Photos by John Flores.
A male Great Egret at Cazan Lake completes a “stretch” as part of his displays to attract a mate.
Had Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the great Romantic Russian composer, lived in Louisiana when he wrote his Swan Lake ballet, it might just have been titled the Cazan Lake ballet instead.
As the story goes: the beautiful Princess Odette, fashioned from Russian and German folktales, is cursed by an evil sorcerer, who turns her into a swan. In another life, though, perhaps Odette might have become the Queen of Great Egrets, a bird whose beauty and dancing displays grace the marshes and bottomland swamps of Acadiana annually.
The alluring splendor of the ballet would be no less resplendent. For never have swans had to balance themselves on the branches and limbs of a cypress tree as the Great Egret does, still giving the performance of a lifetime to those who watch.
During the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Great Egret’s wispy diaphanous breeding feathers, known as aigrettes, were highly sought after by millineries. In 1885 these ornamental plumes sold for as much as $20 per ounce and $32 per ounce by 1915—the price of gold at the time. The demand was so great during the Victorian Era that an estimated ninety-five percent of Great and Snowy Egret populations were lost.
The Cazan Lake rookery is one of the largest natural wading rookeries in Louisiana. Every year hundreds of Great Egrets return to it as a breeding site.
Thankfully, due to twentieth century efforts of conservation-minded socialites, the American Ornithologists Union, and the National Association of Audubon Societies (now the National Audubon Society), protection laws were passed and some of the United States’ first bird refuges established. In 1918, federal lawmakers enacted the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, prohibiting the killing, capturing, selling, trading, and transport of protected migratory bird species, including the Great Egret. Since then, egret populations have flourished across the country.
Cazan Lake, pronounced kah-zau in the Cajun-French accent of the Evangeline Parish region, is known to hold one of the largest natural wading bird rookeries in the state, and every year hundreds of Great Egrets descend upon it as a breeding site. Part of a private, four-thousand acre farm owned by the late Percy Fontenot, the lake is now managed by his family members as a rice and crawfish farm and as a recreational haven offering camp leases, duck blinds, and hunting leases in addition to nightly rentals. But, as Cazan Lake’s Adminstrative Assistant Kristi Enicke said, Fontenot always believed that the wondrous beauty of the farm and its avian inhabitants would also attract birders and photographers.
[Further reading: The Great Egret]
On a recent weekend getaway, hoping to do a little nature photography, my wife and I chose to target nesting Great Egrets at Cazan Lake. Upon arrival there were no less than seven nature photographers taking pictures of the egrets, mere moments after sunrise in perfect morning light.
A Great Egret presents a stick to its mate for nest building.
Travel distance didn’t seem to matter to those taking in the ceremony of the egret courtship rituals. As we spoke with others there, we learned one nature photographer traveled 177 miles one way from Shreveport. Another traveled eighty miles. And still another, Martha Jo Ward, got up before daylight and drove one hundred miles.
“I got up at 4:30 this morning and drove from Lake Charles to get here—that’s wanting to see some birds now,” she laughed. “I can’t make it to church on time, but I can make it here to take a picture of a bird.”
My spouse and I, cognitive of our own 112-mile trip to Cazan Lake from our home in Patterson, elected to stay overnight at the “Steamboat Cottages” along Bayou Courtableu in the Town of Washington in St. Landry Parish. Upon beautiful grounds, we found the cottages clean and comfortable, as well as tastefully furnished and decorated inside. More importantly, the cottages were a short twenty-five-minute drive from Cazan Lake.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t say Cazan Lake is slightly off the beaten path. Tim Comeaux, a fellow photographer and middle school teacher from Eunice, told us that he found the rookery when he and his wife made a wrong turn on a trip to nearby Chicot State Park. Since then, he’s visited frequently to photograph the wondrous wildlife he came upon.
As the Great Egret snapped forward, he bowed his head low with aigrettes displayed wide, as if to say, “At your service my lady.”
