name: Joelle Finley
age: 66 profession: retired location: couturie forest
Katrina wiped out most of the large trees in Couturie Forest, a 33-acre sanctuary of southern hardwood in City Park, just south
of Harrison Avenue. After the storm, volunteers replanted more than 2,000 trees, and in the years since, Couturie has rebounded into a true wild space. Today it attracts birds like sharp- shinned hawk and yellow-bellied sapsuckers—along with the city’s devout birdwatchers. Joelle Finley likes to come out around mid-morning, especially after a rain. She’s hoping for surprises. As I take her picture, two bald eagles—bald eagles!—suddenly fly over our heads, one gripping a fish in its mouth. “See?” she exclaims. “That’s what it’s all about!”
“I like to come here in spring during migration. Songbirds are flying north across the Gulf of Mexico to get back to their nesting ground. In April, they’ll hit cold fronts in the middle of the Gulf, so they’re really exhausted. If they make it across, they’re going to land in the first trees they see. They refuel with in- sects and other bugs they find in the trees, and then they fly on. So Couturie Forest is a great ‘migrant trap.’ The best time to come here is after a torren- tial rain. You’ll see birds everywhere because they have no energy to go on—birds like painted buntings, the most incredible North American songbird we have, and also scarlet tanagers, summer tanagers, indigo buntings, and Baltimore orioles. You could see an array of 25 different birds—just at one spot! So when you come to Couturie, that’s what you hope for: to find these birds that have suffered massively coming across the Gulf of Mexico, finally having a chance to rest. There’s always the thrill of the unknown. I
encounter birds I’d never expect, such as a scissor-tailed flycatcher—rare birds I just find once every six years or so. When an area is left alone, nature reclaims it and attracts all of the critters. This was going to be a golf course. Thank God Couturie is here instead.”
40 · LAND&PEOPLE · SPRING/SUMMER 2013
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