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I visited the Catahoula Lake Recreation Area and the adjacent part of Catahoula Lake in La Salle Parish on August 16 and 23. On the 16th, both locations were decidedly un-bird-y. It was later in the morning and into midday when I was there, and quite hot, so it's not surprising that bird activity was lower than it might have been under good conditions. However, it still felt too empty. Thankfully, things were looking up on the 23rd, with better bird numbers and diversity. Besides starting earlier and birding when the weather was a bit more forgiving, the slight rise in water level since the previous visit meant that a larger area of the nearly flat lake bed was covered in the nice shallow water and water-meets-mud habitat that draws in so many shorebirds and waders. The rise in water level also brought this water/land edge habitat into areas that are more accessible to a person on foot, so the birds that were there were easier to find.
Below are lists for both days. The lists labeled "Rec. Area" cover the approx. 1 mile of Diversion Canal Road from LA-28 to the rec. area, the rec. area itself, and the roughly quarter-mile walk down the dirt road that leads from the boat launch area on the lake side of the spillway down to the open lake bed itself. The lists labeled "Catahoula Lake" cover the lake bed, starting from edge woody growth and continuing as far as I dare go out onto the open lake.
Also, I want to point out that I avoided approaching the shorebirds and wading birds too closely so as to avoid harassing them during critical feeding and resting, and when any got agitated, I gave them a wider berth. A couple of boats that came down the lake and turned down the canal disturbed some temporarily, but not too badly. However, a group of three large, loud helicopters that came over somewhat low sent the birds into a frightened frenzy. The upside is that it was quite a spectacle having all those sandpipers, swallows, etc. swirling around and when the shorebirds calmed down and landed, many settled in close to where I was standing, allowing for better looks than I'd expected to get.
After the bird lists below, there's a rundown of some of the other groups of wildlife found on those visits (herps, butterflies and moths, dragonflies, etc...).
...But first, some habitat shots for the 8/16/18 lists:
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| Diversion Canal Road between LA-28 and recreation area (pic taken on the drive back to hwy) |
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| Catahoula Lake Recreation Area; spillway and diversion canal -- 8/16 |
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| diversion canal at rec. area |
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| parking area by boat launches, lake side of spillway -- 8/16 |
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| dirt road to lake -- 8/16 |
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| approaching the lake bed -- 8/16 |
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| looking northeast down the lake |
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| lake bed, 8/16 |
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| diversion canal channel where it cuts across the lake bed -- 8/16 -- The Spotted Sandpipers and Killdeer were around here. |
Rec. Area, 8/16/18
10:31 a.m. - 11:31 a.m.
87 - lower 90's F.; partly cloudy; light breeze
about 1.3 miles, including about a quarter mile on foot
Ring-necked Duck - 4
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| Ring-necked Ducks in diversion canal, lake side of spillway -- a seasonal rarity during the summer, but abundant in the Catahoula Lake system during the fall-winter season. |
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| Ring-necked Ducks |
Mourning Dove - 1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 2
Spotted Sandpiper - 1
Great Blue Heron - 4
Great Egret - 4
Snowy Egret - 1
Little Blue Heron - 1
Cattle Egret - 1
Black Vulture - 8
Turkey Vulture - 3
Mississippi Kite - 1
White-eyed Vireo - 4
American Crow - 2
Carolina Wren - 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 1
Northern Cardinal - 5
Catahoula Lake, 8/16/18
11:32 a.m. - 12:32 p.m.
lower 90's F.; partly cloudy; light breeze
close to 1 mile
Wood Duck - 5
Killdeer - 3
Spotted Sandpiper - 5
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| Spotted Sandpiper -- All five were at the same spot along the diversion canal channel. |
Great Blue Heron - 3
Great Egret - 11
Cattle Egret - 1 - probably many more around in "white egret sp."
white egret spp. - ~100 - distant
Turkey Vulture - 1
Mississippi Kite - 5
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
American Crow - 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 2
Rec. Area, 8/23/18
9:21 a.m. - 10:01 a.m.
upper 70's - lower 80's F.; sunny; near calm
about 1.3 miles, including about 0.25 on foot
Mourning Dove - 1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 3
Great Blue Heron - 3
Great Egret - 4
Cattle Egret - 1
white egret sp. - 2
Roseate Spoonbill - 1
Turkey Vulture - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Pileated Woodpecker - 1
Acadian Flycatcher - 1
White-eyed Vireo - 11
swallow sp. - 8
Carolina Chickadee - 6
Tufted Titmouse - 1
Carolina Wren - 3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 1
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Yellow Warbler - 1 - my FOS for the fall
Northern Cardinal - 8
Blue Grosbeak - 1
Indigo Bunting - 1
Here are some habitat shots for the Catahoula Lake 8/23 list that's below:
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| Catahoula Lake bed -- 8/23 |
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| Catahoula Lake (here comes the water) -- 8/23 |
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| Catahoula Lake -- 8/23 |
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| Catahoula Lake -- 8/23 |
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| Catahoula Lake -- 8/23 |
Catahoula Lake, 8/23/18
10:02 a.m. - 12:33 p.m.
mid-80's F.; sunny; near calm, with some light breeze
around 1.5 miles on foot
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 1
Chimney Swift - 1
Black-necked Stilt - 18
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| Black-necked Stilt |
Least Sandpiper - ~200
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| Least Sandpiper |
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| Pectoral Sandpiper |
Semipalmated Sandpiper - 1 (more among "peep sp."?)
peep sp. - ~200 (I wish I was more competent when comes to identifying peeps.)
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| ... |
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| ... |
Lesser Yellowlegs - 2
yellowlegs sp. - 4
Least Tern - 2 - They were flying along the canal channel, calling and diving for fish.