My wife and I made our way from Washington using my vehicle’s OnStar directional assistance, but most Garmin GPS systems or iPhone navigational apps will get you to the rookery.
At Cazan Lake, Great Egrets begin courtship displays and nest building in late January and continue mating displays on into March. Males typically choose the nesting site and get started building the nest, all while displaying for females. In Douglas W. Mock’s research published in the American Ornithological Societies Condor Journal in 1978, he described the displays as social signals, labeling various Great Egret movements the stretch, snap, and bow. Sometimes bachelor male’s displays even incorporate props: bowing with a stick held in his long stiletto-like bill.
That morning, we watched a male at his nest site arch his back in a movement reminiscent of an arabesque. The stretch of the bird’s neck resembled a dancer’s extension, forming a beautiful curvature. As the Great Egret snapped forward, he bowed his head low with aigrettes displayed wide, as if to say, “At your service my lady.”
Great Egrets begin courtship displays and nest building in late January and continue mating displays on into March. Males typically choose the nesting site and get started building the nest, and chicks can be seen at the Cazan Lake rookery through June.
Once the seasonably monogamous pair of egrets have bonded, together they go about completing their crude-looking nests built from sticks and twigs. Laying three-to-five eggs at two-to-three day intervals, incubation is normally completed in twenty-three to twenty-six days. By days forty-two to forty-nine, the young have usually fledged.
To the nature lover viewing these courtship displays, besides the raising of the ornamental plumes, perhaps nothing is so captivating as the mating colors found around the eyes and bill of the Great Egret—an area known as the lore. During breeding season, the lore of the large white birds become a striking lime or rich olive green.
Many inspirations come from our connection with the wild. Nature can be alluring and peaceful. Watching the beautiful splendor of the Cazan Lake Ballet was, for my wife and I—and so many others—one of those remarkable events of nature that left us insatiably wanting more, compelling us to return, again and again.
Visitors to the Cazan Lake rookery can witness Great Egrets’ courtship displays and nesting rituals and even watch the young hatch, feed, and fledge during the period from late January through June. During these months, visitors can also see Great Blue Herons and Roseate Spoonbills, who also use the cypress trees in Cazan Lake for nesting.
Photographers can spend a day at the Cazan Lake rookery for a fee of $20 per person. An annual membership option allows photographers to return as often as they like for a fee of $125. Rates vary for other activities. For more information contact Kristi Enicke at (337) 363-1830 or by email at kristi@percyinc.com, or visit Cazan Lake’s Facebook page.
If you go...
Washington happens to be the third oldest settlement in Louisiana, celebrating its tricentennial in 2020. The quaint town was once a hustling and bustling steamboat port between New Orleans and St. Louis, where cotton, cattle, sugar and molasses were the chief products transported up and downstream supporting the commerce of a growing nation. The old Steamboat Warehouse, a relic from the past, located on Bayou Courtableau has since been converted to the “Steamboat Warehouse Restaurant,” whose cuisine is as close to any upscale restaurants you’ll find in New Orleans.
The town has reinvented itself since the old days. The downtown area has numerous antique shops along Main Street and the circa 1936 three story brick school has been converted to the “Old Schoolhouse Antique Mall” that’s full of collectible riches.
Notably St. John’s Episcopal Church, built in 1874, was the site of one of the scenes in the movie The Free State of Jones starring Matthew McConaughey. The church and property are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and were acquired and restored by the Washington Garden Club.
The City of Ville Platte is located just eight miles from both Chicot State and Cazan Lake. Chicot offers cabins, RV and primitive camping sites for visitors to the area, along with a host of activities such as fishing, hiking, and canoeing. Ville Platte is also known as the Swamp Pop Capital of the World, and hosts a vibrant, quirky little museum on the subject certainly worth a visit.
Travelers looking to stay overnight can find accommodations at The Cottage Bed and Breakfast (Book at 337-363-3388) or at the local Best Western. And, Café Evangeline offers excellent dining and quaint atmosphere for visitors.
