Central Louisiana Birding & Wildlife: Catahoula NWR Christmas Bird Count 12/30/2014

Tufted Titmouse, Dewey W. Wills WMA

This year I teamed up with Beth Willis, who in the past has usually birded a different area of the Catahoula NWR Christmas Bird Count circle with her husband Lyndel. This was my sixth year to bird the CA CBC, always on the Delta East and French Fork sections of the circle. I've come to look forward to these annual outings and have really grown to appreciate the value of a number of locations in these areas for their importance to a wide variety of birdlife. Below is an account of how our CBC run went this year.

The big birding day of the year came on the heels of a drenching rainy spell. This hampered our attempts to access some locations. It was breezy but this wasn't quite enough to make it too challenging to pick out birds in the trees, bushes, and weeds. Overall, it was not really a bad day or birding, as you'll see, and I think the observations are pretty interesting where they show what species were present in lower numbers than usual and what species were higher.

Delta Plantation, view from just inside the west gate.

The day started off overcast with an insistent chilly breeze that would persist throughout the day. Even once the gray sky was replaced with clear blue. We started this count the same way I have started all five previous CBC's that I've done: standing on the farm side of the gate where Dewey Wills woodland meets Delta Plantation farmland (private/restricted access). Unfortunately this year was not one of those where we' d get American Woodcock, which sometimes comes flying up the road here at the crack of dawn. We did hear the local pair of Great Horned Owls, as I've come to expect in this spot. Barred Owl was also present, calling from the woods behind us. Some ducks (wings) and geese (a few calls) could occasionally be heard passing over in the gray sky, but were not visible. Oddly, there were no Killdeer calls heard at this spot as there usually is first thing in the morning.

Habitat in the area where the ducks, Greater Yellowlegs,
American White Pelicans, and Bald Eagle were found.

Driving a little ways further we took a short side road that crosses the small bayou and dead ends at an oil well. Here one can see the large pond or flooded field to the north. There were ducks, as expected, but simply too distant and under too poor of light conditions for us to i.d. all but a couple of Mallards. There were, however, four Greater Yellowlegs. Beth spotted what would be one of the day's highlights, an adult Bald Eagle. At first in the distant trees across the end of the pond, it then flew and we watched it go low over the edge of the pond until we lost sight of it.
We then drove the main road until the 'T' about a mile east of the west gate. Along this stretch we got American Pipit, Killdeer, and the day's first Vesper Sparrow. The Vesper was not surprising here, as I have gotten them in that stretch of road in

The first Vesper Sparrow of the day.

other years, but the next few flocks encountered during the day were unexpected. The 'T' is where I had decided to turn around, as its just past here where the road would be perhaps at its muddiest and definitely impassible in the wake of the kind of rain we'd been having lately. The turn around spot was tricky enough itself, and we had one of those harrowing "Did I push our luck too far?" moments in maneuvering the truck in the slick, soft mud. Thankfully we managed and headed back toward the gate.

One of the individuals from the second flock of Vesper Sparrows.

We drove the little dead end side road that goes south from the area where we had first parked by the gate and got more Vesper Sparrows here as well as a first-year White-crowned Sparrow. After that it was on into the large hardwood forest of Dewey W. Wills Wildlife Management Area.

Headed back into Dewey W. Wills WMA

Woods on Dewey W. Wills WMA.

The general habitat here is mature deciduous forest with oaks as the dominant large trees and the
ground cover in many areas dominated by palmetto. There are some somewhat swampy spots and the relatively wide road margins with weeds and other growth or short grass in many areas add some variety of habitat options, inviting non-woodland birds into the area. Our basic approach here was to coast along slowly watching and listening and making very frequents stops. We also got out and stood around and walked around in a few spots, especially where one can get off the main (muddy) road.

Hermit Thrush, part of one of the mixed flocks on Dewey Wills WMA

Though there were some stretches of woods that seemed unusually dead, in terms of birdlife, there
were other, busy, areas with frequent mixed woodland flocks. We picked up the requisite kinglets, chickadees, titimice, etc. in all, and in some got Orange-crowned Warbler, Pine Warbler, and Blue-headed Vireo, and others. There was, however, one glaring omission from the litany of species detected in these vast, rich woods: Yellow-rumped Warbler.
Just generally speaking, its fair to say that the Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) is probably the

Woods on Dewey Wills WMA

most abundant small forest bird in most woods during the colder part of the year. They are typically present most anywhere with more-or-less woody type habitat and are one of the 'gimme' species on any outing this time of the year. However, we went through all those small passerines in all that territory without hearing or seeing a single Myrtle. Quite troubling. This is a situation that we kept in mind during the day's birding with interesting results.
   Great Blue Heron and Wood Ducks were observed in the large ditches that parallel D W Wills Rd back out to Highway 28. We had some hopes for Rusty Blackbird in an area where I had gotten them last year, but no such luck this time. We did, however, get Hairy Woodpecker at one location.


