November 17–20 Photography Tour Trip Report

With a fantastic group of participants, I had the pleasure of leading a memorable trip into the swamps of Southwestern Louisiana. During our journey, we explored three stunning cypress swamps: Lake Dauterive, Lake Martin, and Lake Fausse Pointe. Despite facing high winds and a day of intermittent rain, we returned with some incredible photographs that truly captured the beauty of the region.

Having led tours to Lake Dauterive and Lake Martin for many years, I’ve learned the best spots to visit and how to navigate around choppy water. However, the winds during this trip presented some unique challenges. Lake Martinturned out to be the most accommodating, with its numerous sheltered areas providing respite from the gusts.

This was my first year including Lake Fausse Pointe, and it proved to be a fantastic addition to the itinerary. Its serene beauty and photographic opportunities make it a place I look forward to visiting again.

If you’re passionate about capturing the magic of Louisiana’s swamps, consider joining us for one of the spring tours. I’ll also announce next year’s fall tour dates soon—don’t miss out! Check them out here.

Check out a gallery of images for this trip and the preceding one here.

Photographing the Roseate Spoonbill in Louisiana

General Facts and Appearance

Photographing the Roseate Spoonbill is one of my favorite activities in the spring. The Roseate Spoonbill is one of the most striking wading birds in North America. Its body is primarily pink, with red feathers on its wings and an orangish patch on its tail. The bird’s distinctive spatula-shaped bill is used for scooping food from the water. Measuring about 30 inches tall with a wingspan of approximately 36 inches, the Spoonbill becomes even more vibrant during spring mating season, when its reddish wing feathers are most prominent.

In Louisiana, Roseate Spoonbills typically mate in early spring (March or April), with chicks hatching in May or June. They nest alongside other wading birds in cypress trees growing in the water. Each mating pair produces 3 to 5 chicks, which are a much paler pink compared to adults.

During the early 1900s, the Spoonbill population was severely reduced by "plume hunters," who used their feathers for items like fans. Since they nest among other wading birds such as egrets, also targeted for their feathers, the disturbance of shared nesting areas further impacted their numbers. Today, nesting populations are concentrated along the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. In Louisiana, the largest nesting sites are in the southwestern part of the state, within about 100 miles of the Gulf Coast.

Behavior

Roseate Spoonbills are often seen wading in the water, foraging for food with their spoon-shaped bills. Unlike herons, they walk in a crouched position, moving their tails back and forth as they go. In flight, they extend their heads straight out and flap their wings relatively slowly.

During nesting season, males are highly territorial, aggressively defending their nesting sites through displays and chasing rival males. Spoonbills are social birds and are often observed in flocks both during and outside the breeding season. When nesting, large groups engage in dramatic "upflights," where many birds leave and return to the nesting site together.

Migratory Behavior

In Louisiana, Roseate Spoonbills are non-migratory. While they disperse from nesting sites, likely due to food availability, they remain in the general area year-round.

For additional information, the best online reference can be found at Cornell University's Birds of North AmericaOnline.

Best Locations for Photographing the Roseate Spoonbill in Louisiana

Lake Martin

Lake Martin's Rookery hasn't returned to its pre-2006 status. While it still exists, it's not within photographic range, and only an occasional Roseate Spoonbill can be seen, usually high overhead.

Rip Van Winkle Gardens - Jefferson Island

Roseate Spoonbill Bathing at Rip's Rookery in May, 2024

The Rookery entrance is now along the main road into the Gardens, named Rip's Rookery. Previously, the best photography was at a small pond on the West side of the complex, but erosion has mostly submerged the Cypress Trees island. While a few birds, including Roseate Spoonbills, still nest there, their numbers have decreased. The best photography spot is now at the larger pond, requiring a longer lens for close shots. Flight shots can be captured with a shorter telephoto lens, but shots in the trees need at least a 600mm lens, preferably with a teleconverter. The afternoon is the best time to photograph, as the East Side of the pond is far from the nesting birds. This year was worth visiting, but it's not what it once was. Their web site can be seen here.

Talons Landing Road

Recent visits haven't yielded any birds.

