Birding Southwestern Louisiana, 1/9/2016

immature White Ibis, south of Hwy 14, west of Lake Arthur

   So, this takes us a little outside of the blog's "Central Louisiana" purview, but I thought it worth sharing. Tom Pollock, Beth Willis, and I made a trip to the SW part of the state to try and see the Pyrrhuloxia that had been reported south of Welsh, Jefferson Davis Parish (really unfortunate name that parish has). The flat prairie region of the state - with its numerous wetland areas (both natural and man-made) - is home to a nice diversity of birds, some of which are hard to find in the state outside of this region. We ended up birding a fruitful route in the farm country southeast of Fenton and northwest of Welsh that morning before trying the PYRR spot on Wild Road during midday. After that, we birded some more locations in the rice-growing prairie region and marshlands of J. Davis and Cameron Parishes, including the Lacassine Pool section of Lacassine NWR and Pintail Loop on Cameron Prairie NWR (where a Cinnamon Teal had recently been reported).
   I'll go ahead and kill the 'suspense' and say that neither the Pyrrhuloxia or the Cinnamon Teal were seen, and it seems that the PYRR may no longer be hanging around (not seen since 12/31/15, I believe). But there were loads of other things to see, some of them pretty surprising themselves.

habitat shot: rice fields along Hwy 102 east of Fenton

   The first area was Hwy 102 east of Fenton and some of the network of gravel roads south/west of Hwy 102 and north of I-10. There were loads of Red-winged Blackbirds and Brown-headed Cowbirds and significant groups of Snow Geese in the rice fields and pastures along Hwy 102. An immature Bald Eagle and the day's first Crested Caracara were highlights. Savannah Sparrows were very abundant, as they would be in many places that day, and the melodious whistling of Eastern Meadowlarks filled the gray-sky-and-dead-grass landscape with summery birdsong.

Snow Geese east of Fenton

   On Estes Road there was a large flock of Black-necked Stilt. About halfway between the east end of the road and the junction w/ Rostrom Road we encountered FIVE "Krider's" Hawks.

Red-tailed (Krider's) Hawks, Estes Road SE of Fenton

These are a form of Red-tailed Hawk with much white in the plumage and an overall 'washed-out' or faded appearance. I'd only seen these hawks in a couple of places before, so observing this many of them gathered at the same location was curious, for sure.

Red-tailed (Krider's) Hawk, Estes Road

Red-tailed (Krider's) Hawk, Estes Road

The clouds began clearing unevenly around this time, and much of the following areas were birded in mostly sunny conditions.

habitat shot: Estes Road

Sandhill Cranes, Oilfield Road

   South on Rostrom Road we began seeing more Tree Swallows here and there and picked up a good variety of the woodland birds in the patches of trees and brush as well as shade trees around the houses/buildings along this road. The road becomes Oilfield Road at some point, and it was in this section that we spotted a small flock of Sandhill Cranes. The eighteen birds were flying low, possibly having recently risen from one of the pastures or fields near the road. In a pasture nearby was another Crested Caracara on the ground with two Turkey Vultures. The grass was too thick to tell for sure, but it appears they may have been gathered around some carrion.

Turkey Vultures and Crested Caracara, Oilfield Road

habitat shot: Miller Oilfield Road

   In the winter of 2011-2012, Miller Oilfield Road hosted both a Green-tailed Towhee and a Lark Bunting. These two species, very rarely found in Louisiana, were no where to be seen this year, of course, but revisiting the location did, I have to admit, raise the inkling of a hope in the back of my mind. There was water over the road in several places this time, and where the bunting was then, a Belted Kingfisher was hunting this time. There was a juvenile White-crowned Sparrow associating with the GT Towhee when it was here, so seeing an adult WC Sparrow in the towhee spot on this trip made me wonder if it could - maybe, possibly, maybe - be that same bird. Hey, its possible. There were three WC Sparrows seen along the road this time.

adult White-crowned Sparrow, Miller Oilfield Road

Three more Caracaras were visible north of the road. In the distance to the SE were visible numerous gulls swarming some promising spots on "Mount Trashmore" - the landfill hill that rises conspicuously from the flat terrain.

gulls at Jeff. Davis Parish landfill as seen from Miller Oilfield Road

    South on Turf Grass Road we encountered a hoard of Killdeer at the turf grass farm. In with them were a few other shorebirds such as Black-bellied Plover, Western Sandpiper, and Dunlin. The highlight, however, was a Long-billed Curlew. They aren't commonly encountered up in inland areas in the winter, so it was unexpected. We made sure to take a few photos and this short video of the bird.

