Central Louisiana Birding & Wildlife

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Catahoula NWR Christmas Bird Count, 12/30/2019

Greater White-fronted Geese (foreground) and Snow Geese (distance) - 12/30/19

Related Posts:
- LACA CBC 1/2/18 (no post for last winter's CBC)
https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2018/01/catahoula-nwr-christmas-bird-count.html

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This winter's Catahoula NWR Christmas Bird Count (LACA CBC) was held on December 30, 2019. Weather conditions were pretty good: clear skies, temperatures in the 40s and 50s F.; there was a breeze pretty much the whole time, but not too strong. However, it had rained heavily the previous day, so some dirt and gravel roads were impassible during the count. That said, it was a far preferable situation to last winter's CBC (1/2019), as it rained most of the day during that CBC and birding became impossible after a while.
My father and I teamed up to cover Zones 2 and 5, as we have on previous counts. Zone 5, which we did first, covers a large portion of the east side of the circle, and consists of bottomland terrain with lots of agricultural fields, as well as areas of bottomland hardwoods, seasonal wetlands, brushy areas, open bodies of water, and rural residential areas. An important part of Zone 5 is Louisiana Delta Plantation, which we got advance permission to bird on.

(video: calls of Killdeer, Wilson's Snipe, and distant geese while we waited for enough daylight to start birding)

Here are some habitat shots from Zone 5.

Delta Plantation

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Evergreen Church Road

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Little River Rec. Area

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Big Bayou Road

Cypress Bayou Loop

Zone 2, which we did in the afternoon, covers the northwestern portions of the circle, north of Catahoula Lake. This is basically the area from Whitehall through Nebo, and provides the count's only upland, hilly, piney woods habitat. Much of this zone is rural residential areas with lots of houses, and much of the rest of the area is only accessed by gated-off timber company roads, so actual birding opportunities can be somewhat sparse. Here are some habitat shots from Zone 2.

Riverfront Road

LA-460 west of Whitehall

Galvin's Creek Road -- Most of the road is houses and small pastures (I don't bird close to houses), but there's a little area of woods just off the highway. A logging operation was going on just a little ways through the woods, so it was noisy here.

Hailey Road near Shady Grove -- There was almost no birdlife around here (you'd think there'd be a fair number of sparrows and other skulkers in all these weeds and brush!).

Devil's Creek bottoms along Indian Bluff Road

a birdy spot along Lakeview Road -- mixed flock here

Below are our lists for these two zones. Following that are some comments on the day's observations.

Zone 5 ("Delta East")
2 observers
6:30 am - 11:55 am
by truck: 3 hrs, 55 mins; 7.4 miles
on foot: 1 hr; 0.2 miles

Snow Goose - 1700

Snow Geese -- Delta Plantation

Snow Geese

Greater White-fronted Goose - 1000

Greater White-fronted Geese -- Delta Plantation

Eurasian Collared-Dove - 1
Mourning Dove - 22
Killdeer - 53
Wilson's Snipe - 2
Greater Yellowlegs - 5
shorebird sp. - 25
Great Blue Heron - 3
Great Egret - 5

Great Egret - Little River Rec. Area

Black Vulture - 4
Turkey Vulture - 8
Northern Harrier - 2
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk (calurus/abieticola) - 1

Red-tailed Hawk (calurus/abieticola) -- Delta Plantation

Red-tailed Hawk (calurus/abieticola)

Belted Kingfisher - 2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 5
Downy Woodpecker - 2
Northern Flicker - 4
American Kestrel - 1
Eastern Phoebe - 9

Eastern Phoebe -- Little River Rec. Area

Loggerhead Shrike - 3
Blue-headed Vireo - 1
Blue Jay - 10
American Crow - 32
Carolina Chickadee - 7
Tufted Titmouse - 4
Horned Lark - 9
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 8
House Wren - 1
Carolina Wren - 13
European Starling - 52

European Starlings -- Delta Plantation

Northern Mockingbird - 6
Eastern Bluebird - 8
American Robin - 1
House Sparrow - 1
American Pipit - 3
American Goldfinch - 8
Chipping Sparrow - 2
Dark-eyed Junco - 2
White-throated Sparrow - 27
Savannah Sparrow - 112

Savannah Sparrows - Delta Plantation

Savannah Sparrow -- Evergreen Church Road

...

