Catahoula NWR 10/23/15

American White Pelicans at Duck Lake, Catahoula NWR HQ Unit, La Salle Parish

Observation platform, looking S/SW along Duck Lake

Observation platform, looking N/NW along Duck Lake

   Tom Pollock and I made a trip to the headquarters unit of Catahoula National Wildlife Refuge on October 23. Despite generally dry, drought conditions recently and mild, unexceptional weather that day, the wildlife viewing was pretty good. We drove the nine-mile refuge loop "clockwise" with numerous stops and stand-around periods and two significant walks -- the east-west walk-in only road between the east leg of the refuge loop and the east edge of Duck Lake and a little further along at the nature trail to the observation platform.
   Birds were not in impressive numbers or diversity, but it was nice to have a few winter species present. Among them were Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and Eastern Phoebe. We had our First of Season Swamp Sparrows that day, skulking in waterside vegetation along Cowpen Bayou and FOS Ring-billed Gulls flyover near north end of Duck Lake. However, we were missing some winter species that would have been expected at this date and location, most notably White-throated Sparrow.
   Waterbirds were not in great concentrations as the lake level was not lowered this summer-fall season as it would normally be, but the drought had exposed a band of open muddy shoreline and some shorebirds were making use of it and the nearby shallows. We saw several small groups of American Avocet and a couple of Black-necked Stilts as well as flocks of Long-billed Dowitcher, Least Sandpiper, a couple of Western Sandpipers, and a few of both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs.


Lesser Yellowlegs (left) and Greater Yellowlegs (right), Catahoula NWR HQ Unit, La Salle Parish

tentative i.d.: Symphyotricum sp.

Wading waterbirds, such as herons and ibises, were pretty sparse. A few ducks were present: Blue-winged Teal, a pair of Wood Ducks, a Northern Shoveler. Bald Eagle is always a fun bird to see: we had an adult flyover at Duck Lake.   There may have been a couple of individuals of a rare species for this part of the state-- Yellow-headed Blackbird -- seen in a flock of the commonplace Red-winged Blackbirds, but I'll withhold including them on the checklist until/if the distant/blurry photos can prove it.

   Wildflowers were defying the dusty, dry conditions, if looking a bit rough and stunted. Large numbers of Sida sp. (tentative i.d.) were present and Symphyotricum (tentative i.d.) were a common sight along the road and walk-in road. Butterflies of several species were utilizing these two types of flowers especially.

tentative i.d.: Sida species (Prickly Fanpetals, Sida spinosa?)

Halbeardleaf Rosemallow
(Hibiscus laevis)

Hibiscus mallow species -- the ones that I looked closely at appeared to all be Halberdleaf Rosemallow -- were blooming along the fringes of the lake. At the lake end or the walk-in road I noticed what I think are Fourspike Heliotrope. A single Indian Heliotrope was noticed along the walk.

Indian Heliotrope (Heliotropus indicum), an introduced, naturalized species

Fourspike Heliotrope (Heliotropium procumbens, presumed i.d.), a native species of Heliotrope

a younger/smaller specimen of Fourspike Heliotrope (again, tentative i.d.)

White Morning-Glory (Ipomoea lacunose)

Among the other wildflowers noted that day were Blue Mistflower, some sort of Lamiaceae (mint family) species (i.d. pending), smartweed species (Polygonaceae), White Morning-Glory, Arrowhead, and Goldenrod (Solidago). See images below. I believe these identifications are correct, but I am still a novice at wildflower identification (as I am with Lepidoptera), so don't take this as gospel! I'll edit/correct for mistakes if any should come to light. (see end of post for suggestions for wildflower i.d. websites.)

Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)

Lamiaceae species (i.d. pending). These little plants were common along wooded parts of refuge loop.
Up-close, you could smell the somewhat minty fragrance.

"smartweed" species (Polygonaceae family), i.d. pending

Common Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia)

Little Yellow (Pyrisitia lisa)

   We saw a good variety of butterflies and a few moth species, some of which I managed to get passable photos of. Little Yellow and (Common) Checkered-Skipper were the two most frequently seen butterflies, with the yellows being present almost everywhere (tallied 59 individuals), and the skippers (36) being found in nice concentrations in a number of roadside locations, both while driving and on foot on the walk-in road.

female Common Checkered-Skipper (Pyrgus)

Pearl Crescent (Pyciodes tharos)

Carolina Satyr (Hermeuptychia)

Smaller but respectable numbers of Pearl Crescent (about 8) and Carolina Satyr (about 4) were seen as well. The later two species were seen several times on the nature trail between the refuge loop and the observation platform as well as elsewhere. I was not expecting to find Sleepy Oranges as frequently as we did during the course of the trip (about 8).