   After Dewey Wills, we headed west on highway 28 to the Muddy Bayou entrance to Catahoula NWR French Fork unit. Here is one of my favorite stops on my annual CBC rounds, and one of the more fruitful spots we stopped at on this day. Also, it would be the first stop on the French Fork sector of the count circle.

View of east end of the big pond from the parking area at Muddy Bayou entrance to French Fork Unit of Catahoula NWR.

There's a short (0.2 mile) drive from the highway to the parking area where the road becomes ATV/UTV only. The drive takes one past two ponds, a small one on the east, and on the west, one of the series of large barrow ponds paralleling the highway. Starting by the parking spot and extending some ways west and north is a very large pond that always hosts some ducks and other water birds. We picked up Common Yellowthroat, as expected, in the weedy margins of the pond, as well as multiple Swamp Sparrows and others who prefer this type of habitat.

Adult female Sharp-shinned Hawk,
Catahoula NWR French Fork Unit.

A small woodland flock observed as we walked a tenth of a mile or so along the ATV trail also attracted an adult female Sharp-shinned Hawk. The little birds went silent when the hawk came swooping up from along the pond to land in a tree near us. I snapped a few photos as the little hawk scanned the nearby vegetation for signs of the passerines that had suddenly 'disappeared' upon her arrival. After a little while, the hawk launched from its perch and flew, about eye level or shoulder level, across the trail literally within 'spitting distance' of us. The perky little raptor glided on into the woods like a predatory paper airplane and we were left with one of the more memorable wildlife encounters of the day.

View of west end of the big pond down Muddy Bayou entrance,
French Fork unit of Catahoula NWR.

We stepped off the trail here, where there's a small clearing that allows one a good view of much of the pond. We counted 93 Ring-necked Ducks and one Canvasback this time. Often, there's more than two species present, but still it was nice to get a good look at a concentration of ducks after the disappointment of not getting to bird the duckier parts of Delta Plantation earlier in the day. At least three Pied-billed Grebes were also present on the pond.

Habitat along the trail at Muddy Bayou entrance to French Fork Unit of Catahoula NWR.

Muddy Bayou at boat launch along Hwy 28.

After leaving this part of the French Fork unit of the refuge we went back east and stopped and got out at the boat launch on Muddy Bayou beside the Hwy 28 bridge. Here we hoped to get Belted Kingfisher and crossed our fingers for an Osprey. Neither of those showed, but we did pick up the day's Great Egrets, American Coots, and Rock Pigeon. It was while here that the skies changed over from thick gray cloud cover to clear winter blue in a pretty dramatic way, making for some interesting lighting conditions for some landscape photos.

Muddy Bayou by boat launch and Hwy 28 bridge.

After the roadside bayou stop, it was back along Hwy 28 to take Arch Road to Prosperity Road and travel it to where the road enters the French Fork unit of Catahoula NWR. The road in this part of the refuge parallels the south bank of the river all the way to the public boat launch situated on the river where it meets Catahoula Lake. Along the way we had some luck with mixed woodland flocks, getting into one decent one that gave us a calling Brown Creeper, another each of the day's Orange-crowned Warblers and Pine Warblers, and... the first of the day's Yellow-rumped Warblers! When Beth called it I made a of point of checking the time before looking at the bird myself. 1:35 pm. It took nearly seven hours of birding, the vast majority of it in good YR Warbler habitat, to finally stumble across this typically abundant species! We would end up with two YR's along the 1.6 miles of road on this part of the refuge.

Male Pileated Woodpecker, French Fork Unit of Catahoula NWR

While at that spot we got a prolonged up-close look at a male Pileated Woodpecker, who was clearly enjoying feeding on the tallow tree berries too much to be bothered by a couple of humans with binoculars and a camera!

Male Pileated Woodpecker, French Fork Unit of Catahoula NWR.

French Fork meets Catahoula Lake.

