Mile 458.0 - Tara Landing
LBD 458 Tara Landing
Every year at the end of August thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of waders including anhingas, egrets, herons, roseate spoonbills, terns, killdeer, double breasted cormorants, sandhill cranes -- and many others -- roost in very particular and very remote wetlands along the Lower Mississippi River. This roosting period always occurs at the end of August. It’s predictable as the start of school. The only unknown is exactly which watering hole the waterfowl gang will gather at. This seems to change from year to year and epoch to epoch.
Some of these gathering places are located within the 9,000 acre Tara Wildlife Preserve. Ten years ago Halpino Lake was the place to be at sunset. As you’re coming down the Mississippi River you might get lucky and stumble into one of the these watering holes filled with thousands and thousands of squawking birds shaking their tail feathers and spreading their wings in and out as they make their final adjustments before settling in for the night. This is a remarkable sight. But equally remarkable and maybe even more startling is the scene gathering on the other end of the lake. Imagine an open air bus driving up, driven by a jocular Aussie named Gilbert. The people on board the chopped-off school bus all have big cameras and spotting scopes or binoculars. Gilbert and his crew swiftly offload the bus and set up a table full of bottles and start popping corks. The birders filter through in between glassfuls of wine and watching the waterfowl. Have you dropped in on some sort of American Safari? Well, yes, you have. Welcome to Tara Wildlife celebrating its annual “Stork & Cork!”
Tara Wildlife celebrates the river, its bottomland hardwood forests, and its waterfowl with an annual Mississippi River Nature Weekend (“Stork & Cork”) towards the end of
August and a Spring Birding Weekend at the end of April. Tara’s philosophy is founded on a strong commitment to the management, development and sustainable use of a broad spectrum of natural resources. Tara recognizes the importance of wildlife, timber, water, wetlands, agriculture and recreation in maintaining a high quality of life for current as well as future generations. To this end, Tara has endowed the future by placing all 9,000 acres under conservation easements. As a further commitment to conservation, in December of 2001 Tara was deeded to a private foundation, Purvis Grange Foundation Inc. While promoting an appreciation of the environment through educational and direct-performance activities that conserve land and protect the wildlife that inhabit it,Tara is a model center for the study of habitat and the animals that are part of the ecosystem. Maggie Bryant, Tara’s Founder, is a past-two term Chairperson of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and retired from her board position in 2001. Maggie has been awarded the prestigious Chevron Conservation Award as well as the Governor’s Award for Conservation in Mississippi. She is active in conservation measures around the world. (From the Tara Wildlife website)
Tara Wildlife
6791 Eagle Lake Road
Vicksburg MS 39183
Phone: 601-279-4261
Fax: 601-279-4227
Email: tara@tarawildlife.com