Sleepy Orange (Abaeis nicippe) nectaring on presumed Sida

At the end of the walk-in road mentioned above I spotted the first Dainty Yellow that I've been able to photograph and document. Also along the walk-in road were a couple of Clouded Skippers and an Eastern Tailed-Blue.

Dainty Yellow (Nathalis iole)

Dainty Yellow (Nathalis iole)

Clouded Skipper (Lerema accius)

Eastern Tailed-Blue (Cupido comyntas).
A very worn-looking individual that was confusing until I took a closer look.

   Driving around the refuge loop we saw several Gulf Fritillary (6), Common Buckeye (3), and a Monarch (1). Several Sulphurs -- Cloudless or maybe Clouded Sulphur -- were spotted along the drive as well (about 4).
   Just east of the NW corner of the loop (just east of Cowpen Bayou, beside ditch to Duck Lake) we found a productive patch of flowers for butterflies, adding Phaon Crescent (1), Gray Hairstreak (2), and Fiery Skipper (1) to the day's Lepidoptera list at that one spot.

Phaon Crescent (Phyciodes phaon)

Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus)

Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus)

   Moths -- which, for the most part, I have a lot of trouble identifying -- included the five species pictured below.


moth sp. (i.d. pending)

moth species (i.d. pending)

tentative i.d.: Smoky Tetanolita (Tetanolita mynesalis)

moth species (i.d.: pending)

tentative i.d.: Velvetbean Caterpillar Moth (Anticarsia gemmatalis)

Fowler's Toad

The two that I have fairly confident i.d.'s for are the Tetanolita Moth and the Velvetbean Caterpillar Moth. The former was found on the nature trail, the later I came across amid deadfall down in the woods while trying to get in position to photograph an armadillo (see below) near Cowpen Bayou. Hopefully, with a little research, I can get a positive i.d. on all five species.

   Other arthropods seen out and about included Golden Silk Orbweaver Spiders (Nephila) and Orchard Orbweavers (Leucauge).

Green Anole, in rather camouflaged brown mode

   Amphibians included Fowler's Toad, Blanchard's Cricket Frog, and Cope's Gray Treefrog. The toad was seen and the treefrog heard along the nature trail, and the cricket frogs were mostly seen at the dry, cracked former shallow pool at the end of the walking road near the edge of the lake. Reptiles included American Alligator, Little Brown Skink, Green Anole, and River Cooter.

River Cooter (Pseudemys concinna) in Cowpen Bayou. Tom, with an eye for reptiles, i.d.-ed it in the field at some distance.

Nine-banded Armadillo

   The day's mammal list was short -- only Eastern Fox Squirrel and Nine-banded Armadillo. However, we did stop to spend a few minutes trying to get some photos of the armadillo.
   It was an excellent several hours out in the woods, and thankfully, as heralded by a few sparse sprinkled raindrops felt during that trip, the weeks without much rain came to an end soon after. Thanks to the rain, another possible trip to this location in the coming days will hopefully show the plantlife -- and animal life reliant on it -- in good form for one last hurrah before the colder parts of the year.

(edited to add in this paragraph.... sorry, forgot about this part when I published the post)... For good places to look up wildflower i.d.'s, at least if you live in this part of the country, I'd suggest southeasternflora.com and wildflower.org as a couple of strong options. As for butterflies and moths, butterfliesandmoths.org has good material, especially for learning what species might be present in one's region. These are just a few of many good sites out there; a few that I think are helpful for relative novices like myself.

Complete bird list from the trip is below.......

American Alligator and Halberdleaf Rosemallow on the banks of Duck Lake Slough

***************************************
Date: October 23, 2015
Time: 8:43 am to 2:38 pm
Location: Catahoula NWR Headquarters Unit
Conditions: Cloudy, on-and-off light breeze, start temp. 72 degrees f., water level marker at north end of Duck Lake showed approx. 34.5 feet.
Protocol: Field birding, approx. 10.5 miles total: drove the 9-ish mile loop w/ numerous stops, plus walking roughly 1.5 miles.

Wood Duck - 2
Blue-winged Teal - 11

Blue-winged Teals and White-faced Ibis

Northern Shoveler - 1
duck sp. - 5

Pied-billed Grebe - 2

Double-crested Cormorant - 24
Anhinga - 4
American White Pelican - 90

Great Blue Heron - 11
Great Egret - 15
Snowy Egret - 1
White Ibis - 14
White-faced Ibis - 7
Roseate Spoonbill - 2

Turkey Vulture - 1
Bald Eagle - 1
hawk sp. - 2

Black-necked Stilt - 2
American Avocet - 35
Killdeer - 3
Greater Yellowlegs - 6
Lesser Yellowlegs - 2
yellowlegs sp. - 10
Least Sandpiper - 80
Western Sandpiper - 2
peep sp. - 50
Long-billed Dowitcher - 55

Least Sandpipers

Ring-billed Gull - 7

Mourning Dove - 12

Belted Kingfisher - 1

Red-bellied Woodpecker - 22
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 3
Northern Flicker - 7
Pileated Woodpecker - 4

Eastern Phoebe - 18

Blue Jay - 2
American Crow - 10

Northern Rough-winged Swallow - x
Tree Swallow - 100
Barn Swallow - 20
swallow sp. - 300

Carolina Chickadee - 22
Tufted Titmouse - 2

Carolina Wren - 6

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 3

Eastern Bluebird - 1

Gray Catbird - 1
Brown Thrasher - 1
Northern Mockingbird -  1

Yellow-rumped Warbler - 12

Swamp Sparrow - 2
Eastern Towhee - 1

Northern Cardinal - 20
Indigo Bunting - 5

Red-winged Blackbird flock

Red-winged Blackbird - 130
blackbird species - 10

Golden Silk Orbweaver spider on the raised walkway leading up to the observation platform on the nature trail

Lepidoptera, Spring-Summer 2015 -- Part 3: Moths

Bicolored Angle Moth (Macaria bicolorata), Jena, La Salle Parish

   This entry will be a bit shorter than the previous two in this Lepidoptera series, as I haven't had as much good luck with moths as I have with butterflies. However, there have been some fun finds, and plenty of familiarizing myself with a number of common species. That said, there's still miles to go, as moths can be a very tricky lot to i.d. and there are A LOT of species out there to encounter. Rather than going in taxonomic order, as I did with the butterflies, I'll discuss the moths in roughly the order in which I saw them.

Little Underwing (Catocala minuta), Catahoula NWR Headquarters Unit, La Salle Parish, Louisiana

   My first moth photo of this year was of a Little Underwing (Catocala minuta). Thanks to Rosemary Seidler for helping me with the i.d. This moth was seen along Catahoula National Wildlife Refuge Road (aka the "refuge loop") on the Headquarters Unit of Catahoula NWR. The location is basically just on the La Salle side of the La Salle - Catahoula Parish line. The habitat is a grassy/weedy roadside (elevated road) between bottomland hardwood forest, agricultural field, and swampy thicket. I was birding with Tom Pollock on May 2nd when the Little Underwing happened to catch my eye, fluttering in the roadside weeds. The color on the upper-surface of forewings is a camouflage gray, black, brown, and white pattern that is something like tree bark in appearance. The undersurface of all four wings and upper-surface of hind wings are orange with black bands.

Little Underwing moth, Catahoula NWR HQ Unit, La Salle Parish 

Skiff Moth (Prolimacodes badia), Catahoula NWR Bushley Bayou Unit, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana

  It was late afternoon 6/26/15, while herping with Tom, that I encountered this Skiff Moth (Prolimacodes badia). It was just south of Hwy 8 at the north end of Minnow Ponds Road at the entrance to the Bushley Bayou Unit of Catahoula NWR. This is near the Manifest community in Catahoula Parish. The habitat is a mix of pines and hardwoods at the base of the uplands where they transition into to floodplain that the refuge lays on. There are large areas of marshy ponds and weedy and brushy areas nearby including second growth hardwoods.

Skiff Moth, Catahoula NWR Bushley Bayou Unit, Catahoula Parish

This compact little moth has an attractive, bold pattern of rich red-brown on the side of the closed wing, bordered above by white that transitions into light brown. I didn't realize it at the time, but upon reviewing the photos I noticed that this individual appears to be encumbered my a strand of spider web. Hopefully it escaped its tether unharmed!