As expected, there were many trucks with boat trailers parked at the boat launch from some of the duck hunters who were out on the lake that day. Some loaded their boats while we were there and one party had several Green-winged Teals to show for their day's efforts. I talked to one hunter who stopped to ask how our birdwatching was going. He turned out to have some interesting information to share, including that he'd seen "the white crookbills" (White Ibis), cormorants, lots of Canvasbacks, and up to as many as twenty-five "seagulls of some sort" (presumably Ring-billed Gull). Also, he talked about the smaller numbers of ducks on the lake this year, and how other hunters had reported lots and lots of ducks on The Delta (Delta Plantation) recently! We had a laugh at my explanation that us two birders were supposed to also cover part of Delta Plantation that day, but that the roads had been too muddy. Seems that we missed out.

View across Catahoula Lake from the mouth of French Fork.
The hilly piney woods near Nebo are visible in the distance.

While at the boat launch area, Beth and I observed rafts of ducks out in the lake (we were careful to avoid counting the clusters of decoys around the duck blinds!). For the most part they were simply too distant to clearly i.d., but we could estimate that about 300 wore the stand-out white of male Canvasbacks.

After driving back out of the refuge, we continued easterly along Prosperity Rd, which continues to parallel French Fork of Little River for practically all of the road's length. This part of our route has a number of houses and camps interspersed with uninhabited stretches of trees, brush, or small fields. Here we encountered a few more Yellow-rumped Warblers, sometimes multiple individuals in a single spot, sometimes with other species. Multiple Red-tailed Hawks were seen in this area,

A pair of Red-tailed Hawks in flight.

including a pair soaring together over Chester Road, which we took to get back to Hwy 28 rather than following Prosperity Rd in it's entirety.

Male Eastern Towhee, Chester Road.

Cypress Bayou Loop with Hwy 28 in the background.

Continuing easterly on Hwy 28, we turned off onto Crooks Site and birded driving the Crooks Site and Cypress Bayou Loop area. I had had hopes that we'd encounter Inca Dove and Rusty Blackbird here, as I've seen them in this area before and the habitat looks right, but we struck out on those. Further down the hwy we turned off onto Big Bayou Rd on the east side of the bayou and drove a section of that. Still no Rustys or Incas. No Eastern Meadowlarks either in the area where they are sometimes spotted driving along hwy 28 east of here.

Loggerhead Shrike at 'T-Town'.

We did see the day's first American Kestrel just before Hwy 28's junction with Hwy 84 at the Archie community. We got the first of the day's three Loggerhead Shrikes on the fence of the oxidation pond behind the "Texaco Town" or "T-Town" gas station/truck stop. Normally both of those species as well as the meadowlarks would have been seen in good numbers on Delta farmland. Eurasian Collared-Dove, another species usually first counted on the Delta was considered a shoo-in at T-Town. However, we didn't see any there or in the rest of the hwy 84 area that we birded just east of T-Town. That was a disappointment; normally collared-doves are a gimme species for the Delta East section of the circle. The same situation that goes for the doves also applies to House Sparrow, another unexpected absentee from the day's list. Fortunately we did get European Starling nearby.

Loggerhead Shrike near Hwy 84 east of 'T-Town'.

Looking east/northeast along Little River from Little River Rec. Area.

A twenty minute stop, walking around the parking lot of the Little River Recreation Area across the levee from Hwy 84 between junction with Hwy 28 and T-Town, yielded only a few species. That was less than expected from other years' CBCs and my recent Christmas Day birding trip there, but we were pleased to get a prolonged look at a House Wren. The little bird was first detected giving it's kitten-like call from the thick weeds beside the east boat launch.

Looking west along Little River from the Little River Recreation Area.
French Fork and Old River meet just around the bend to "re-form" Little River.

(That's an Alligator Gar head hanging from the sign post.)

From here it was on to our last destination for the day; French Fork Road. The road roughly parallels the north bank of the French Fork of Little River. Among the species obtained during this last period of daylight were three more flocks of Vesper Sparrows! One was at the location farther along the road where the species can be found every winter, but two other groups were encountered in separate locations before reaching it. At one of these spots we were trying to get a better look at the sparrows who remained in the small field on one side of the road when many had flown to the bushes and trees on the other. They had hunkered down in the furrows, and soon we saw why. Seemingly out of nowhere a female Merlin came swooping down as if attacking the hidden birds approximately 70 feet or so from the truck, but sped on past without snagging one of the little birds. The speedy little falcon was one of the highlights of the day.

Looking into the sunset at the final Vesper Sparrow spot on French Fork Road.

We spent some time watching the final group of Vespers, in the location where they always seem to be; at the edge of the ag fields where the road cuts across a bend in the river. There are several small, shallow, seasonal ponds in the fields here, that sometimes harbor ducks, Greater Yellowlegs, or even Wilson's Snipe. Unfortunately, nothing was seen stirring in the ponds or out in the open fields, not so much as a Killdeer. We turned around at the second-to-last house on the road, rather than continuing along into the wooded part where I'd usually turn around. The light was fading fast and we were running out of birds. One more quick visit with that last flock of Vespers and Savannah Sparrows rounded out the day's birding.

