Sabine National Wildlife Refuge

Location: 8 miles south of Hackberry on LA 27

Size: 124,511 acres

Mission Controlled
Founded in 1937, Sabine NWR’s primary objective is to maintain this rich environment used annually by thousands of wintering waterfowl following the Central and Mississippi Flyways.

The BIG Picture
It is the largest of the NWRs long the Creole Nature Trail. A basin of wetlands located between oak cheniers and coastal prairie, Sabine encompasses one of North America’s most productive and fertile areas.

The Right Stuff
Sabine’s unrivalled combination of fresh, intermediate and brackish marshes make it the largest nursery of estuarine-dependent marine species in Southwest Louisiana.

Birder Alert
Sabine NWR’s extraordinary varieties and numbers of wading, water and marsh birds have earned it the designation “Internationally Important Bird Area.”

Refuge staff and ornithologists have sighted 250 bird species on the refuge. During February, March, and April, you are sure to see migrating warblers and nesting barn and tree swallows, kingbirds, kingfishers, orchard orioles, and yellow-billed cuckoos.
Sabine NWR also provides rich nesting opportunities for its many white-fronted and white ibis, purple gallinules, roseate spoonbills, great egrets, and great blue herons. Throughout the spring and fall, flocks of migrating shorebirds also visit the refuge.
Each February, the refuge hosts thousands of ducks including blue-winged teal, American widgeon, and gadwall along with as many as 50,000 common moorhens. White pelicans spend the winter, as do some 100,000 or more snow geese.

Activities
• Exceptional birding throughout the refuge.
• The1.5-mile handicapped-accessible Wetland Walkway, provides close-up views of the birds and other marsh animals as well as observation tower panoramas revealing miles of level marsh terrain, alive with wading birds, marsh birds, waterfowl, songbirds, swamp rabbits, muskrats, nutria, water snakes and alligators.
• Blue Goose Walking Trail leads over a mile to Lake Calcasieu and the raised pavilion provides great views for wildlife observation and photography.
• Four recreation areas for fishing, crabbing and shrimping: Northline Recreation Area, Hog Island Gully Recreation Area, Blue Crab Recreation Area (formerly 1A/1B) crabbing pier and West Cove Recreation Area.
• Abundant recreational fishing, shrimping and crabbing in refuge canals and some impoundments (open to boaters from March 15 to October 15).
• Late August and early September cast netters can haul in gallons of white and brown shrimp.
• Nature photography