White Tailed Deer, Kingfisher and Plant Rescue

This morning, when we were half way to the river, we saw the white tails of 3 deer as they made a hasty retreat towards the Tchefuncte. All the corn that we put out for the wood ducks was gone. I guess with all the habitat destruction that has been going on around us, our property must have most of the browse plants that they need to prepare for the winter months.

When we reached the river we heard the chattering of a Belted Kingfisher. This fellow will sit right across the river and chatter until our dog, Rio, barks at him. The kingfisher will fly up river & back down to us as if he wants Rio to chase him. We’ve also seen a Kingfisher up at our pond by the house. The last few days we’ve seen what looks like some mallard ducks and also the resident wood ducks.

When we got back to the house we hurriedly prepared for a native plant rescue mission. One of the other members of the FNPS had alerted us about some beautiful wildflowers (including unusual, possibly rare milkweed, unusual large lavender asters, mountain mint and 20+ other species of native plants) that would soon be destroyed when another strip mall is built. We were able to move about 50+ plants today despite the rock hard soil. We plan to go back after we get a good rain, when it’s easier to dig. We will probably have to go on many more of these missions because St. Tammany Parish is in a building frenzy.