Loose Alliance Field Trip to Kisatchie NF / Other Grant Parish Observations -- 10/20/2018

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) at the Catahoula Hummingbird and Butterfly Garden, Kisatchie NF, Grant Parish

Related Posts:
- Loose Alliance trip to same location in May - http://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2018/05/loose-alliance-field-trip-to-kisatchie.html

- Loose Alliance September trip to KNF in Natchitoches Parish w/ links to previous trips - https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2018/10/loose-alliance-field-trip-to-kisatchie.html

- some other visits to same location - https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2017/12/kisatchie-nf-and-catahoula-hummingbird.html

**************
   The Loose Alliance bird club of Cenla October field trip was to the Catahoula Hummingbird and Butterfly Garden and environs along Work Center Road in Kisatchie National Forest. This is located just south of LA-8, east of Bentley. The four participants were Connie Guillory, Jay Huner, Arthur Liles, and Jonathan Clark. Conditions were overcast, light breeze, temperatures in the upper 60's Fahrenheit.
   We began by walking the garden.

...

...

...

At the garden, there was a nice mix of winter arrivals, transient migrants or lingering summer birds, and year-round residents. There were, however, no hummingbirds. Pine Warblers were in foraging flock mode. The local Red-cockaded Woodpeckers were in the pines bordering the garden.

Red-cockaded Woodpecker at Work Center Road

   After that we walked the trail along the edge of the open pine woods SW of the garden, then crossed the grassy swath and birded back up Work Center Road to the garden, for a total of a little less than half a mile.

...

...

   Below is the bird list for this location. After the group parted ways, I made a couple of other stops in Grant Parish, which will be covered after the list for this location.

Catahoula Hummingbird & Butterfly Garden and Work Center Road Area:
October 20, 2018
7:30 a.m. - 9:40 a.m.
4 observers
~0.4 miles

Chimney Swift - 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 2
Red-cockaded Woodpecker - 3
Pileated Woodpecker - 1
Northern Flicker - 2
American Kestrel - 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee - 1
Eastern Phoebe - 1
Blue Jay - 1
Carolina Chickadee - 1
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 4
House Wren - 1

House Wren

Carolina Wren - 4
Eastern Bluebird - 3
Brown Thrasher - 2
Northern Mockingbird - 1
House Finch - 1
Bachman's Sparrow - 1
Chipping Sparrow - 6
Eastern Towhee - 2
Pine Warbler - 10
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 10

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Northern Cardinal - 3
Indigo Bunting - 1
....
After leaving the hummingbird garden, I paid a visit to the Ward 8 Recreation complex at the west edge of Pollock. I've driven past this location many times, but this was my first time to stop there.

...

...

...

...

Though not very birdy at the time I was there (blame the weather) I lucked into a couple of the day's highlights.
   While standing around on the gravel drive at the ball fields I heard the wild cries of a Greater Yellowlegs. Looking up, I saw the bird flying overhead, going west, calling a couple of more times as it went by. A common enough bird, but not something I was expecting to see at a park surrounded by piney woods. Maybe there are some suitable ponds nearby. Shortly after that I spotted my FOS Northern Harrier. The hawk was headed southwest.

Northern Harrier - FOS

   Below is the complete list for my visit to this location. After that is an account of my final Grant Parish stop of the day, which was back in the Kisatchie NF.

Ward 8 Recreation Complex (Pollock):
10/20/18
9:51 a.m; 53 minutes
0.3 miles on foot

Chimney Swift - 4

Chimney Swift

Greater Yellowlegs - 1
Northern Harrier - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Northern Flicker - 2
Blue Jay - 3
American Crow - 4
Carolina Chickadee - 3
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 2
Carolina Wren - 2
Northern Mockingbird - 1
European Starling - 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 2
Northern Cardinal - 3
.............

   After leaving Pollock I decided to head down Hardwater Lake Road, which turns east off LA-8 at Fishville. I was undecided as to whether I wanted to seriously try birding along the road, go down to the lake to see what birds might be around the muddy boat launch, or maybe try birding a side road that I'd thought about doing before but never got around to. I chose option C, and birded National Forest Road 197.
   NF-197 runs for just over a mile, starting at Hardwater Lake Road approximately a mile east of Fishville and going north to a dead end just past the Big Creek primitive camping site. I don't believe there's a sign naming the road (NF-197), so check out a map if you plan to visit the location.

NF-197 just after turning off Hardwater Lake Road

   The habitat is various stages of piney woods in hilly terrain, ending down at the edge of the hardwood creek bottoms of Big Creek. This turned out to be the birdiest locale of the day.
   I parked on the side of the road shortly after turning onto the road and walked about 0.15 miles down to the bottom of the hill. Along this stretch I got my FOS Hermit Thrush and my FOS Blue-headed Vireo and found a nice woodland mixed flock of warblers, chickadees, titmice, etc. An Eastern Screech-Owl responded to my imitations of it's call while I was trying to coax the thrush into view.