Savannah Sparrow -- Evergreen Church Rd

Song Sparrow - 10

Song Sparrow -- Evergreen Church Rd

Swamp Sparrow - 4
Eastern Meadowlark - 3
Red-winged Blackbird - 14

Red-winged Blackbird feeding in Sweet Gum tree -- Evergreen Church Rd

Rusty Blackbird - 2
Brewer's Blackbird - 50
Common Grackle - 200
blackbird sp. - 5
Orange-crowned Warbler - 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 14
Northern Cardinal - 22

Zone 2 ("North" or "Nebo")
2 observers
12:06 pm - 2:32 pm
by truck: 1 hr, 50 mins; 10.8 miles
on foot: 20 mins; 0.25 miles

Great Egret - 1
Turkey Vulture - 14
Bald Eagle - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 3
Belted Kingfisher - 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 2
Pileated Woodpecker - 2
Northern Flicker - 2
Eastern Phoebe - 6
Blue Jay - 7
American Crow - 25
Carolina Chickadee - 8
Tufted Titmouse - 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 7
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 3
Carolina Wren - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 4
Hermit Thrush - 1
Chipping Sparrow - 21
White-throated Sparrow - 18
Savannah Sparrow - 6
Song Sparrow - 1
Eastern Towhee - 2
Orange-crowned Warbler - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 15
Northern Cardinal - 15

Seeing the large groups of geese on Delta Plantation is always one of the highlights for us during the CBC.

Muddy conditions prevented us from traveling into some parts of the Delta farm, so we missed some species that can be found there and had lower numbers of others that we did find. However, birding was still pretty good on the farm.

Savannah Sparrows on Delta Plantation

Savannah Sparrows -- Delta Plantation

There was a dark-bodied Red-tailed Hawk that we saw on the farm that appears to be an example of the "calurus/abieticola" subspecies.

Red-tailed Hawk (calurus/abieticola) -- Delta Plantation

...

The Brewer's Blackbirds were an addition to my year list (one of several species that didn't make it onto my 2019 list until after Christmas!).

Brewer's Blackbirds

In the area of Archie and Walters in Zone 5, we found good birding on the short, dead-end Evergreen Church Road, off the north side of US-84 east of Archie. Here we found our best density of bird species of the day, including two Rusty Blackbirds, which were also last minute additions to my 2019 year list.

Eastern Phoebe -- Evergreen Church Rd

Savannah Sparrow -- Evergreen Church Rd

I spent nearly an hour on foot at the Little River (or Archie) Recreation Area.

Savannah Sparrows -- Little River Rec. Area

Other locales in this area that we birded include Big Bayou Loop and Cypress Bayou Loop, both of which are roads off the south side of LA-28. A little mixed flock in the trees along Big Bayou provided our team's only Blue-headed Vireo and Golden-crowned Kinglet of the day and first Orange-crowned Warblers of the day.
The birding really went downhill in Zone 2. Even taking into account the time of day, less productive habitat, and other factors, we both felt that bird detection was curiously low in the upland areas compared with what we have experienced there before. We started at Riverfront Road, which follows the north side of Old River east of US-84. This is still swampy, hardwood terrain, but with lots of camps. From Whitehall, we took LA-460 west, which roughly follows the edge of the hilly, piney-woods, making a few stops where we could. There are very limited safe places to pull off the road that aren't too close to houses. A logging operation going on on both sides of the highway west of Galvin's Creek Road put an end to my plan to stop at some spots there. We birded parts of some side roads -- Galvin's Creek Road, Hailey Road, and Sharptown Loop.
After that it was on to roads in and around Nebo south of LA-127, including Indian Bluff Road, Lakeview Road, and Indian Creek Road. We exercised caution and didn't go as far on these roads as we have in the past, due to muddy conditions and knowing of some rough stretches up ahead that could be tricky to get through after the previous day's rain. Honestly we were also pretty disheartened by the near lack of birds in much of this area as well. We did, however, luck into a mixed flock of woodland birds on Lakeview and sparrows in others areas. The highlight of Zone 5 for both of us was seeing an adult Bald Eagle. The eagle was soaring off to the south of Indian Creek Rd near the junction with Indian Bluff Rd. The eagle would have been pretty close to Catahoula Lake.

Bald Eagle -- south of Nebo

After this we'd pretty much exhausted our options for where to bird. Despite some disappointments, it was a pretty good CBC for our party.

I'll probably do a short follow-up post when I see the official tally for all zones.

I'd like to thank count compiler Marty Floyd for his work, and Drew Keeth for granting permission to bird Delta Plantation.

