Following are some images from the Chickasawhay Wildlife Management Area (WMA) part of DeSoto National Forest, about 10 miles south of my home in Laurel, MS. Most of the WMA is an upland longleaf pine plantation managed for the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker (which I finally observed in March of this year) and gopher tortoise, and for deer and wild turkey. However, numerous small creeks intersect the woods, creating bottoms in which both pines and hardwoods grow very large. Following are images of trees along West Tiger Creek, taken by me during a day trip with my brother in May.
One of the bigger cypresses we found along West Tiger Creek.
Brian pauses in one of the more open areas. The terrain is very difficult, with numerous deadfalls and thick underbrush. I suspect many of the dead trees were killed during and after Hurricane Katrina.
These areas of large trees, with many dead and dying ones, are narrow and typically follow the creeks; but the creeks connect these older woods (more or less) over a large area, stretching many thousands of acres across this part of south Mississippi. West Tiger Creek, for example, flows into the Bogue Homa*, a relatively goodly-sized creek that eventually flows into the Leaf, which of course flows into the Pascagoula.
I call the DeSoto NF the "Kingdom of DeSoto." It is a truly incredible place. I have observed every woodpecker species native to our area in those woods, excepting the Hairy Woodpecker, which has so far eluded me (they seem to be at best uncommon in this region), and of course Ivory Bill. Walking these storm-ravaged woods, I cannot help but think that, given the enormous amount of dead and dying timber, especially among the creek and river bottoms, there is ample food to support Campephilus principalis, a wide-ranging Emperor surveying the various Pileated kingdoms and lesser woodpecker principalities. What I have seen lends support, I think, to the idea that Ivory Bill is a kind of "disaster bird" that takes advantage of the destruction of Southern forests from storm systems coming up out of the Gulf of Mexico, and from the more common tornadoes spawned by continental weather systems that threaten us much of the year. Much attention has been paid of late to swamp forests in Louisiana, Florida, and especially Arkansas, but more upland timber and its associated creek and river bottoms across the wider Southland should perhaps not be dismissed. More cannot yet be said in this matter.
*Here is as good a place as any to note this: Bogue Homa Creek flows south from Lake Bogue Homa, a man-made lake just to the east of Laurel. I recently, and by sheer stroke of good fortune, happened to speak while on the job to an older gentleman who grew up in the area behind the lake. Over a bag of birdseed, he related growing up in the woods and swamps behind the lake, and out of nowhere he related seeing Ivory-bills in those same woods before they were cut, in the 1940's! Mind, I had not even mentioned Ivory Bill to this man; and he did not use the terms "wood hen" or "Indian hen" to talk about the bird, and seemed to know about its status and great size. Unfortunately I was pressed by other customers and could not get any more information, or even the man's name. Such seems to be the luck of the Ivory-bill hunter.
I call the DeSoto NF the "Kingdom of DeSoto." It is a truly incredible place. I have observed every woodpecker species native to our area in those woods, excepting the Hairy Woodpecker, which has so far eluded me (they seem to be at best uncommon in this region), and of course Ivory Bill. Walking these storm-ravaged woods, I cannot help but think that, given the enormous amount of dead and dying timber, especially among the creek and river bottoms, there is ample food to support Campephilus principalis, a wide-ranging Emperor surveying the various Pileated kingdoms and lesser woodpecker principalities. What I have seen lends support, I think, to the idea that Ivory Bill is a kind of "disaster bird" that takes advantage of the destruction of Southern forests from storm systems coming up out of the Gulf of Mexico, and from the more common tornadoes spawned by continental weather systems that threaten us much of the year. Much attention has been paid of late to swamp forests in Louisiana, Florida, and especially Arkansas, but more upland timber and its associated creek and river bottoms across the wider Southland should perhaps not be dismissed. More cannot yet be said in this matter.
*Here is as good a place as any to note this: Bogue Homa Creek flows south from Lake Bogue Homa, a man-made lake just to the east of Laurel. I recently, and by sheer stroke of good fortune, happened to speak while on the job to an older gentleman who grew up in the area behind the lake. Over a bag of birdseed, he related growing up in the woods and swamps behind the lake, and out of nowhere he related seeing Ivory-bills in those same woods before they were cut, in the 1940's! Mind, I had not even mentioned Ivory Bill to this man; and he did not use the terms "wood hen" or "Indian hen" to talk about the bird, and seemed to know about its status and great size. Unfortunately I was pressed by other customers and could not get any more information, or even the man's name. Such seems to be the luck of the Ivory-bill hunter.
Barred Owl near Lake Bogue Homa, March 2014.
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