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Item category 2009 BirdFest - April 4th
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OakHill - For Morning Tour = Tickets Times: Saturday, April 4, 8:30 am to 11:30 am; 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm. Price: $20 per person. Transportation: All participants MUST meet at the St. Francisville Inn and carpool to OakHill. Description: Owned by Murrell Butler, a nationally recognized wildlife artist and naturalist, Oakhill is in the heart of the famed Tunica Hills area, the only area in Louisiana reminiscent of the southern Appalachians. A number of species of birds, animals and plants reach the southernmost extent of their range here. Bayou Sara Creek borders the property on the western boundaries. Along this creek many of the herons can be found, as well as wood ducks and some of the shore birds. Diverse plant life includes heavily wooded areas filled with loblolly pine, tulip poplar, red oak, water oak, sweet gum, American beech and magnolia. Mid-story is dogwood, redbud, cherry laurel and American plum. In the ravines one will find oak-leaf hydrangea, northern maidenhair fern, mayapple and partridgeberry. The 350 acres that comprise Oak Hill are part of the over 2000 acres of the plantation now known as Butler Greenwood. Up until the 1960s, Butler Greenwood was a working plantation with over 30 tenant cabins. The bottomland along Bayou Sara Creek was choice farmland and was worked by these tenants, the produce shared with the landowners. Now the land is slowly reverting to its primeval state with deer and wild turkeys roaming the once-cultivated fields. All signs of the tenant cabins are gone, except an occasional brick chimney. Oak Hill is in the heart of the famed Tunica Hills area, the only area in Louisiana reminiscent of the southern Appalachians. A number of species of birds, animals and plants reach the southernmost extent of their range here. More Information... © 2001-08 Feliciana Nature Society. All Rights Reserved. Back to BirdFest WebSite |