Central Louisiana Birding & Wildlife: Zimmer Creek Road (La Salle Parish), Fall and Winter 2017-2018

Hermit Thrush - 12/29/2017

   Below are lists from five trips down my Zimmer Creek Road birding route (an upland, piney-woods area northwest of Jena, in La Salle Parish) between late September 2017 and early March 2018. The Sept. 21 list shows some of the summer birds still around, while the March 7 list shows spring beginning to stir with my FOS Louisiana Waterthrush singing on territory, and a pair of Gray Catbirds making noise in likely breeding habitat. In the November, December, and March lists, we get a good sampling of winter species that one would expect in such a location as this.
   The route I birded on each of these visits is a follows: Fount Cutoff Road from LA-127 to Zimmer Creek Road (~0.75 mile) and Zimmer Creek Road from there to south end at US-84 (for a total of 5 miles).
   I'll cover other wildlife and some interesting wildflowers after the bird lists.

September 21, 2017:
8:56 am - 2hrs, 6min
5 miles
77 - 85 degrees F, sunny, near calm to light breeze

Turkey Vulture - 3
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 5
Pileated Woodpecker - 2
White-eyed Vireo - 7
Blue Jay - 12
American Crow - 6
Carolina Chickadee - 4
Tufted Titmouse - 11
Carolina Wren - 5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 1
Hooded Warbler - 4 (3 locations; 1 singing, 3 calling)
Pine Warbler - 8 (all singing)
warbler sp. -- possible Swainson's Warbler call and glimpsed (unsatisfactory to clinch i.d.; slightly light date for SWWA as expected sp.)
Northern Cardinal - 8

Sept. 25, 2017 (incidental observations, incomplete list):
2:04 pm
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Northern Flicker - 1
Blue Jay - 3
American Crow -2
Pine Warbler - 1

November 29, 2017:
10:08 am - 1hr, 46min
5 miles
71 - 73 degrees F., breezy, sky a varying mix of cloud and sun

Black Vulture - 1
Turkey Vulture - 5
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Mourning Dove - 7

Mourning Doves

Eastern Screech-Owl - 2 (one can be heard in the video below)

Red-bellied Woodpecker - 2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1
Northern Flicker - 1
Pileated Woodpecker - 1
Eastern Phoebe - 2
Blue Jay - 1
American Crow - 14
Carolina Chickadee - 8
Tufted Titmouse - 2
House Wren - 4
Carolina Wren - 5
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 8
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 13
Eastern Bluebird - 3
Cedar Waxwing - 14
Orange-crowned Warbler - 1
Pine Warbler - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 8
Chipping Sparrow - 2
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) - 3
White-throated Sparrow - 4
Song Sparrow - 5
Swamp Sparrow - 2
Eastern Towhee - 4

female Eastern Towhee - highline south of Zimmer Creek woods

Northern Cardinal - 8
American Goldfinch - 2

December 29, 2017:
9:56 am - 1hr, 58min
5 miles
40 - 43 degrees F.; start sunny, became cloudy; light breeze

Snow Goose - 130 - flyovers
Black Vulture - 3
Turkey Vulture - 5
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 5
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Northern Flicker - 3
Eastern Phoebe - 2
Blue-headed Vireo - 1
Blue Jay - 3
American Crow - 18
crow sp. - 11
Carolina Wren - 5
Tufted Titmouse - 4
Brown Creeper - 1
House Wren - 2
Carolina Wren - 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 5
Eastern Bluebird - 4
Hermit Thrush - 7
Brown Thrasher - 1
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Cedar Waxwing - x (group heard but not seen to be counted)
Pine Warbler - 11 (most were singing)

male Pine Warbler - Fount Cutoff

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 15
Chipping Sparrow - 4
Field Sparrow - 1
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) - 6
White-throated Sparrow - 8
Song Sparrow - 8
Lincoln's Sparrow - 1
Swamp Sparrow - 6
Eastern Towhee - 1
Northern Cardinal - 15
American Goldfinch - 3

March 7, 2018:
6:45 am - 3hrs, 5min
5 miles
41 - 47 degrees F., sunny, north wind, moderately windy

Great Blue Heron - 1
Black Vulture - 1
Turkey Vulture - 11
Red-shouldered Hawk - 2
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Mourning Dove - 4
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 2
Downy Woodpecker - 2
Northern Flicker - 2
Pileated Woodpecker - 1
Blue Jay - 6
American Crow - 16
Carolina Chickadee - 9
Tufted Titmouse - 10
House Wren - 2
Carolina Wren - 12
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 9
Eastern Bluebird - 3
Hermit Thrush - 3
American Robin - 2
Gray Catbird - 2

one of the pair of Gray Catbirds from 3/7...

...and its mate

Louisiana Waterthrush - 1 - Likely a very recent arrival, as this date is on the early edge of when this neotropical migrant is expected to appear in the state. This bird was singing by Zimmer Creek, where a pair was present last breeding season.

Louisiana Waterthrush singing

The bird can be seen singing in the videos below. The bird was initially singing in cover on the west side of the road just south of the bridge. I pished a few times and used playback very briefly (did not want to harass it) to see if it would show itself so I could get a photo or at least sing more predictably so I could get some video of the song. The bird came quickly into view, and lingered along the roadside, singing from a couple of perches where I could see and photo/film it clearly. What a treat!

Orange-crowned Warbler - 1
Pine Warbler - 10 (9 singing, 1 calling)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 22
Chipping Sparrow - 40
White-throated Sparrow - 16
Song Sparrow - 2
Swamp Sparrow - 4
Eastern Towhee - 2
Northern Cardinal - 19
Common Grackle - 1
American Goldfinch - 2

Others...
From the road I could see Creek Chubs in Zimmer Creek on the September visits. These fish are common in small and medium spring water streams such as this.

what appears to be a Creek Chub - 9/25/2017

Butterflies in September included 'Astyanax' Red-spotted Purple and Painted Lady. If I'm not mistaken, the moth pictured below is what's called Epipagis huronalis or Epipagis fenestralis. I don't know of any English common name being applied to this rather common little moth. Hodges # 5147.

tentative i.d.: Epipagis huronalis / E. fenestralis -- 9/21/17

(I'm pretty confident about the plant i.d.s below, but I am an amateur and there's no guarantee they're correct. Corrections are welcomed, just drop a comment.)
There's a lot of wildflowers to be found in the fall. One that I think is among the most attractive and compelling is the Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis). In my experience, they can be tough to find, but I was lucky this past fall, finding them in four locations, two of which were along ZC Rd.

Cardinal Flower - 9/25/2017

Cardinal Flowers on the creek bank -- 9/21/17

A new species for me was the Forked Bluecurls (Trichostema dichotomum). What an interesting-looking flower. This was growing roadside in a hilly cutover along ZC Rd.

Forked Bluecurls (Trichostema dichotomum) - 9/21/17

These blue Lobelia were a common sight in upland/piney-woods locations this fall. I first noticed them on the 9/21 trip to ZC Rd.

Lobelia sp. (Lobelia puberula?) -- 9/21/17

Lobelia sp. (L. puberula?) -- 9/21/17

In addition to these plants, many of the usual suspects for piney-woods wildflowers of late summer through fall were noticed along this route. Among them were the plants pictured below: