Northern Evangeline Parish, 4/8/17

Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium)

   On April 8 I was in the Turkey Creek area in northern Evangeline Parish. We were there for reasons other than birding and the like, but I made a list for each of the two locations where we spent time on foot. These were both on private land west of the village of Turkey Creek. It's a generally "piney woods" area. 
   The lists cover a period of a couple of hours in the early afternoon (we were only at the first spot for about 20 minutes), and conditions were warm, with a breeze, and skies varying from mostly to partly sunny. Not surprisingly, what follows is a pretty modest list and probably lacks a number of species that were present but not making their presence known the way they might have in the morning. However, I did get my First Of Season Summer Tanager and Great Crested Flycatcher, both at the second location.
   List below for the two locations where I spent time on foot, w/ numbers for each location following the species name.

Turkey Vulture - 1, 0
Accipiter sp. - 1, 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 2, 0
Red-tailed Hawk - 0, 1

Mourning Dove - 0, 1

Red-headed Woodpecker - 0, 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 0, 2
Pileated Woodpecker - 0, 2

Great Crested Flycatcher - 0, FOS 1

White-eyed Vireo - 1, 4

Blue Jay - 0, 6
American Crow - 0, 1

Brown Thrasher

Purple Martin - 2, 1
Cliff Swallow - 0, 2

Carolina Chickadee - 0, 1
Tufted Titmouse - 0, 1

Carolina Wren - 0, 2

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 0, 2

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 0, 1

Brown-thrasher - 0, 2

Hooded Warbler - 0, 5
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 0, 4

White-throated Sparrow - 0, 6

White-throated Sparrow

Eastern Towhee - 0, 1

Summer Tanager - 0, FOS 1
Northern Cardinal - 0, 5
Indigo Bunting - 0, 1 - my first visual of an Indigo this spring, though my first heard was in Jena a few days earlier.

male Indigo Bunting

   Butterflies included Cloudless Sulphur, American Lady, and Question Mark. I got a couple of brief glimpses of what looked to be a Palamedes Swallowtail, but in both cases it was gone into thick cover before I could get binoculars or camera on it.

Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis)

   Moths included Eastern Grass-veneer, Desmia funeralis/maculalis, and Speckled Renia.

tentative i.d.: Eastern Grass-veneer Moth (Crambus laqueatellus)

tentative i.d.: female Calico Pennant (Celithemis elisa)

Dragonflies included (I'm very new to dragonfly identification, so take these as tentative) Calico Pennant, Blue Corporal, Blue Dasher, and Eastern Pond Hawk.

tentative i.d.: female Calico Pennant (Celithemis elisa)

tentative i.d.: female Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis)

tentative i.d.: female-type Eastern Pond Hawk (Erythemis simplicicollis)

tentative i.d.: adult male Eastern Pond Hawk (Erythemis simplicicollis)

   Wildflowers were numerous -- roadsides were at their springtime finest with lots of Phlox, Coreopsis, Erigeron, Lobelia, and more. In the locations where I was on foot, species included Phlox...

Phlox sp.

these white violets...

Viola species... maybe V. blanda?

a genus Verbena species, a Glandularia...

tentative i.d.: Vervain/Verbena of the genus Glandularia ...looks like pictures of G. pulchella

Prunella...

looks like Prunella vulgaris

at least two Sisyrinchium species...

Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium)

Sisyrinchium -- S. rosulatum ...or S. minus?

? -- I see these a lot, but am yet to find out what species this is.

Oxalis, Lobelia...

Lobelia sp.

Packera, Valerianella, Scutellaria...

Scutellaria sp.

and Baptisia...

tentative i.d.: Baptisia sp.

to name a few. I always have a healthy amount of self doubt when it comes to identifying wildflowers. I've been burned plenty of times before! So much to learn...