Appropriately enough, the last birds photographed that day were the
flock of Vesper Sparrows that we stopped to watch one last time, as
the light faded, on our way back out of French Fork Road.

All in all, though not a day that brought us rarities or incredibly high numbers of individuals or species or even the opportunity to bird on some different habitat for a change, it felt like a satisfying day's birding. For me personally, it felt good to get what I believe is some fairly solid data on what was present in the areas were got to bird and that is really a big part of what makes birding/birdwatching such a rewarding activity.

Below is the total list of birds from that day. The Delta East and French Fork sections are combined here. There are some glaring absentees from the list compared to what would be expected based on previous years' lists, including Northern Harrier, Long-billed Dowitcher, Least Sandpiper (and maybe I should include Western Sandpiper or peep sp./shorebird sp.), Eurasian Collared-Dove, Horned Lark, Cedar Waxwing, Dark-eyed Junco, Eastern Meadowlark, Brewer's Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Common Grackle, and House Sparrow, to name a few. Some of these species would really only have been gimmes on the Delta farmland, but others should have been encountered in areas that we did cover. The word, so far, seems to be that at least some of the other parties on the CA CBC also had a similar experience, by which I mean that numbers and diversity were unusually low this year.

Sharp-shinned Hawk (adult female),
French Fork Unit of Catahoula NWR.

6:49 am to 5:25 pm.
Conditions: low temp 39 f., high temp 48 f., light breeze to light wind throughout, overcast at first, becoming clear around approx. 1:00 pm.

Greater White-fronted Goose - 78
Snow Goose - 139
Ross's Goose - 3
Wood Duck - 23
Mallard - 9
Ring-necked Duck - 93
Canvasback - 301
duck sp. - 805

Ring-necked Ducks and Canvasback,
French Fork Unit of Catahoula NWR

Pied-billed Grebe, French Fork Unit of Catahoula NWR

Pied-billed Grebe - 3

Double-crested Cormorants,
Delta Plantation

Double-crested Cormorant - 25
American White Pelican - 20

Great Blue Heron - 5
Great Egret - 3

Great Blue Heron,
Little River Rec. Area

Turkey Vulture launches into flight,
Dewey W. Wills WMA.

Black Vulture - 11
Turkey Vulture - 32
Bald Eagle - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 8

American Coot - 3

Killdeer - 6
Greater Yellowlegs - 4

Rock Pigeon - 1
Morning Dove - 7

Great Horned Owl - 2
Barred Owl - 2

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (male),
French Fork Unit of Catahoula NWR

Red-bellied Woodpecker - 15
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 3
Downy Woodpecker - 6
Hairy Woodpecker - 1
Northern Flicker - 7
Pileated Woodpecker - 4

Pileated Woodpecker (male), French Fork Unit of Catahoula NWR.

American Kestrel - 1
Merlin - 1

Eastern Phoebe, Dewey W. Wills WMA

Eastern Phoebe - 18

Blue-headed Vireo - 1

Loggerhead Shrike - 3

Blue Jay - 4
American Crow - 68

Carolina Chickadee - 40
Tufted Titmouse - 21

House Wren - 3
Carolina Wren - 34

House Wren, Little River Rec. Area

Brown Creeper - 1

Golden-crowned Kinglet - 9
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 24

Eastern Bluebird (female), Prosperity Road

Hermit Thrush, French Fork Unit of Catahoula NWR.

Hermit Thrush, Catahoula NWR French Fork Unit.

Eastern Bluebird - 4
Hermit Thrush - 5
American Robin - 2

Brown Thrasher - 2
Northern Mockingbird - 7

European Starling - 10

American Pipit - 4

Northern Mockingbird, by 'T-Town' near Hwy 84.

A camera-shy Orange-crowned Warbler,
French Fork Unit of Catahoula NWR.

Pine Warbler (male),
Catahoula NWR French Fork Unit

Orange-crowned Warbler - 4
Common Yellowthroat - 1
Pine Warbler - 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 17

Song Sparrows,
Catahoula NWR French Fork Unit

Eastern Towhee - 7
Chipping Sparrow - 57
Field Sparrow - 1
Savannah Sparrow - 26
Vesper Sparrow - 66
Song Sparrow - 12
Swamp Sparrow - 8
White-throated Sparrow - 68
White-crowned Sparrow - 1