Irvin Louque
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ilouque.bsky.social
Irvin Louque
@ilouque.bsky.social
250 followers 360 following 54 posts
He/him

Environmental Educator 💚

Level IV ecoregion: 34j Western Gulf Coastal Plain-Lafayette Loess Plains

backyard chickens🐓 | gardening for food🥬 | foraging🍄 | birding🐦 | Cajun and Creole heritage🐊 | native plants🍁 | science communication🌻
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ilouque.bsky.social
Fall in #Louisiana. A monarch glides by the blooms of narrowleaf sunflower, blue mistflower, and goldenrod. I watch as I eat an American persimmon. #nativeplants #rewilding🌿
A mass of hundreds of narrow leaf sunflower blooms. They are much smaller flowers than those of domesticated sunflowers. Blue mistflower and narrow leaf sunflower blooms Goldenrod and blue mist flower blooms
October 16, 2025 at 11:04 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
The Gulf Fritillary (Dione vanillae) butterflies and caterpillars have arrived on native purple passionvine (Passiflora incarnata). 🌱🌿🦋
June 28, 2025 at 5:43 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
Today's #WorldWildlifeDay! To celebrate, I planted a native tree. This black cherry came up last year next to a fence where it couldn't say long term. I waited until it was dormant to transplant it in a long term space. Black cherries are great for birds, insects, and people.🥫🌿🌱
March 3, 2025 at 11:55 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
I got back from a trip and found that about 70% of the buds on my newly planted American #persimmon tree were eaten by rabbits. It's now protected by stakes and hardware cloth that I had on hand. 🌱
4 wooden stakes hold wire fencing around a seedling tree
February 27, 2025 at 7:29 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
I'm really excited about the upcoming Louisiana statewide seed swap this Saturday! I'm bringing some of my seeds saved from my Lafayette vegetable garden! @lsuagcenter.bsky.social #seedswap 🌱
Statewide Seed Swap/Sale flyer Sat Feb 8, 2025 Southern Forest Heritage Museum 77 Longleaf Road Longleaf, LA 71448 9 am to 3 pm Special guest: John Coykendall of the LPB documentary "Deeply Rooted: John Coykendall's Journey to Save Our Seeds and Stories"
February 6, 2025 at 2:28 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
Turnips are one of my favorite things to grow, cook, and eat! I harvested around 3 pounds of turnips from our garden right before our big snowstorm and made 2 turnip stews! Turnips were historically a great survival food for my subsistence farming ancestors in the US south. 🌱🍽️ 🧵(1/4)
Bowl of turnip stew served over rice. I'm crouched in the garden with a baking sheet full of freshly harvested turnips. Chicken coop in background. Freshly harvested turnips (roots and greens) and sheers nearby.
January 30, 2025 at 2:53 AM
ilouque.bsky.social
Agreed. My state, Louisiana, has a state butterfly as of 2022: the Gulf Fritillary! They are abundant here.
A pair of orange and white butterflies mate as one still hangs from its old chrysalis.
January 29, 2025 at 3:54 AM
ilouque.bsky.social
Pretty sure my collards and onions survived the snow too. I'm in South Louisiana.
Collard plant with green leaves blushed with dark purple and pink leaf veins.
January 25, 2025 at 12:01 AM
ilouque.bsky.social
I never thought my garden would look like this in South Louisiana but here are my shallots, collards, and red creole onions. Hopefully the snow insulated them from our record 5°F low temperatures! 🌱❄️
📷 from Jan. 22
A garden bed covered in several inches of powdery snow. Only a few things onion leaves and a wooden stake stick up above the snow.
January 24, 2025 at 8:47 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
Ice crystals the day after our historic Louisiana snowstorm! We reached 4°F last night so I'm guessing humidity froze on stems and leaves. These are on a black gun and red maple saplings that I planted for Arbor Day in 2023 and 2024. 🌿🌱❄️
Geometric ice crystals formed on a Black Gum tree's small twig. Seen under magnification but they did reach out several millimeters from the surface of the twig. Geometric ice crystals formed on a Red Maple tree's small twig. Taken with a macro lens but they did reach out several millimeters from the surface of the twig. Geometric ice crystals formed on a Red Maple's leaves that were red but hadn't yet fallen from last fall. These crystals reach out maybe a half centimeter to maybe 1 centimeter from the leaf's surface.
January 22, 2025 at 5:12 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
I've experienced snow just 4 or so times (in 35 years) in Louisiana I'm both excited and also needing to prepare as much as I can. 2017 was the last real snow I've experienced at home. In the meantime, the clouds out on a show this afternoon.