Great Blue Heron - 3
Great Egret - x
Little Blue Heron - 2
Tricolored Heron - 1
Cattle Egret - ~450
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| Cattle Egrets (and photo-bombing dragonflies) |
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| Cattle Egrets in foreground, additional "white egrets" on far side of open water |
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| White Ibis |
Turkey Vulture - 2
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow - x
Bank Swallow - ~50(+)
Barn Swallow - ~25(+)
Cliff Swallow - ~100(+)
swallow sp. - ~300
(video: Bank Swallows and Cliff Swallows)
Northern Cardinal - 1
either Indigo or Painted Bunting - call heard once
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**Though this location was quite bird-y and all on this day, it's been better. I made several visits to this location during late summer through fall of 2010. The shorebird lists for the four August 2010 visits show a greater diversity of species. Below is a rundown of the shorebirds from August 10, 15, 19, and 27, 2010, for comparison with the August 2018 lists. The area where I birded is the same and the distances are comparable to this year's trips, making for good comparisons. These trips were in the morning. Water levels, though fluctuating from trip to trip, were probably similar enough to the 8/23/18 visit (or maybe slightly higher??).
August 10, 15, 19, & 27, 2010 - Shorebirds:
Black-necked Stilt - 65, 38, 24, 184
American Avocet - 0, 0, 1, 0
Black-bellied Plover - 0, 3, 4, 20
Semipalmated Plover - 1, 12, 5, 7
Killdeeer - 15, 71, 3, 63
Marbled Godwit - 1, 0, 0, 0 (seen on at least one other date later in season)
Upland Sandpiper - 0, 0, 0, 3
Stilt Sandpiper - 0, 3, 0, 0
Least Sandpiper - 20, 45, 95, 48
Buff-breasted Sandpiper - 0, 1, 0, 16
Pectoral Sandpiper - 15, 19, 34, 15
peep sp. - 50, 60, 13, 40
*Short-billed Dowitcher - 2, 10, 15, 5 (*assuming I was correct to i.d. these as Short-billed. I was confident enough at the time to record them as such and my notes for some dates say that they sounded like Short-billed, but I hadn't had much shorebird experience prior to ~2009, so this ain't gospel!)
*Long-billed Dowitcher - 0, 0, 5, 0 (*notes say they sounded like Long-billed)
dowitcher sp. - 30, 26, 30, 10
Spotted Sandpiper - 1, 5, 6, 8
Solitary Sandpiper - 2, 0, 6, 1
Greater Yellowlegs - 4, 7, 2, 3
Lesser Yellowlegs - 2, 10, 1, 7
yellowlegs sp. - 0, 6, 0, 30
shorebird sp. - 50, 100, 0, *350 (*350 = many were distant birds only visible when stirred up by noisy boats)
I have very few photos from those trips.
..................back to August 2018............
Butterflies (both days, both locations):
Silver-spotted Skipper -
Horace's Duskywing -
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| Duskywings -- rec. area, 8/16/18 |
Tropical Checkered-Skipper -
Fiery Skipper -
Least Skipper -
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| Least Skipper -- I saw a handful along the dirt road to the lake on 8/16/18. |
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| Least Skipper -- 8/16/18 |
dark swallowtail sp. -
Southern Dogface -
Cloudless Sulphur -
Little Yellow -
Sleepy Orange -
Gray Hairstreak -
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| Gray Hairstreak (and Frogfruit flowers) -- dirt road to lake, 8/16/18 |
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| a Monarch on the go -- out on Catahoula Lake, 8/23/18 |
Viceroy -
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| Viceroy -- dirt road to lake, 8/23/18 |
Pearl Crescent -
Phaon Crescent -
Common Buckeye -
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| Common Buckeye at edge of lake bed -- 8/16/18 |
Carolina Satyr -
Moths (both days, both locations):
*Epipagis fenestralis...
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| tentative i.d. Epipagis fenestralis/huronalis/whatever you're supposed to call these |
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| moth, out on Catahoula Lake, 8/23/18 -- I'll have to look this one up, but I may not be able to settle on an i.d. This looks like something closely related to Celery Leaftier. We shall see. |
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| moth, 8/23/18. This guy was on one of the little bald cypresses that dot the lake. |
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Dragonflies (both days, both locations):
Eastern Pondhawk, Blue Dasher, Eastern Amberwing, Common Whitetail; multiple skimmers, including some that looked like maybe Yellow-sided Skimmer, what might be Great Blue Skimmer; Common Green Darner and probably other darners; possible Russet-tipped Clubtail (see photo); and others.
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| tentative i.d.: Russet-tipped Clubtail (I'm still quite the novice at dragonfly i.d., but I'm learning!) -- I stopped by one of the little cypresses that dot the open lake bed for a bit of shade and to check what critters might be there. Just as I got there this big, beautiful dragonfly came flying in and joined me. |
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| skimmer sp. -- dirt road to lake, 8/16/23 -- same individual in dorsal view below |
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| skimmer sp. -- dirt road, 8/16/18 -- same individual in side view above |
Amphibians and Reptiles (both days, both locations):
Blanchard's Cricket Frog, Green Treefrog, Cope's Gray Treefrog, American Alligator
Some wildflowers included:
Frogfruit, Partridge Pea, Brazilian Verbena, Diodia, Ludwigia, Sagittaria, "swamp" milkweed sp., ...
The sides of the dirt road to the lake and the open area around boat launch parking had been mowed prior to the 8/23/18 visit, so there were fewer flowers compared to the 8/16/18 visit, and fewer butterflies seen around. A fair amount of low flowers remained along the dirt road, and there were patches that went un-mowed. The remaining flowers attracted a few butterflies.
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As always, if you spot an incorrect i.d. or have a suggestion for something pictured that I'm uncertain about, feel free to comment, let me know.
Peace;
J.
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