Once we left Pack and Paddle, we had a meeting point along the Henderson Levee at Potato Sack Road. As we waited for the last cars to arrive, a couple of folks joined me in a short yoga exercise to welcome the sun rising above the levee. A couple of cars passed us along the levee road, the first looked confounded, the second actually honked and gave us a thumbs up. We caravanned to Dixie Landing where there is a boat launch and a restroom. This launch has been improved by extending a rather long limestone road below the parking area.
We scooted our boats in the water then headed down the Dixie Pipeline Canal toward Bayou Racaccious just after 8am. 
As we meandered through the curvy waterway we enjoyed the calls of songbirds and sights of wading birds. The waterways were either lined with cypress, tupelo and button bushes in the more swampy areas or black willow, water hickory and cypress in the upland areas. The water hickory were being defoliated by the Walnut Caterpillar, soon to become the Walnut Moth. We had an amazing experience, one I had not seen in Louisiana before.
I saw two Turkey Vultures kettling above us then realized there were also two hawks with them. I picked up my binoculars and identified them as Broad-wing Hawks. As soon as I put my binoculars down, I saw a huge flock of large birds passing overhead. They circled above the trees a couple of times then continued their westward journey. 
Then a smaller group passed overhead and another smaller group, all heading west during their migration. They were ALL Broad-wing Hawks. They roost in riparian forests then catch thermals as the sun warms the air so that they can make efficient flights during migration.
Upon our completion of the northern Indian Bayou Paddle Trail Loop, we were stopped by impenetrable, tall Water Hyacinth, that obnoxious, non-native, invasive aquatic plant brought to us in 1884.
For more information about this destructive aquatic plant, go to: http://www.tulane.edu/~
We turned around, headed back to Bayou Racaccious and made it back to the landing around noon for a nice lunch, laughs and conversation.
To see all of the photos from this trip, follow this link: https://packpaddle.com/events-and-trips/recent-trips-photos/?album=IndianBayouPaddleTripOctober2011
-Stacey Scarce, Trip Leader