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Friday, November 29, 2019

National Catahoula Wildlife Management Preserve (Kisatchie NF) -- Grant & Winn Parishes, 11/5/2019

Barred Owl -- FS Rd 530, Winn Parish

Related Posts:
- NCWMP March 2019 -
https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2019/04/national-catahoula-wildlife-management.html
- NCWMP July -
https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2019/08/national-catahoula-wildlife-management.html
- NCWMP August -
https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2019/08/national-catahoula-wildlife-management_11.html

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On November 5 I returned to National Catahoula Wildlife Management Preserve (NCWMP) after having last visited this location in August. The Preserve is located in the Kisatchie National Forest in northern Grant Parish and southern Winn Parish, with the great majority being in Grant. I birded along Bear Creek Rd, Lincecum Village Rd, LA-472 (couple of stops at side roads along LA-472), and Forest Service Roads 556, 558, and 530. This route happens to follow the boundary between the Catahoula and Winn Ranger Districts of the Kisatchie NF, up until FS 530 which is in Winn RD. I also recorded birds and butterflies detected on the ~0.7 mile section of FS 558/Parish Rd 599 that passes through private land in the Iatt Creek bottoms (separate bird list from NF list).
Weather conditions were... meh. Temperatures were from mid-50's through mid-60's Fahrenheit. In the morning it was cloudy to overcast with some brief periods of light drizzle, and the wind tended to be calm with occasional breezes. In the afternoon sunny and cloudy skies tug-of-warred back and forth, becoming clearer late, and there was generally a light breeze. There had been a recent thinning of a section of pine woods along Lincecum Village Rd not far from LA-472, and the thinning operation was still going on south of there on the east side of the highway. The sounds of the logging could be heard from well up Bear Creek Rd in the east to a ways down FS 556 to the west. The noise wasn't too bad on bird detection until close, but still it was something of a factor for this sizable stretch of the route.
Here are some habitat shots before continuing.

Bear Creek Rd, entering NCWMP -- Grant Parish

Bear Creek Rd

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Lincecum Village Rd, west of Bear Creek Rd

The recently thinned pines along Lincecum Village Road -- a Red-cockaded Woodpecker and a group of 20+ Pine Warblers were at this spot.

a stop along LA-472 (at campground) -- thinning/logging going on in the background across the road

FS Rd 556, west of LA-472

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FS Rd 556 at pond on east side of RR tracks

pond between RR and US-167

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woods along FS 556 in vicinity of 2nd pond -- birds here included Eastern Screech-Owl and a sizable mixed flock that included a White-breasted Nuthatch

FS Rd 558 at west side of US-167 -- this is about a mile south of where FS 556 crosses the highway

FS 558

FS Rd 558 at Southern Pearly-eye (butterfly) location -- there was also a good mixed flock of songbirds and a Winter Wren in the woods along the creek

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woods along FS Rd 558

decent sized creek bottom woods along FS 558 just east of junction with FS 155 -- This was probably the single bird-y--est spot of the day, with lots of activity from a dozen+ species and many individuals

Iatt Creek, Grant Parish (private land off road) -- road crosses a corner of Winn Parish in the creek bottoms

FS Rd 558 west of Iatt Creek (back on NCWMP)

FS Rd 530, ~Grant-Winn Parish line

FS Rd 530, Winn Parish

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the end of the drive-able section of FS Rd 530 going north -- west/south of Iatt Creek

Birding along the roads in this predominantly piney-woods region of forest I found that birds tended to be concentrated in some locations, with sparse detection in the areas in between. Most of the woodland songbirds (such as Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets, Yellow-rumped and Pine Warblers, Brown-headed and White-breasted Nuthatches) and many of the woodpeckers were in the mixed flocks that roam the woods during the winter season. Happening upon one of these groups brought a flurry of activity, punctuating the stretches of slower birding. ("So that's where the birds all went.")

Brown-headed Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch

Tufted Titmouse

At one location on Lincecum Village Rd, at the edge of recently thinned pines, there was a group of at least 20 pine warblers with a few of the other species - including a Red-cockaded Woodpecker - tagging along.

Pine Warbler

Red-cockaded Woodpecker

There was a second Red-cockaded Woodpecker on FS 556 about 0.5 miles west of LA-472. Some of the best bird concentrations were in the multiple hardwood creek bottoms that FS Rd 558 crosses west of US-167. These veins of richer habitat presumably support greater densities of birds.

(video: noisy--in a good way--creek bottom woods along FS 558 just east of FS 155)

Hermit Thrushes were present all along the route, even in spots that seemed otherwise devoid of birds.
It's always nice when you get to take your time watching one of the larger birds such as Barred Owl or Pileated Woodpecker just doing what they do.

Pileated Woodpecker

...

Wham!

raiding the fridge ...

Anything good?

Nah. ...

On this day I saw three of my FOS species for this fall-winter season. These were Snow Goose (flyover flock at FS 530), Sharp-shinned Hawk (flyover at FS 556), and American Goldfinch (multiple locations). Other highlights were the White-breasted Nuthatch on FS Rd 556 (not a particularly common bird in this region of the state, but not the first time I've seen them on this road) and of course the two Red-cockaded Woodpeckers.

Because it was cool and cloudy through the morning and never very warm and not consistently sunny for long during the afternoon, butterflies were not found in great numbers. The first butterfly of the day--a Little Yellow--wasn't seen until the noon hour when I was already on FS 558. However, there were some interesting butterflies among the few that did show up.
I saw a Southern Pearly-eye on FS Rd 558 just before the creek about 1.1 miles west of US-167.