Skiff Moth, Catahoula NWR Bushley Bayou Unit, Catahoula Parish

Large Maple Spanworm Moth (Prochoerodes lineola), Jena, La Salle Parish

Large Maple Spanworm Moth

  I found this Large Maple Spanworm Moth (Prochoerodes lineola) in July in Jena on private land adjacent to mixed pine-hardwoods which do contain some maples. This moth was in a tangle of Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans) and roses on a section of fence during the afternoon . The camouflage is rather convincing, looking like the glossy side of a dead leaf.

Large Maple Spanworm Moth, Jena, La Salle Parish

Black-spotted Hemeroplanis Moth (Hemeroplanis habitalis), La Salle Parish

   This Black-dotted Hemeroplanis Moth (Hemeroplanis habitalis) was found in an area of oaks, pines, hickory, and gums near residences in Jena at the beginning of August. This was during the afternoon.  The black figure-8 like mark on each forewing really stands out against the subtly-patterned light brown coloration.


Black-spotted Hemeroplanis Moth (Hemeroplanis habitalis), La Salle Parish

Pyralid moth species, Kisatchie NF, Grant Parish

Pyralid moth species, Kisatchie NF, Grant Parish

   On 8/16 I encountered at least three of these Pyralid moths (moths of the Pyralidae family) while walking in the Kisatchie National Forest near Bentley in Grant Parish (pine forest and open weedy/grassy areas). Its been difficult to assign an exact species, but they are apparently common. Many times it is simply too difficult to correctly assign a species with certainty from a few mediocre photographs, something that a beginning 'moth-er' such as myself quickly learns.




Pyralid moth species, Kisatchie National Forest, Grant Parish. Louisiana

Drab Brown Wave (Lobocleta ossularia), Jena, La Salle Parish

   This Drab Brown Wave (Lobocleta ossularia) is admittedly not exactly drab brown, but the coloration varies somewhat within this species. This moth was in a small area of hardwoods and a few pines at Jena, La Salle Parish. The sighting was on the afternoon of August 20. Tom Pollock found a very similar-looking moth in Grant Parish around the same date.

Drab Brown Wave (Lobocleta ossularia), Jena, La Salle Parish

Bicolored Angle Moth (Macaria bicolorata), Jena, La Salle Parish 

   The Bicolored Angle Moth (Macaria bicolorata) that I encountered was at the edge of a small patch of hardwoods and pines at Jena in La Salle Parish on 8/20. I think the contrasting shades of pale and light brown and subtle patterns make for a really quite attractive moth. Note the rusty-colored streaks coming down from the leading edge of the forewing and the contrasting darker, warmer brown on the trailing section of the wings.

Bicolored Angle Moth (Macaria bicolorata), Jena, La Salle Parish 

Acrolophus moth species, Jena, La Salle Parish

   This Acrolophus species was found at Jena in August. My best guesses as to which species are either Texas Grass Tubeworm Moth (Acrolophus texanella) or Grass Tubeworm Moth (A. popeanella), though those are really only guesses and the exact species might not be able to be determined. Word is that this genus is about to undergo some taxonomic revision, so I'll update this information if/when changes occur.

Acrolophus moth species, Jena, La Salle Parish

Cross-lined Waved moth (Timandra amaturaria), Catahoula NWR Willow Lake Unit, La Salle Parish

Cross-lined Waved, Catahoula NWR Willow Lake Unit
, La Salle Parish

   I encountered Cross-lined Waved (Timandra amaturaria) throughout August and beyond on Catahoula NWR, mostly on Willow Lake Unit. These little moths were common in roadside grass and bushes on my morning birding trips to the refuge. The general habitat is alluvial plain -- sometimes the road is through hardwoods or adjacent to a small cypress swamp, sometimes trough open grassy/weedy areas or thickets or beside bodies of water. The moths were often initially spotted from vehicle, but more individuals could usually be discovered if I stopped and did a short search on foot.


Cross-lined Waved (Timandra amaturaria), Catahoula NWR Willow Lake Unit, La Salle Parish

   I left off a few moths from this post that were simply too difficult for me to come close to a correct i.d. and had particularly poor quality photos to go along with them. Of course, should I get to know the correct i.d., I'll edit this post to include them.
   This is the final of the series of Lepidoptera posts summing up spring-summer 2015.

Pyralid moth species, Kisatchie National Forest, Grant Parish. Louisiana