Graphic from our local news channel KATC.
Asperitas clouds forming waves across the sky with some trees and roofs in the foreground. A news graphic showing a winter storm watch covering nearly all of Louisiana except it's northernmost parishes as well as much of southeast Texas and south Mississippi.
January 18, 2025 at 11:44 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
Yesterday was a beautiful winter day 🌞 in Cameron Parish, Louisiana so I couldn't resist slowing down a bit to watch the shorebirds at the beach. Plovers, sandpipers, avocets, and more! 🪶🌿 #birding
2 Snowy Plovers (left) and 2 Piping Plovers (right). All 4 are small, plump birds camouflaged against the dry sand and shells of the beach. The piping plovers have yellow legs while snowies have black legs. Plovers have large eyes, though the 2 snowies are squinting. A flock of sandpipers stand on 1 leg (and beaks tucked in behind a wing) at the waters edge at the beach. The larger of the two are Dunlin and the smaller ones are Western Sandpipers, though they all have brown wings, heads, and backs with white bellies, black legs, and a long black bill with a droopy tip adapted for probing wet sand. A large American Herring Gull bathes in the water as 2 Ring- billed Gulls and a flock of sandpipers mind their business. The water of the Gulf of Mexico is calm on this sunny day.
January 12, 2025 at 6:06 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
Last week, I visited Moundville Archaeological Park in Moundville, Alabama. It was my first experience at a Mississippian Period (~1100-800 years ago) site. The museum on site was really cool too, and they host a Native American festival each fall that's probably worth going to. 🏺
A panoramic photo of Moundville, a site with 26 Mississippian period Native American earthen mounds. Photo taken from the top of the tallest mound (58 feet or so).
January 9, 2025 at 2:10 AM
ilouque.bsky.social
I love the eggs our Splash Marans hen gives us. She's a color variation on the Black Copper Marans famous for dark eggs. She's also our most chill chicken so it's easy to get photos of her. #backyardchicken 🌱
I hold a brown, speckled egg in my hand near the white splashes with gray hen (a splash Marans) in the background.
January 8, 2025 at 1:12 AM
ilouque.bsky.social
I couldn't ignore this beautiful Ring-billed Gull when I saw it. This adult was hanging out near a water control structure letting water out of the marsh. 🪶🌿 🧵(6/6)
A Ring -billed Gull perches on a large wooden post . Its yellow eye, white chest, gray wings with black tips and white spots on the tips are all visible. Notably, the yellow bill with a black ring marking around it stands out. Brown flecks around its head and neck indicate winter plumage. The same gull looks directly at the camera showing its narrow bill and itssideways-looking eyes
December 29, 2024 at 7:35 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
Neotropic Cormorants are pretty much always present at Sabine NWR and usually easy to photograph, but I still like to watch them. It was very windy out so their balance was fun to observe, as well as their ability to perch in areas that had spikes present to reduce perching. 🪶🌿 🧵(5/6)
Adult Neotropic Cormorant with its blue/teal eye, black plumage, white facial marking in a characteristic acute angle. They have a serrated bill ending in a hooked tip, perfect for catching slippery fish. A young Neotropic Cormorant perched on a pole drying its wings on a windy day. It is grayer overall than the black adults. A young Neotropic Cormorant (left) and adult (left) perched in metal posts. The young one balances with wings stretched out while the adult is tucked in! A third post with anti-bird spikes to reduce birds poaching is visible with no bird. The two cormorants are perched on poles where the spikes have previously been damaged so don't work anymore.
December 29, 2024 at 7:35 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
I saw a handful of Snowy Egrets, but I just loved watching this one, standing on one leg among the oysters. It yawned the second I snapped the photo through my scope. They commonly feed on little fish and little crustaceans along the bayous and canals in the marsh. 🪶🌿 🧵(4/6)
A Snowy Egret yawns while standing on one leg on a rocky shoreline among oysters at low tide. Yellow foot, black leg, long black bill, and yellow facial skin are all diagnostic for Snowy Egret in the US. Their plumage is snowy white and looks pretty fluffy.
December 29, 2024 at 7:35 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
Early in the morning I spotted a Merlin on an old fence post in the marsh. It only turned it's head around but never flew while I was watching it, though I was pretty far away. 🪶🌿 🧵(3/6)
A Merlin sits on a fence post. The banded tail is visible as she faces the camera. Cattail leaves are blown in the wind behind her.
December 29, 2024 at 7:35 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
I saw 2 male Vermilion Flycatchers during the day. One in the trees near the parking lot of the Wetlands Walkway and 1 along Blue Goose Trail. The second one was still molting into fully red feathers! 🪶🌿 🧵(2/6)
First male Vermilion Flycatcher seen from the side. It is in a mulberry tree. A bright red cap, throat, and undersides are visible as well as it's dark gray back, wings, tail, and eyeline. The same name Vermilion Flycatcher is facing the camera with its red cap and breast visible as well as gray eyeliner and black bill. The same Vermilion Flycatcher seen from the front but with its head turned to the viewer's left. The second male Vermilion Flycatcher, this time it's red is a little paler, with light gray still seen below its bill And around its eyes. The bird is perched facing left so its wings and tail are more visible than its vermilion plumage on the breast and head.
December 29, 2024 at 7:35 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
This year's Sabine NWR Christmas Bird Count started off with fog and ended with wind. I love the refuge though as I usually see some species that aren't common in South Louisiana. After I left, a supercell thunderstorm rolled through the area. 🌿 #birdingstory #christmasbirdcount🧵 (1/6)
The sun rises over a hazy morning walkway and marsh. Bullrushes rise up in the shallow water of the marsh. The waves of Calcasieu Lake erode the western shoreline, this photo during low tide. Oyster shells line the shallows which are under water during high tide.
December 29, 2024 at 7:35 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
I often don't pay enough attention to common birds but I did to this Neotropic Cormorant. The aqua blue eye and angular, white edge to its throat really stand out, differentiating from the similar Double-crested Cormorant. These are resident fish-eaters in SW Louisiana. 🪶🌿
A Neotropic Cormorant stands on a post in front of a vegetated marsh. The black bird with a long neck, skinny, hooked bill, and black webbed feet stand out. It has a bright, aqua blue eye.
December 19, 2024 at 4:51 AM
ilouque.bsky.social
I love having a flock with so many different color egg layers. Marans, barred rocks, Easter-eggers and one Blue Copper Marans x Easter egger cross who hasn't laid yet. Only about half our flock is laying right now since some are molting.