Miller's Lake

Roseate Spoonbill in Flight at Miller's Lake, taken in April, 2024

In recent years, Miller's Lake has offered better opportunities to photograph Roseate Spoonbills. We've used a boat with an outboard motor to reach birds in the trees, though the shallow lake makes boating challenging.

Cazan Lake at PJF Farms

Roseate Spoonbill taken at Cazan Lake in May of 2024

Years ago, photographing Roseate Spoonbills at Cazan Lake required navigating a muddy road and hiking about a mile for limited access. Now, the access road is gravel, and the birds nest in a more accessible area, allowing for roadside photography. The best time to photograph is early morning. Note that boats are not allowed in the nesting bird area to protect them during nesting season. Access to Cazan Lake is bypassed either a single-day or annual pass. The Web site for the Rookery is here.

Miller's Lake and Cazan Lake are close, making it ideal to photograph Cazan Lake in the morning and Miller's Lake in the afternoon.

Please consider joining us in the spring of 2025 to photograph this beautiful bird. I've been leading tours to photograph the Roseate Spoonbill since 2003 and know when and where to go. Check it out here.

Computer Failure–Back-up and Contingency Planning

Computer Gremlins are Lurking

OK, my M1 Mac Studio failed in late October. Fortunately, the computer was over a year old under Apple Care. It seems that the internal SSD failed, and the machine would not boot up. I went through the standard troubleshooting procedures with no luck. I then called Apple, and they had me repeat all the steps I had already done with again no luck. They suggested I take it to the Apple Store, which I did the following day. The Apple Genius repeated the same steps with the same results. He stated it needed a new Logic Board, which he placed on order. The estimated time to repair was three business days.

Fortunately, I have an extensive backup plan, and all my important files are on external drives, backed up in multiple ways. The backup plan is to use my M1 Macbook Air computer with the same external hard drives. The plan worked. However, the amount of RAM was marginal, and working meant closing any unused applications. For example, round-tripping from Lightroom to Photoshop and invoking one of the Topaz applications would not work. I had to export the file from Lightroom, close Lightroom, work in Photoshop, save the file, close Photoshop, and reimport the file into Lightroom. This procedure is acceptable for a few days, but a prolonged outage would be impractical.

Meanwhile, the Logic Board was not readily available. I ordered the original machine with a custom configuration with 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. The logic board was not in stock locally or at any other Apple store. Delivery of the part was at least six weeks. Apple offered a replacement machine, but it was the stock Mac Studio Max, which only had a 512 GByte SSD, smaller than I required. After some give and take with Apple and with the assistance of a cooperative Lead Apple Genius and the local Store Manager, Apple replaced the machine with an M2 Mac Studio Ultra with 64 GBytes of RAM and 1TB, a better machine than the original, but it was nearly a month later.

I love my Mac Studio, both the replaced and the new one. But there are some lessons learned here:

1. Apple Care is now a must-have. Self-repair is not an option. I have a significant amount of computer maintenance experience, and it is not an option to self-maintain these machines. For example, a failure of the SSD requires the replacement of the logic board, not simply the SSD. The whole machine frequently needs to be replaced.

2. A computer disaster recovery plan is essential. You need to know how to keep working in the event of a failure. Data backup is crucial; storage should be on external drives, not the computer's internal drive. Fortunately, I did this well.

3. Consider using the standard configuration computer rather than a build-to-order computer. The long recovery time of the computer was due to the non-standard configuration.

4. It would help if you planned for an extended outage, ensuring you have a backup with enough power to work effectively. I purchased a new laptop in addition to the MacBook Air, with a larger RAM and fast processor. I kept the MacBook Air in case that laptop failed, as I needed the laptop computer to download images on the road, so I also needed a backup laptop.

5. Ensure you have a list of serial numbers and web addresses for all your mission-critical applications. While the laptop computer had everything up and running, I needed to find some of the serial numbers when loading up the new computer.

The new Apple Machines with Apple Silicon are amazing computers. They are fast and reliable. However, the closed nature of the hardware makes repair nearly impossible except by Apple or one of the authorized repair shops. Fortunately, the computers are reliable, but failures do occur. Planning to ensure you can still work and not lose critical images is essential.