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| Swallow-tailed Kite |
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Related Posts:
- Kisatchie NF, 4/30/2023 -
- KNF, April-May 2022 -
- KNF, June 2022 -
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On May 31, 2023 I made a trip to portions of Kisatchie National Forest in northern Grant Parish and southern Winn Parish, including parts of the National Catahoula Wildlife Management Preserve.
The route I covered included (in NCWMP) parts of Bear Creek Rd., FS Rd. 102, (south of NCWMP) FS Rd. 168, FS Rd. 128, (back in NCWMP) FS Rds. 145, 556, 558, and 530. Everything was in Grant Parish, except for a portion of the stretch of 558 that passes through some private land around Iatt Creek, and the northerly stretch of 530, both of which are in Winn Parish. Below are some habitat shots, before continuing...
Habitat Shots:
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| Bear Creek Rd. |
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| part of the recently thinned area on NCWMP - FS Rd 102 |
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| FS Rd 102 |
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| FS 102 |
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| FS Rd 102 - Swallow-tailed Kite location |
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| FS Rd. 102 - Swallow-tailed Kite location |
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| FS Rd. 169 - KNF south of the WMP |
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| FS Rd. 128 in John's Hills area - KNF south of the WMP |
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| ditto... |
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| burned Sweetleaf grove (another King's Hairstreak colony location) - upper Indian Creek off FS 145 in NCWMP |
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| Friday Creek - FS Rd 558 west of US-167, NCWMP |
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| Prairie Creek / FS Rd 558 - NCWMP |
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| Prairie Creek |
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| Iatt Creek / American Redstart habitat |
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| Iatt Creek |
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One of my chief goals this trip was to check on the colonies of King's Hairstreaks that I'd identified in this area during the past three years. These small butterflies, a species of special conservation concern, rely on Sweeteaf (Symplocos tinctoria) as their larval host plant, and can be quite scarce and scattered in their distribution, often apparently absent from locations with an abundance of the host plant. These hairstreaks have one flight per year, which in this area tends to be from mid-May to mid-June.
Unfortunately I was unable to locate any King's Hairstreaks on this trip--the first flight season since I started looking for them in 2020 in which I didn't see any of these butterflies in this area! A large part of it was presumably because two of the Sweetleaf groves that constitute known colonies (as well as many other promising Sweetleaf groves where I had hoped to find them) had been burned earlier this spring. I searched those locations thoroughly anyway, but unsurprisingly I found no King's Hairstreaks this time. These were locations on the Grant Parish part of the NCWMP. However, the Winn Parish locations where I found the species last year were intact, and yet I was unable to locate any of the target hairstreaks there this year either, despite considerable time searching in excellent-looking habitat (abundant Sweetleaf). I guess it was just not meant to be a good year for King's Hairstreaks, one way or the other.
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| burnt Sweetleaf grove (former King's Hairstreak colony) - Log Bayou off FS Rd 145 in NCWMP |
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| burned Sweetleaf grove (another King's Hairstreak colony location) - upper Indian Creek off FS 145 in NCWMP |
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| part of a very large Sweetleaf grove at Brushy Creek - FS Rd 530 in Winn Parish, NCWMP - Found King's Hairstreak here last year, but not this year. |
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Birding, however, proved more fruitful.
I've had an eye on a swampy area along FS Rd. 102 near Indian Creek as a possible location for Swallow-tailed Kites to be found breeding ever since I saw one circling over the road just east of this spot back in March of 2022. So I was not exactly surprised (though still "pleasantly surprised" in a sense) when during mid-morning of this trip (May 31, 2023) I saw four Swallow-tailed Kites, apparently just taking off from roost/nest trees back in the storm-damaged creek bottom woods bordering the swampy pond area west of the creek. I watched them circling for a good while, gaining elevation and eventually dividing up and heading out over the treetops to hunt. A timber-thinning operation was going on on nearby private land just uphill from the creek bottoms. I don't know if/how this might have affected their breeding.
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(video: the Swallow-tailed Kites)
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| the four Swallow-tailed Kites |
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(video: Swallow-tailed Kites)
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| Swallow-tailed Kites |
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I got to see what were presumably the same four Swallow-tailed Kites at this same spot when I returned with fellow birders Tom and Jay on a June 12th trip through Grant Parish (separate post covering that trip, if I get around to it). The birds were all on the wing already, riding the gusting wind as, unfortunately, the weather was turning, and rain prevented us from getting to observe them for long. Timber thinning or logging was going on on a different part of the neighboring private land this time. The sound of the equipment was off to the southeast of the observation, along Indian Creek.
I didn't get to make it back to the location later in the summer to see if there were any juvenile Swallow-taileds.
Though common as a spring and fall migrant, American Redstarts can be hit-and-miss in their distribution in Cenla as breeders. One of the best places that I've come across to find this species on breeding territories is the stretch of FS Rd. 558 (Parish Rd. 599) where it passes through a block of private land, a gap in the National Forest, in the Iatt Creek bottoms. This 0.7 mile stretch of road cuts across the corner of Winn Parish, with some Grant Parish on either end, including the area around Iatt Creek itself. The redstarts--there were three singing this time; I've had from one to four on any given visit to this locale during breeding season over the past four years--tend to be concentrated in the area between Iatt Creek bridge to the west and the next little bridge to the east of there, with some individuals close to the road where they might be seen flitting across the road and foraging in roadside vegetation, while others will be heard-only singing somewhere out in the thick secondgrowth creek bottom woods. I could hear all three from one spot this time, with one visible part of that time. There was a possible fourth one further back down the road before arriving at this spot, though that might have been one of the same ones I heard from this spot.
