How many people driving F. Edward Hebert Boulevard know that someone has been catching, measuring and releasing birds just off the road every month since 2013?
Woodlands Conservancy has run two bird-banding field stations at its Belle Chasse preserve on a monthly schedule for more than a decade. It works with the Barataria-Terrebonne Estuary Program and the Louisiana Bird Observatory. This Saturday, November 21, the parish builds a festival around it. Wings Over the Delta, billed as the first annual Plaquemines Parish Birding Festival, runs from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Woodlands Conservancy, 449 F. Edward Hebert Blvd.
The festival opens the doors on a research site that has been collecting data the whole time, and it hands residents a day to see what the 650 acres behind the trailhead are actually for.
The banding stations came before the trail runners
The Conservancy describes Woodlands Preserve as a 650-acre forested wetland managed for native vegetation, wildlife, and resident and migratory birds. Most of what a weekend visitor sees, like the mowed trail edges, the trailhead parking and the horse paths, supports that core purpose.
The banding program asks a specific question. According to Woodlands Conservancy's program notes, the stations compare how birds use healthy forested wetland that hasn't been restored with areas where non-native, invasive vegetation has been removed. So when you walk the preserve, you're walking through both halves of an experiment.
The person at the center of it is Jed Pitre, whom the Conservancy calls its primary bander. In March 2025 he led a bird banding workshop at Algiers Regional Library for the Wings Over Wetlands project. On April 19, 2025, he led the second session of a two-part field training series. Both were funded by Entergy's Environmental Initiatives Fund. Those sessions were training new hands, and the festival is the next step: putting the work in front of people who have never held a pair of binoculars.
The trails get the same kind of quiet upkeep. In December 2024, the Conservancy credited support from Chevron Oronite's Oak Point Plant with giving its trail maintenance a boost, through a tool called the Lane Shark. It also noted that hundreds of volunteers give hundreds of hours a year trimming woody growth back from trail edges. Executive director Katie Brasted put the stakes simply in the Conservancy's announcement:
"The Woodlands Preserve is a tremendous natural asset for this region and the many visitors that spend time walking the trails."
What Saturday adds to a place that's always open
Any day of the year, the preserve is free and open from dawn to dusk. So Saturday isn't about access. It's about guides, experts and a schedule built around the hours birds are most active. Plaquemines Parish Tourism's festival page lays out four anchor events:
- 6:30 a.m., Sunrise Guided Birding Walk. A walk through the preserve's trails as the forest wakes up.
- 9 a.m., Bird Photography Talk & Walk with Jackson Hill. Tips for photographing birds and wildlife in their habitat.
- 11 a.m., Junior Birders Walk & Talk. An interactive walk for children and beginners.
- 1 p.m., Live Raptor Show with LSU Raptor Rehab. Louisiana birds of prey up close, plus how raptor rehabilitation works.
Between those times, the tourism page lists exhibits from LSU AgCenter and Sea Grant, the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, Pontchartrain Conservancy and LSU Raptor Rehab. Visitors can learn about bird banding there. BTNEP is the same partner that has worked the banding stations since 2013, so the exhibit tables and the research share some of the same people.
The rest of the day leans local. Restore Forest Therapy is running 30-minute forest therapy sessions, and Backpacker Outdoors will have birdwatching optics and outdoor gear. Caroline Hill is showing artwork, Frank Calato is bringing hand-carved woodwork, and Leaved Gates is selling bird-themed gifts and handmade crafts. Kids can get their faces painted, and The Buttery Beaver Bakery is bringing bird-inspired sweets and pastries. The tourism page suggests binoculars, comfortable walking shoes, weather-appropriate clothes and a camera.
Picking a trail by how much morning you have
The festival schedule spreads across seven and a half hours, and the trail you pick decides how much of it you see. The Conservancy says it has built over 11 miles of hiking, running and horseback trails across the preserve. Three named routes come off the trailhead:
| Trail | Distance | Layout | What sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upland Trail | 1.1 miles | Loop | Shortest option, fits between the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. sessions |
| North Trail | 2 miles | Out-and-back | Parallel hiking and equestrian paths |
| Bottomland Trail | 2.2 miles | Out-and-back | Parallel hiking and equestrian paths, leads to 10 World War II ammunition magazines |
The Bottomland Trail is the one with a history lesson attached. The Conservancy says it leads to 10 World War II ammunition magazines. At 2.2 miles, it's also twice the length of the Upland loop, so a family aiming for the 11 a.m. Junior Birders walk might save it for another weekend.
To reach the trailhead, turn onto F. Edward Hebert Boulevard and follow the dirt canal road to the parking area. The Conservancy's rules are short. Dogs are welcome on a leash, and owners clean up after them. Bicycles, e-bikes included, aren't allowed. Wheelchairs are.
The Conservancy also owns a second property, Delacroix Preserve. It's five connected parcels totaling 190 acres of forested wetland in Lower Coast Algiers, and it's closed to the public. That leaves the Belle Chasse tract as the one people can actually walk.
What's been turning up lately
Birders log their sightings at the preserve on eBird, the public checklist database, under the hotspot Woodlands Conservancy Park trail. As of this month, the hotspot shows 152 species across 276 checklists all-time. So far in 2026, it shows 75 species, about half the all-time list, logged in a single year.
The most recent notable entries are fall migrants. The hotspot's bird list shows a Black-throated Green Warbler on October 20, 2026, a Yellow-throated Vireo on October 23, and a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher on October 28. Those sightings are only weeks old. Fall movement through the preserve was still being recorded less than a month before the festival, and the sunrise walk is timed for the hour when that movement is easiest to see.
If you go Saturday and log what you spot, your checklist joins the same public record. It's a small version of what the banding stations have done every month since 2013.
The boulevard's next two weekends
Wings Over the Delta opens a stretch where Belle Chasse's calendar fills up fast, much of it within a short drive of the preserve.
On Friday, November 27, the Croatian American Society holds its Christmas Market from 1 to 5 p.m. at Croatian House, 220 Croatian Way. The next afternoon, Saturday, November 28, F. Edward Hebert Boulevard hosts the 3rd Annual Plaquemines Christmas Festival & Parade from 3 to 8 p.m. The parade starts at 4 p.m., and the evening includes free Santa photos, a Christmas tree lighting, a children's area, craft and food vendors, music, Christmas movies with free popcorn, fireworks and the 3rd Annual Christmas Festival Fun Run. The Plaquemines Community Development Group is presenting it, and parade applications are free through plaqcdg.com. That puts the boulevard's first birding festival and its third Christmas parade one week apart.
Then the parish heads south. The 80th Plaquemines Parish Fair & Orange Festival runs December 4 through 6 at Historic Fort Jackson in Buras, about 65 miles south of Gretna. Friday is carnival only, from 5 to 9 p.m. The full festival is open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Admission is listed as free. The citrus side has some good news this year. In late October, The Plaquemines Gazette reported that many trees finally have a crop worth harvesting after the 2025 blizzard and freeze hit most citrus trees in Louisiana.
For more ways to spend a weekend outside close to home, see our guide to outdoor living and weekend fun around Belle Chasse. If the drive in from the East Bank has been holding you back, our update on the Belle Chasse Bridge toll covers where things stand.
At Armstrong Realty, we track things like a free 650-acre preserve down the road because they shape everyday life in Belle Chasse. If you own a home near Hebert Boulevard and want to know what it's worth this season, get a free home valuation from a local team that answers in English or Vietnamese.