Southern Pearly-eye

This is the first pearly-eye that I've seen on NCWMP, but I suspect that Southern Pearly-eye could be common here as there is a fair amount of their host plant--cane (Arundinaria)--in those woods and I saw another cane-feeder (Lace-winged Roadside-Skipper, two individuals) along the same road this summer.
The most interesting butterfly was a winter form Barred Yellow, seen in the company of Little Yellows and a Pearl Crescent, at a spot on FS 558 about 0.4 miles east of FS 155.

Barred Yellow

This is notable because I found a population of these butterflies, which in Louisiana are typically found east of the Mississippi River in the "Florida Parishes", on NCWMP this summer (see 'August' post linked at top of the blog entry) and had hoped to see evidence of subsequent generations.

Barred Yellow beside FS 558 -- ventral surface of wings are brown on the wet season or winter form. Those that I saw on NCWMP during July and August were the dry season or summer form, which are grayish-white on the ventral surface of the wings

Barred Yellow FS 558 -- dorsal view, showing the namesake black bars across yellow dorsal surface of forewings

Let's hope they (the larva or eggs at least) survived the recent cold spell and fair well through the winter.
A few mammals were out and about. Both Fox and Gray Squirrels were seen here and there. From the end of FS 530, as light was fading, I heard a pack of Coyotes howling. On the drive back out through the Preserve after dark I saw a White-tailed Deer.
Because of the cool cloudy conditions for much of the day, it wasn't a good day for finding Herps. A few Pond Sliders at the ponds and an occasional skink disappearing into the leaf litter in the afternoon were all the reptiles I recall seeing. I failed to record what frogs I heard either, but there weren't many.
One of the most interesting species encountered, however, was a species of moth. I saw Scarlet-bodied Wasp Moths at two locations. One was beside FS Rd 558 about 0.6 miles east of the junction with FS Rd 155, the second was at that junction.

Scarlet-bodied Wasp-Moth number 1 -- FS Rd 558 -- The plant that the moth is nectaring on is Witch-Hazel (Hamamelis sp.; I'm guessing that H. virginiana is the likely species, but I don't know).

Scarlet-bodied Wasp-Moth #1

Scarlet-bodied Wasp-Moth (Spider-Man, am I right?)

...

I spent about 10 or 15 minutes watching the moth nectaring from the Witch-Hazel blossoms. When it was done, it took shelter on the underside of one of the tree's leaves.

the 2nd Scarlet-bodied Wasp-Moth

What bizarre-looking moths! They added an unreal splash of color to the often dreary woods.

Below are the lists for birds, butterflies, and mammals detected on this outing.

National Catahoula Wildlife Management Preserve (Kisatchie NF), 11/5/19
Grant Parish and Winn Parish
14.6 miles
8:36 a.m.; 6 hrs 27 mins / 3:26 p.m.; 2 hrs 5 mins
57-66F.; morning: cloudy, occasional light drizzle, calm with periods of light breeze; afternoon: sky varying between sunny and cloudy, clearing up late, light breeze

Snow Goose - 110
Wood Duck - 2

male Wood Ducks

Turkey Vulture - 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 3
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Eastern Screech-Owl - 6
Barred Owl - 3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 4
Red-headed Woodpecker - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 9
Downy Woodpecker - 3
Red-cockaded Woodpecker - 2
Pileated Woodpecker - 7

Northern Flicker - 3
Eastern Phoebe - 18
Blue Jay - 1
American Crow - 20
Carolina Chickadee - 24
Tufted Titmouse - 28
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 8
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 25
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 8
House Wren - 1
Winter Wren - 1
Carolina Wren - 30
Gray Catbird - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 4
Hermit Thrush - 32
American Robin - 24
American Goldfinch - 4
Chipping Sparrow - 1
White-throated Sparrow - 1 (would have expected more)
Song Sparrow - 1
Swamp Sparrow - 2
Eastern Towhee - 6
Red-winged Blackbird - 3
Orange-crowned Warbler - 6
Pine Warbler - 40
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 13
Northern Cardinal - 19

Off-NCWMP on Par. Rd 599/ FS Rd 558 (between parts of the Preserve)
Winn and Grant Parishes
3:07 p.m.; 18 mins (mostly on foot on bridge and road at Iatt Creek); 0.7 miles

Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Pileated Woodpecker - 1
Eastern Phoebe - 1
American Crow - 2
Carolina Chickadee - 1
Winter Wren - 1
Carolina Wren - 1
Hermit Thrush - 1
American Goldfinch - 1
White-throated Sparrow - 4
Orange-crowned Warbler - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 1
Northern Cardinal - 2

Butterflies (all locations)
Common Checkered-Skipper - 1