#chickens #backyardchickens #backyardeggs
5 chicken eggs of various shell colors arranged in a circle with narrow points inward. Clockwise: dark brown, light blue, light brown, pinkish, green.
December 15, 2024 at 7:14 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
Carolina Wolfberry (Lycium carolinianum) is a US native plant related to gogi berries that grows in coastal environments from TX to SC. They're great plants for #pollinators and provide tasty berries for birds (especially #WhoopingCranes) and people. 🌿 #CarolinaWolfberry
Carolina Wolfberry branch with 4 round, bright red berries and many long green leaves against a blue sky. A smaller plant with 1 red berry and some green leaves around it with a seashore in the background.
December 15, 2024 at 6:49 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
An extra tiny pink sundew (Drosera capillaris) along the same trail at the MS Sandhill Crane NWR. These sundews was about the size of a penny. We saw dozens. 🌿 #CarnivorousPlants
Very small, reddish rosette of spoon-shaped leaves with small stalks tipped with sticky, shiny dewdrops that would catch ants or other tiny insects for the plant to consume like a sticky trap.
December 14, 2024 at 4:59 PM
ilouque.bsky.social
A tiny parrot pitcher plant (Sarracenia psittacina) along the trail at the MS Sandhill Crane NWR. 🌿 #carnivorousplants
A small rosette of modified leaves with ends rolled over on themselves resembling the heads of parrots. These heads are red with white spots.
December 14, 2024 at 4:54 PM