New Orleans

After 1115 miles of cycling, I arrived in New Orleans yesterday afternoon. On the one hand, I am sad that this adventure is at its end. On the other hand, my legs are tired and it will be very nice to be back with Kate, see the dogs, sleep in my own bed, and have truly clean clothes to put on in the morning.

I have not been as consistent about posting to my blog this trip compared to other cycling trips. The extra time for the birding and managing the stream of bird photos has meant that I often run out of time and energy at the end of the day. My last post was 4 days ago during my rest day in Gulf Shores Alabama. Tuesday, 3 days ago, was a very full day for me. I started my day by cycling 25 miles to Fort Morgan, a well known birding hotspot. This Bobolink was one of 3 birds I added to my 2025 list there.

After about 2 hours of birding, I took the ferry from Fort Morgan to Dauphin Island. One of the fun things about the ferry ride was that the birds often flew quite close to the boat creating interesting photo opportunities. This Brown Pelican flew right over me.

Dauphin Island is even more well known for birding than Fort Morgan. In about 3 hours of birding, I added another 6 species to my 2025 list as well as one to my life list. I was also very happy to take this photo of a Cape May Warbler having accidentally deleted my Cape May Warbler photos as I mentioned in my last post.

By late afternoon, I headed off of Dauphin Island and biked the remaining 20 miles to my hotel in Bayou La Batre Alabama. About 10 miles into my ride the next morning, I entered Mississippi headed for Gulfport, an additional 56 miles away. My route through Mississippi did not have me going through or stopping at any well known birding hotspots. I knew I only had one night and parts of two days in Mississippi, so I decided to see how many species of birds I could identify either while on my bike or by stopping at various places on route. It turns out that number proved to be 36, although they were all species I had already seen on this trip.

These were the most unusual birds that I saw during my time in Mississippi. This elaborately carved dead tree was opposite Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church in Bay St. Louis MS.

Each night, I briefly look over my next day’s ride. In Gulfport, I pulled up Google Maps to look at my route into New Orleans. My blood pressure spiked as I saw Google Maps indicating that a 4 mile stretch of US 90, my route to cross over the Pearl River and Delta, was closed. As I searched to find alternative cycling routings, the shortest I could find was 163 miles since the only other nearby bridge was Interstate 10. Searching online for solutions, I came across some posts that indicated that it had been possible to bicycle across the closed section as of a couple of months ago. I decided that I would simply bicycle there and see if I could get through. If not, my backup plan was to spend a fortune to get an Uber to pick me up in the middle of nowhere and take me into New Orleans.

As it turned out, it was simple to ride past the barriers. Instead of being a problem, this turned into one of the most pleasant cycling parts of my trip. For 4 miles, I had the road entirely to myself as I cycled through the Pearl River Delta.

This is the Pearl River. It was wonderful to look around in all directions and not see anyone nor hear any human generated sounds.

I had to laugh when I found this in the middle of the road. Obviously, at some point, someone was having a good time.

Even after I passed the closed section, there was essentially no traffic. At one point, I stopped by the side of the road and spent about 20 minutes watching birds. I am not sure if a single vehicle passed me while I watched. I counted 20 species from my spot on the road including this Lesser Yellowlegs.

I also photographed this White-faced Ibis, one of two new life birds I saw on the ride into New Orleans. I had thought that this was a Glossy Ibis when I photographed it, but it is a very similar species differentiated by the white face (hence the name). The other new bird was a Sora, a small chicken like marsh bird. I had been hearing but not seeing it frequently since arriving at St. Marks in FL. I was cycling along and suddenly there it was in a marsh by the side of the road. I quickly grabbed my mini camera to get a photo, but all I got was a small somewhat blurry and obscured image before the Sora darted back into the marsh.

About 20 miles before arriving in downtown New Orleans, I came to the Bayou Sauvage Urban National Wildlife Refuge where I spent a wonderful hour walking along its boardwalks.

Here is an adult Yellow Crowned Night Heron that I saw on my walk. I had never seen an adult before, and they look sufficiently different from the juveniles I had photographed previously that I was not sure what species this was when I took the photo.

From about 15 miles to go until 3 miles to go, all I wanted was to be done. There were a few places where there was construction on the high speed roads, eliminating the shoulder, which was quite stressful. The rest of it was typical urban cycling which I do not like because of the inherent dangers of so many cars and the lack of nature which I love while I cycle. However, the last couple of miles were on less busy roads through interesting neighborhoods allowing me to enjoy the final bit of the trip.

After arriving at my hotel and taking a shower, I got my free welcome drink from the bar, and sat down to enjoy it in this distinctly New Orleans themed chair.