Hermit Thrush - FOS

   I drove down to where the pipeline crosses NF-197 and got out for another short walk along the road.

...

In the distance I heard the faint 'yant-yant' of a Red-breasted Nuthatch. This is shaping up to be an epic "irruption year" for this species, so I wasn't too surprised. However, their call is sometimes imitated by mimics, such as Blue Jay, so I played a recording of the Red-breasted Nuthatch call to see how the bird responded. The birds -- it turns out there were two of them together -- showed up at the road in short order. I stopped the audio and got good binocular looks at each of them and snapped a few (poor quality) photos of one before they moved on through the woods.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

   A couple of more stops along the road yielded the usual stuff -- Tufted Titmice, RC Kinglet, Pileated Woodpecker, and so on.

...

Pileated Woodpecker

  Then, at one stop I lucked into a good concentration of birds again, including another apparent mixed flock of foraging warblers, chickadees, and titmice. My screech-owl imitations to try to get the birds into view elicited responses from two more actual Eastern Screech-Owls. A Sharp-shinned Hawk came circling over at one point, apparently checking on what all the fuss was about in hopes of snagging a meal.

...

While at this location, in the middle of all these birds, I heard a flyover calling that sounded to me like the Pine Siskin's "skee-aw" call. Now, it's early in the season for this species, I'm rusty not having heard one since the spring, and there were lots of other birds around, so I could easily have been mistaken.
   My final stop was near the turn off to the camp site, approaching the end of the road.

camp site, turn left; end of road, dead ahead

I walked the campground and the road's dead end at the bottom of the hill. The campground itself is simply a little area cleared of underbrush under majestic oaks just before the drop off to the creek bottoms. From here I heard a Barred Owl calling off in the hardwoods.

camp site

...

   Below is the complete list for this location. After that is a rundown of some of the non-avian stuff observed throughout these Grant Parish ramblings.

NF-197 / Big Creek Campground:
10/20/18
10:58 a.m; 2 hrs and 18 min
1.2 miles (including about 0.25 miles on foot)

duck sp. - 30
Turkey Vulture - 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Eastern Screech-Owl - 3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Red-bellied Woodpecker - 2
Downy Woodpecker - 2
Pileated Woodpecker - 1

Northern Flicker - 1
Eastern Phoebe - 1
Blue-headed Vireo - 1
Blue Jay - 4
American Crow - 9
Carolina Chickadee - 5
Tufted Titmouse - 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 2

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Brown-headed Nuthatch - 1
Carolina Wren - 10
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 2
Hermit Thrush - 2

Hermit Thrush

Brown Thrasher - 2
Pine Warbler - 19

male Pine Warbler

male Pine Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 3
Northern Cardinal - 7
passerine sp. - 1

....................
   A few things besides birds...

Butterflies:
   It was a cool, cloudy day, so of course there weren't may butterflies out and about. By late morning, there were a few stirring, though. Species included Common/White Checkered Skipper, Clouded Skipper, Little Yellow, Gulf Fritillary, Common Buckeye, Pearl Crescent.

Clouded Skipper -- NF-197

Common Buckeye -- NF-197

   ...a couple of moth pics...

moth sp. TBD -- butterfly garden 

moth sp. TBD -- NF-197

 ...some wildflowers...

blue sage sp. (Salvia) -- near Work Center Road

beeblossom sp. (Gaura/Oenothera) -- near Work Center Road

beeblossom sp. (Gaura/Oenothera) -- NF-197

beeblossom (Gaura/Oenothera) -- NF-197

false foxglove sp. (Agalinis) -- NF-197

some type of "St. John's Wort" or "St. Andrew's Cross" sp. (Hypericum) -- NF-197

Lobelia sp. (L. puberula?)  -- NF-197

Lobelia sp. (L. puberula?) -- NF-197

....
   On subsequent visits to Catahoula Hummingbird and Butterfly Garden since October 20, Connie Guillory reports finding multiple Red-breasted Nuthatches, a Winter Wren, and passing Palm Warblers at that location.
   Both Ward 8 Rec. and NF-197 -- my new birding spots from this trip -- are worth revisiting, and I'm especially looking forward to checking out NF-197 during the Spring and early Summer. That area looks like a great place to find most of our breeding neotropical wood warblers and many other neotrop "summer birds", as well as the kind of place one can find a variety of interesting wildflowers, do some butterflying or herping, etc.

...the end...

Peace;
Jonathan
*************************************************