My journeys across the Heart of Louisiana have covered well over 100,000 miles and taken me to all of our state’s 64 parishes. My work with WVUE TV in New Orleans has allowed me to find those special places, histories, cultures and people that make the Bayou State such a special place. In some cases, some of those places and people are no longer with us. But after producing nearly 700 stories over the past sixteen years, I felt it was time to start taking a look back and revisiting some of my favorite stories from the Heart of Louisiana.
the swallows of vacherie
In the Fall, there is a spectacular display that takes place in the sky near the town of Vacherie, Louisiana. It seems that fields of tall sugarcane are the perfect roosting spot for tree swallows. Just before dark, the swallows form what looks like a giant funnel cloud as they swoop into the cane fields to spend the night. This story is from November, 2010.
After tracking the Vacherie swallows, researchers found that most of them leave the area after the sugarcane is harvested. “Some of them go across the Gulf of Mexico to the Yucatan, some of the head east to Florida, and a handful of birds stick around here all winter and roost in nearby wetlands,” said researcher Andrew Laughlin. But Laughlin adds that the area near Vacherie appears to be the prolonged Autumn stopover site for the majority of the birds before they move to their overwintering locations.
Leave a Reply