Like all travelers, migrating birds must stop for rest and food. But their travels make your journey along the Creole Nature Trail seem like a trip around the block. Some birds travel for days, covering thousands of miles without stopping to rest. What makes Peveto Woods so critical? It is because Louisiana lies at the center of the flight path of migratory birds crossing the Gulf of Mexico. Millions of migratory songbirds pass over the Cameron Parish coast each spring and fall. These birds are called Neotropical migrants because while they spend their nesting seasons in North America, they spend their winters in Central and South America. Can you imagine tiny warblers - just a small animated bundle of feathers, 5 inches from bill to tail and weighing only a half an ounce, - flying on tiny wings over 500 miles without refueling or resting? Peveto Woods is the first rest stop available for these long distance migrants. According to some scientists, these long distance flights are equivalent to a human running 4-minute miles for 80 hours straight! The birds spend essential time here at Peveto Woods, eating voraciously to fuel up for the next leg of their journey. Researchers estimate that as many as two million tiny songbirds in need of rest, food and cover use this Sanctuary each year. Peveto Woods is used by other winged creatures, namely thousands of Monarch butterflies on their long journey to winter in Mexico and other colorful flutterers such as Gulf fritillary, pearl crescents, red admirals, buckeyes, and an assortment of swallowtails including black, spicebush, tiger, zebra and pipevine. The trees at Peveto are often full of fluttering and flapping wings.