Snyder Road (La Salle Parish) -- 3/25/2018

Snyder Road from near south end

   Traditionally, Snyder Road (located between the communities of Eden and Searcy, west of Jena, in La Salle Parish) has been a regular and favorite birding route of mine. However, a dead cow of all things, having been dumped beside the road, changed that on one not-so-fine day in early April, 2017. Needless to say, I didn't want to take the truck around that (let alone be on foot in that particular area!) and in leaving plenty of time for the pile-o-bovine to return to the earth, I fell into the habit of birding other routes instead and so neglected Snyder Rd for nearly a year. Eager, however, to get back out there in time to witness the surprising richness of this location in early spring, I returned there on March 25, 2018.
   The plaguing mosquitoes aside, it was a wonderful morning. Warblers and vireos and other birds were full of song, several butterfly species were stirring despite the cloudy conditions, and a portion of the wonderful assortment of flowering plants that exist along this route were showing off their spring finery. First Of Season bird species for me included Hooded Warbler and Red-eyed Vireo.
   I could probably add Worm-eating Warbler to that list, as well. The problem is that the date is a bit early -- early enough, at least, to trigger eBird's filter, and to have surprised me a bit when I heard it sing -- and having only heard the bird, whose song is similar to the definitely present Pine Warbler (and Chipping Sparrow, but the habitat where the bird was heard is entirely unsuited to that sp.) and having gotten only very poor quality audio as evidence, I'll at best include it on the list with a big fat asterisk. I am personally confident that what I was hearing was Worm-eating Warbler, and it did respond to audio that I was playing to get a real-time comparison, but the bird didn't come into view and believing that it's generally better to err on caution's side, I'll not contend that it definitely was a Worm-eating. Despite being quite familiar with this species and being a pretty decent ear-birder, I have been mistaken concerning Pine vs Worm-eating Warbler song too many times before! That said, Snyder Road is one of the most reliable places I know of to find breeding season Worm-eating Warblers, so once the species has definitely arrived in the area, there should be some at this location.
   Ah, birding, ...but I'm rambling. Below is the bird list for that morning. Following that are comments and photos concerning other flora and fauna observed during this visit.
But first, some habitat shots:

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presumed Worm-eating Warbler was at this spot, as well as Louisiana Waterthrush, Hooded Warbler, White-eyed and Red-eyed Vireos, etc...

The spring-water gully mentioned in text.

Snyder Rd crosses Trout Creek

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Birds:
   7:25 am - 2 hours, 46 minutes
   4.1 miles -- I birded by vehicle, with numerous stops, the length of Snyder Road, from LA-8 in the south to LA-500 in the north, plus the same on 0.4 mile Choctaw Cemetery Road, a side road of Snyder Rd. I got out on foot along the road in a few spots. Woods are posted, stick to the road.
   68 - 73 degrees Fahrenheit; cloudy (tried to drizzle a few times; patches of sun from time to time); wind started out calm, on-and-off light breeze developing

Great Blue Heron - 1 - flyover
Turkey Vulture - 2
Mourning Dove - 4
Barred Owl - 1 - calling at Trout Creek
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 4
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Northern Flicker - 4
Pileated Woodpecker - 2
White-eyed Vireo - 14 - singing
Red-eyed Vireo - 3 - singing
Blue Jay - 13
American Crow - 9
Carolina Chickadee - 11
Tufted Titmouse - 5
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 1
Carolina Wren - 10
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 13 - some singing
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 12 - many were singing
Eastern Bluebird - 1
Brown Thrasher - 2 - singing
*Worm-eating Warbler (?) - 1
Louisiana Waterthrush - 3

The first video was taken where the road crosses a tiny spring-water gully between LA-8 and Trout Creek (the gully flows into a small spring-water creek - a tributary of Trout Creek - just east of the road.). The two birds were vocalizing back and forth and the one from east side of road crosses to west side during this video.  At one point, well after the video ends, the two were seen tangling in a brief mid-air dogfight over the road, one apparently driving the other back to east side.

Below is a very brief video of LAWA song (same spot as above video). The video begins and ends with Carolina Wren song. 

 Black-and-White Warbler - 2 - singing (one heard in video below)

Orange-crowned Warbler - 1
Hooded Warbler - 17 - Fifteen were singing (one of those males seen) and two calling
Northern Parula - 1 - singing near Trout Creek
Pine Warbler - 12 - lots of singing
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 6
Chipping Sparrow - 1 - singing at Placid Oil facility grounds -- a park-like setting with open short grass ground and tall pines -- near north end of road
White-throated Sparrow - 2
Eastern Towhee - 3
Northern Cardinal - 26
Brown-headed Cowbird -3
American Goldfinch - 1 - heard flyover

   In the coming weeks, one will be able to add Swainson's, Kentucky, and Prairie Warblers to the roll of warblers setting up breeding territories along this route. Some years I also find Yellow-throated Warbler here, as well, and surely there are Common Yellowthroats skulking about here somewhere that went undetected. Prothonotary Warblers typically can be detected around Trout Creek in migration, but may breed along the stream as well. 

Butterflies included Duskywing sp. (likely Juvenal's Duskywing) - 4, Spicebush Swallowtail - 2, Lady sp. - 1, Carolina Satyr - 4.

As far as herps go, I heard Green (Bronze) Frog, Cope's Gray Treefrog. Little Brown Skink was seen. 

Wildflowers:
Here are just a few of the flowers.
   Somehow I've apparently gone all these years without really noticing Snowbells (Styrax sp.).

Snowbell blossom

I wasn't sure what these beautiful white flowers were when I first noticed several of the plants near the first little gully along the route. The plant is a small tree or spindly large shrub. They typically grow in wet woods or near streams (https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=STAM4 & https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=STGR4). The second place I saw them was where Snyder Road crosses the small creek just north of Placid Oil, before reaching the houses near the north end of the road.

Snowbells

Since then, I have also seen several of these plants in bloom along a creek in the the Sicily Island Hills on 3/27 (blog entry about that outing is forthcoming).
   I'm not sure what species of Styrax I've been seeing. 

   Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), with their candy-colored flowers, is easily one of my favorite spring-blooming wildflowers. They can be common along parts of this route.

Coral Honeysuckle

Coral Honeysuckle

   There were two or three types of violets (Viola sp.).

violet sp. (Viola sororia?? V. affinis??)

Red Buckeye were blooming (Aesculus pavia), as well as some yellow asters. More than one species of hawthorn (Crataegus) was in bloom, as were one or more sp. of Vaccinium (huckleberry, blueberry).

A WORD OF WARNING for those who may be considering birding this location: The road conditions on Snyder can be unpredictable. Some places that had been rough in the past have been repaired to good effect in the past few years. Other stretches of road - primarily some areas in roughly the middle 2 miles as well as the area around Trout Creek - are prone to becoming very soft after rains and very rutted from trucks that use this road. Some of these locations used to be ok, but now seem to positively melt into mush when wet. I went on a day when it hadn't rained in a few days and so, though it was rough in spots (beware deep ruts!), it was, at least, generally firm.
   Also, as alluded to above, big trucks from oil/gas company use this narrow road, so use caution when driving or choosing parking spot.
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So long as melt-y roads and cows can be avoided, I look forward to birding this route plenty of times as the spring and summer progresses.

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