a view from lakeview

this has nothing to do with the topic, but i thought ya'll might enjoy it....

(i took the photo either in central illinois or possibly somewhere in kansas)

.......no, not lakview park near eunice (maybe i can do a report from there in the future), but the lakeview neighborhood in new orleans......................................my sister and her family, including our mom, just moved BACK there (i try not to judge...just look on it as an interesting socio-cultural phenomenon), and made re-entry only 3 weeks ago.....then they immediately headed out to germany for their son's marching band exchange student thing.........so i volunteered/was coerced to hang out with mamma at their lakeview house, right off of canal blvd., about 6 blocks south of the ponchartrain lakefront.

as i  am -- and most all of my neurotically-obsessive birding friends are -- wont to do, as soon as i arrived (28 june)  i immediately began keeping a bird species observation list. 

     basically my only vantage point was from a little east/southeast-facing, covered side-stoop on the east side of the house, giving me not much more than a 90-degree view, with only a tiny patch of horizon involved -- probably 25-degrees or so -- looking southeast toward gentilly.

.....as with any bird-malaised person, the limited view caused me no nevermind........i immediately began hearing 'em.....ah-huh.....starling.....blue jay.....house sparrow......yes, there were birds here, and by golly they would be counted and duly recorded.

     for those of you not in the know, the lakeview community in new orleans was built on swamp/marsh land, just south of the southern shore of lake ponchartrain. due to the ever-drying/compacting muck below, people have to constantly add sand around the foundations of their homes, further exacerbating the sinking below......as one might imagine, most of the side streets have become, uh, heavily affected in the process. go anywhere you want in the world: there ain't no streets like lakeview streets, ya'll. 

 in the fall of 2005, huricanne katrina reminded lakeview of how far below sea-level it was, as lake ponchartrain busted through the levees and found its level about 8-10' up the sides of the residents' homes.  

     lakeview is presently about 60% re-occupied, and looks pretty nice....they're keeping up the neutral grounds there on harrison ave., canal blvd, and robert e. lee.....there are numerous empty lots on each block, all being mowed..........so the result is more widely-spaced houses....separated by big swaths of green. but there are few relatively-mature trees.....and a pretty decent smattering of small trees and large shrubs.........................wishful thinking: should the empty lots somehow remain empty -- and shade trees would be planted on them, lakeview would be transformed into an extra-fine community, with a very nice albeit partial urban canopy. . . just day-dreamin'........

     thanks to my little view of the skies, the bird list came along pretty quickly.....a single dawn and a single dusk watch yielded six species of herons and egrets, including the one with the pre-historic voice -- the yellow-crowned night heron (aka, "grosbek" pron. grow-BECK)....uttering a single "QUAWRK!!" as it finds or departs from its roost during each dawn and dusk.

     for the first 10 days, the weather was downright squally....and tropically-so......accompained by a steady southeastery wind, rains of various durations and intensities trained over us, punctuated by (mercifully) short bursts of unmitigated sunshine.......ouch!.....go 'way sun!...............................sun that could turn my t-shirt sopping wet in a matter of minutes......................but the squalls brought in cool birds, like a couple of brown pelicans, numerous laughing gulls, gull-billed terns, a pair of mississippi kites, and my "best bird of the watch," a (calling) pair of lesser yellowlegs (pretty uncommon in la. in late june), headed north toward the lake.

lesser yellowlegs (photo perhaps by dave patton)

     between bouts of grocery shopping, grass mowing, and seeing about mom (we had some great conversations about her as a little girl growing up in the '20s & 30s in a pure sicilian community just behind the mississippi river levee in st. bernard parish) i faithfully took my post on the side-stoop....and the bird list mounted......doves and chimney swifts, downy woodpecker, house finch, purple martins in the evenings.......my two other "special" sightings included an adult male cooper's hawk, stealthily perched atop a street light, at 11:30am no less, on nearby canal blvd, two blocks away; and a pair of great-crested flycatchers, nesting in a broken down pecan tree 150' catty-corner to the stoop. 

     but the local "trash" birds provided much entertainment as well........like the young starling that uttered imitations of green-tree frog calls from up on the utility line each post-dawn....often there was an adult present as well, registering vocal disdain to the youngster's selection..........for his part, the local mocker slept in, refusing to mount the electrical grid until about 7:30am each day.......the master singer needs his rest........

     eschewing mimicry until the last, he'd typically launch into a long session of varied and lovely originals, but then ending each session with the flat, nasally, whining, "Nyaaah Nyaah" call of the infamous eurasian collared dove.....................one of the mocker's foraging routines was equally interesting in that it was so heavily urban-adapted: creeping lizard-like around the foundations of houses, occasionally hopping up to window-sills or the 5'-elevated air-conditioner stands so popular in lakeview these days........................................