Central Louisiana Birding & Wildlife: Breeding Bird Survey -- Enterprise route, 2017

Catahoula Church Road near Haggerty Creek

On 5/31/17, I ran the Enterprise BBS route in northern and central Catahoula Parish. This is the 7th year that I've done this route. The starting point is where Catahoula Church Rd turns south off of hwy 124 between the Ouachita River Duty Ferry and the community of Enterprise. The route straight away begins climbing into the hills south and west of the Ouachita River...

(woods along Catahoula Church Road, Stop 2 or 3)

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(Catahoula Church Road -- Stop 3, I think)

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(continuing uphill from Stop 5 -- Catahoula Church Road)

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(in the pines -- in the highest section of Catahoula Church Road around Stop 6)

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(view from Catahoula Church Road, between stops 7 and 8, across creek bottoms to hills beyond. CC Road crosses several creeks, including Haggerty Creek and Hooter Creek)

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(Stop 9 -- At one point, Old Columbia Road runs by some pastures near a cluster of houses, allowing for some different habitat)

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(woods along Old Columbia Road, about Stop 10)

...crosses the Chalk Hills ...

(after crossing Sugar Creek, the route steeply climbs into the Chalk Hills)

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(up into the hills again after crossing Sugar Creek bottoms)

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(the route continues up into the Chalk Hills (see also: video below taken at stop 13) -- much of the habitat in the Chalk Hills section is cutovers and young and medium-aged pine plantation.)

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(woods near the upper branches of Rawson Creek after route comes down from Chalk Hills -- approaching Stop 18 beyond creek)

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(new cutover at Stop 20 -- hills south of Rawson Creek and north of Posey-Webb Camp Highway)

(woods north of Manifest, Stop 25 -- Much of the upland part of the route is similar habitat to this - pine plantation that never quite gets to grow into real woods)

...comes back down to flood plain about 2/3 of the way through the route where hwy 126 crosses Catahoula NWR Bushley Bayou Unit...

(Stop 39 -- Sandy Lake Road at hwy 126 -- The bottomland terrain in the Bushley Bayou Unit section (three stops, along hwy 126) where the habitat is generally replanted hardwoods with smaller areas of mature trees)

... goes through Sandy Lake community, and ends on hwy 923 in the middle of an ag. field a half mile from where the highway ends at north side of Little River.

Stop 48, hwy 923

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habitat near Stop 49 of 50 along hwy 923

In other words, there's a nice mix of habitats.

5:35 am - 10:29 am
Conditions: 68 to 77 degrees F.; sky near clear at beginning, cloudy-to-overcast for much of the time, then mix cloud and sun at the end; very little wind.

Description: 50 stops at "half-mile" intervals (sometimes a little over half a mile), three minutes at each stop. The first number after the species name is a total of how many were detected during the 50 stops (the birds actually appearing on official BBS results), the + number are additional individuals detected while traveling between stops or outside the 3 minute limit at a stop.

Great Egret - 1 + 7

Snowy Egret - 0 + 1

Littel Blue Heron - 3 + 1

Cattle Egret - 13 + 4

Turkey Vulture - 16 + 1

Red-shouldered Hawk - 1 + 1

Broad-Winged Hawk - 0 + 1

Killdeer - 2 + 1

Eurasian Collared-Dove - 0 + 2

Mourning Dove - 16 + 7

Yellow-Billed Cuckoo - 14 + 1

Chuck-Will's-Widow - 1

Chimney Swift - 3 + 1

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird - 1

Red-Bellied Woodpecker - 15 + 1

Downy Woodpecker - 5 + 1

Northern Flicker - 1

Pileated Woodpecker - 3 + 1

Eastern Wood-Pewee - 1 + 1

Acadian Flycatcher - 7 + 4

Great Crested Flycatcher - 5 + 5

Eastern Kingbird - 3

Loggerhead Shrike - 1 + 2

Blue Jay - 11

American Crow - 39 + 5

White-Eyed Vireo - 29 + 6

Red-Eyed Vireo - 17 + 8

Barn Swallow - 8 + 6

Carolina Chickadee - 17 + 9 (video below -- Carolina Chickadee in nest cavity; presumably a fledgling, adults seen nearby. Stop 31.)

Tufted Titmouse - 22 + 4

Carolina Wren - 34 + 6

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 7 + 4

Eastern Bluebird - 7 + 1

Wood Thrush - 6 + 4

Northern Mockingbird - 16 + 1

Brown Thrasher - 3

European Starling - 3

Worm-eating Warbler - 3 + 3

Black-&-White Warbler - 6 + 1

Louisiana Waterthrush - 0 + 1

Swainson's Warbler - 4 + 3

Prothonotary Warbler - 4

Hooded Warbler - 26 + 12 + 1

Kentucky Warbler - 7 + 1

Common Yellowthroat - 5

Northern Parula - 9 + 3

Pine Warbler - 20 + 5

Prairie Warbler - 8 + 2

Yellow-breasted Chat - 39 + 6

Eastern Towhee - 16 + 12

Summer Tanager - 5 + 3

Northern Cardinal - 64 + 22

Blue Grosbeak - 5 + 2

Indigo Bunting - 16 + 2

Painted Bunting - 10 + 2

Red-Winged Blackbird - 7

Eastern Meadowlark - 6

Eastern Meadowlark

Common Grackle - 1

Brown-headed Cowbird - 15 + 13

Orchard Oriole - 3

a few notes...
*While on the way to the starting point in the pre-dawn I saw 3 Chuck-will's-widows, each sitting on/flushed from highway 503. This was in La Salle Parish.
*Best warbler diversity is in first 20 or so stops.
*Species found on route some years that weren't detected this year include: Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Northern Bobwhite, Wild Turkey, Wood Stork, Great Blue Heron, White Ibis, Black Vulture, Mississippi Kite, Red-tailed Hawk, Barred Owl, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, American Redstart.
*There's a new cutover or two each year.

A few other things from that morning...

birdsong videos, Catahoula Church Road:
(Green (Bronze) Frogs join the chorus in the first video.)