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| male American Redstart, same one in video below |
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Below are the bird lists for: NCWMP Grant Parish portion, FS Rds. 169 and 128 (KNF south of WMP), Iatt Creek bottoms (outside of NF), and NCWMP Winn Parish portion. After that are lists for some of the other groups of organisms observed, including butterflies, herps, mammals, a few wildflowers/plants, etc.
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Birds:
National Catahoula Wildlife Management Preserve (Grant Parish portions)
7:44am; 1 hr, 24 min; 3.2 miles
~70F.; sunny; calm
10:22am; 1 hr, 25 min; 2 miles
warm; sunny; calm to very light breeze
11:57am; 2 hr, 13 min; 3 miles
80s F.; sunny; some light breeze
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 3
Chimney Swift - 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 4
Great Blue Heron - 1
Swallow-tailed Kite - 4
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Red-headed Woodpecker - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 4
Downy Woodpecker - 3
Pileated Woodpecker - 2
Northern Flicker - 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee - 2
Acadian Flycatcher - 4
Great Crested Flycatcher - 4
White-eyed Vireo - 12
Yellow-throated Vireo - 3
Red-eyed Vireo - 22
Blue Jay - 2
American Crow - 3
Carolina Chickadee - 14
Tufted Titmouse - 22
White-breasted Nuthatch - 2
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 10
Carolina Wren - 31
Wood Thrush - 1
Eastern Towhee - 1
Eastern Towhee - 1
Yellow-breasted Chat - 3
Brown-headed Cowbird - 1
Worm-eating Warbler - 2
Louisiana Waterthrush - 1
Kentucky Warbler - 1
Common Yellowthroat - 1
Hooded Warbler - 29
Northern Parula - 2
Pine Warbler - 31
Prairie Warbler - 2
Summer Tanager - 8
Northern Cardinal - 25
Indigo Bunting - 9
passerine sp. - 2
FS Rds. 169 and 128 in Grant Par. (KNF outside of the WMP)
9:11am; 28 min; 1.8 miles
70sF.; sunny; calm or very light breeze
9:39am; 37 min; 1.5 miles
warm; sunny; not much wind to speak of
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Pileated Woodpecker - 1
American Kestrel - 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee - 2
Great Crested Flycatcher - 1
White-eyed Vireo - 4
Yellow-throated Vireo - 2
Red-eyed Vireo - 3
Blue Jay - 1
American Crow - 1
Carolina Chickadee - 6
Tufted Titmouse - 7
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 2
Carolina Wren - 15
Eastern Towhee - 3
Yellow-breasted Chat - 6
Brown-headed Cowbird - 1
Louisiana Waterthrush - 1
Kentucky Warbler - 11
Hooded Warbler - 11
Pine Warbler - 14
Prairie Warbler - 1
Summer Tanager - 3
Northern Cardinal - 11
Indigo Bunting - 4
passerine sp. - 3
Iatt Creek Bottoms along Par. Rd. 599 (Grant and Winn Pars.)
2:10pm; 22 min; 0.6 miles
80sF.; sunny; not much wind
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Acadian Flycatcher - 4
White-eyed Vireo - 1
Red-eyed Vireo - 6
Tufted Titmouse - 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 3
Carolina Wren - 1
Yellow-breasted Chat - 1
Hooded Warbler - 2
American Redstart - 3
Northern Parula - 1
Summer Tanager - 1
Northern Cardinal - 2
Indigo Bunting - 1
NCWMP (Winn Par. portions)
2:49pm; 1 hr, 14 min; 0.5 miles
warm; mixed/variable/cloudy sky; some light breeze, occasional light gusts
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Pileated Woodpecker- 1
Acadian Flycatcher - 1
Great Crested Flycatcher - 2
White-eyed Vireo - 2
Yellow-throated Vireo - 1
Red-eyed Vireo - 4
Blue Jay - 1
Carolina Chickadee - 1
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 1
Carolina Wren - 2
Hooded Warbler - 5
Pine Warbler - 2
Summer Tanager -2
Northern Cardinal - 4
Indigo Bunting - 1
Butterflies (all locations)
*A few photos for now; I'll update with the complete list for the day soon.*
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| Pipevine Swallowtail - FS Rd. 558, NCWMP |
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| Zebra Swallowtails - FS Rds. 558 x 155, NCWMP |
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| Silvery Checkerspot - FS Rd. 558, NCWMP |
Other Wildlife, Some Plants (all locations)
*Some photos for now; I'll update complete lists for Mammals, Herps, and some of the Odonata, and wildflowers/plants, soon.*
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| Atlantic Bluet - Winn Parish |
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some wildflowers and other plants:
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| New Jersey Tea - FS 128 |
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| Sweetbay - FS Rd 128 |
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| Carolina Buckthorn - FS 128 |
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| Wild Yam - Log Bayou near FS 145 |
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| Sweetleaf - upper Indian Creek near FS Rd 145 |
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| tentative ID: witch hazel sp. - upper Indian Creek near FS Rd 145 |
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| Redring Milkweed - FS Rd 558 |
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| Indian Pink - FS Rd 530, NCWMP in Winn Parish |
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| Coral Honeysuckle - NCWMP in Winn Parish |
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