days of rain that totaled over 7 inches! We were pretty sure it was going to be flooded, but had no idea how much. So, there definitely was a lot of water but actually not as much as we feared. It was a little disconcerting to wade in something like 30” of water! My biggest fear was tripping on a hidden cypress knee and going under!
But Katie caught the bird and got the device. She was also able to band two other nesting warblers and weigh a clutch of nestlings. Alicia got to do the release.
It was a beautiful day in the swamp!

Hello all! Spring migration is in full swing and lots of folks are visiting Peveto Woods and rightly so. However, if you've visited Peveto, you also know how limited the parking is. BUT, did you know there is extra parking right around the corner? If you continue on Gulf View Rd. past the entrance to Peveto and turn left (on this map it's labeled Cameron parish 557) there is a large lot on the left that is available for parking. Given the number of people that will likely be in and out of the sanctuary for the next couple of weeks, and given how narrow the roads in the sanctuary are, it's wise to plan to park here *first* instead of driving into the sanctuary.

Charlotte is going to be adding more signage to help to make folks aware of the additional parking, but please feel free to pass this along to birding groups and folks who you know may visit. Last Sunday there was an exceptional turnout of birds and birders but the parking was a mess, with people parking smack in the road, on the trailheads, as well as on top of some of the plants that our volunteers just installed!

See you in the woods!

--Jane Patterson
President, BR Audubon

BRAS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

HB 851, banning mass balloon releases, was favorably referred from the Senate Committee on Natural Resources on April 15. It is scheduled for a floor vote in the Senate on Monday, April 20. Contact your senators!

A sample email is provided below:

Senator _________:

The Baton Rouge Audubon Society is a birdwatching and conservation organization of about 500 members. We are proud to own two wildlife sanctuaries, Peveto Woods in Cameron Parish and the Amite River Wildlife Sanctuary, a 36 acre preserve in Ascension Parish near Port Vincent. HB851, scheduled for a vote Monday, April 20, would prohibit the intentional outdoor release of filled balloons and impose a fine on anyone caught doing so. Balloon releases are a particularly egregious form of litter because what goes up must eventually come down, with catastrophic consequences for birds, fish, and other wildlife.

In sum:

1. Balloons negatively impact the environment by littering lakes, streams, and beaches. It is basically the same as intentionally throwing trash into the ocean or the ground.

2. Even balloons marketed as biodegradable or eco-friendly can still take years to disintegrate. This means that they are not better for the environment than standard balloons.

3. When balloons make their way into the water, their floating pieces and tattered ends can resemble jellyfish or other sea life that is consumed by marine animals like fish, sea turtles, and dolphins. When the pieces of latex or Mylar are mistaken for food and are ingested, they can get lodged in the digestive tract, inhibiting the animal's ability to eat, and it can cause a slow and painful death by starvation.

4. Wildlife and domestic farm animals can also fall victim to balloons and its strings when the pieces fall to the ground or onto bushes and trees. Birds have been found injured with ribbons wrapped around their wings or beaks, and have strangled themselves when they become entangled in strings that are attached to power lines and trees. And just like marine animals, they can succumb to a painful death after ingesting balloons.

5. Entergy Louisiana has raised alarms about Mylar balloons, which are metallic and can cause dangerous electrical surges or outages when they contact power lines or transformers. A high-profile outage occurred in New Orleans in August 2024, when a Mylar balloon caused a power flicker at a water treatment plant, leading to a boil water advisory for nearly 370,000 residents.

LSU Professor Richard Condrey, Baton Rouge Audubon Society conservation chair, has been active for many years trying to address this issue, and BRAS supports this initiative. The bill is backed by the Lt. Governor's office, the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, the Louisiana Ornithological Society, the Louisiana Retailer's Association, and the Louisiana Cattlemen's Association. Please support this vital environmental reform.

Name
Address

BRAS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

HB 851, prohibiting mass balloon releases, was approved by the Louisiana House of Representatives on March 31 by a vote of 88-6. It moves to the Senate for consideration.

Excitement at our Amite River sanctuary! There are at least two adult male Prothonotary warblers here now and one of them is a banded returnee! This guy was banded last year on April 3, 2025. He's not one of the ones with a geolocator, but we're excited he's back regardless!

If you visit the Sanctuary and see an Prothonotary warblers, look for color bands on their legs and let us know if you see them!

Our latest newsletter is up on the website. Articles include:
- Lights Out / Window Strike prevention article by Ellen Ogden (and how you can help!)
- Activities at Peveto and Amite River sanctuaries
- Information about this year's Christmas Bird Count
- Plants for birds feature: Wax Myrtle
- Report on our successful Hummingbird Celebration in Sept
- Winter hummingbirds - reminder to look out for them! Also we will have a lagniappe program on Winter Hummingbirds on Dec 3, 6:30pm at Main EBR library, room 101.
http://braudubon.org/newsletter/BRAS3Q2025v2.pdf
http://braudubon.org/events-and-field-trips

Good birding!

--Jane Patterson

Events & Calendar | Baton Rouge Audubon Society The Baton Rouge Audubon Society (BRAS) is a local volunteer chapter of the National Audubon Society.

New colors and styles of our Amite River Sanctuary t-shirts are now available! Choose one and support our sanctuary!