   The next area, after an all-business drive down a few highways, was Wild Road, east of Hwy 99, south of the Bayou Chene bridge, about 6 miles south of Welsh. Conditions were pretty sunny and warming noticeably by this point (70-ish degrees f.?), though the breeze persisted. We spent an hour and a half along the short stretch of the road where the Pyrrhyloxia had been seen by numerous birders during December.

looking west along Wild Road from the Pyrrhuloxia spot

As said above, the PYRR was a no-show, but we ended up with a nice list to add to the hotspot. Bald Eagle, a pair of Inca Doves, a King Rail (heard only), and flyover (also heard only) Sandhill Cranes were some of the highlights. The King Rail - which I at first mistakenly thought was Clapper Rail, despite the wrong habitat - can be heard in this short video. While on foot at that locale, I found three butterfly species: Little Yellow, Gulf Fritillary, and Common Buckeye.

Little Yellow, Wild Road

Herps included Pond Slider, Blanchard's Cricket Frog, and Southern Leopard Frog. Eastern Fox Squirrel made sure the mammals didn't go unrepresented. Back on Hwy 99 just south of Wild Road we spotted a Caracara on the ground amid feathers, probably from a Snow Goose.

   After this, we birded while driving the Marceaux Road and Watkins Road area west of Hwy 99. Lots of distant shorebirds in rice fields along Marceaux, the closer ones included Long-billed Dowitcher and Western Sandpiper. There were some impressive groups of Snow Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese here as well.

tentative i.d.: Pig Frog, near Hwy 14 west of Lake Arthur

American Alligator, Lacassine NWR, one of several gators seen that day

Lacassine Pool area of Lacassine NWR

   After attempts to find somewhere to bird west of Lake Arthur, we decided to head back west on Hwy 14 and visit the Lacassine Pool area of Lacassine NWR. Here, lots of American Coots and several duck species (including Gadwall, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Ring-necked Duck) bobbed in the open marsh pools as the wind continued to blow and the sky gradually began to get cloudy once again.

Neotropic Cormorant, Lacassine NWR

Gadwalls, cormorants, Ring-billed Gulls at Pintal Loop

 

   We went west from there to try for the Cinnamon Teal that had been seen at Cameron Prairie NWR. Though the teal eluded us, we got the day's final Crested Caracara, heard two more King Rails, and saw lots more coots and ducks.

American Coot flock, Pintail Loop, Cameron Prairie NWR

The wintery evening closed in as we headed back north. No Pyrrhuloxia. No Cinnamon Teal. But a great day of birding and a nice change of scenery and birdlife from our usual Cenla surroundings.

American Coots, Pintail Loop, Cameron Prairie NWR

Lantana - many were blooming along Pintail Loop

   I recommend a well-planned (look up what's been seen where on ebird and bring a good road atlas, at the least) trip to this part of southwestern Louisiana for any Louisiana birders who haven't already familiarized themselves with it. Lots to see.
   Below is a list of birds from that day, including birds seen while driving to and from the areas that we took the time to actually bird. Numbers of individuals aren't given as we didn't always keep track of that for casual observations.





Daylight hours in parts of Rapides (just passing through), Allen (just passing through), J. Davis, Cameron, and Calcasieu Parishes.

                                              (geese in video)
Greater White-fronted Goose
Snow Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Ruddy Duck

Pied-billed Grebe

Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
American White Pelican

Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret

White Ibis
White-faced Ibis
pleg sp.
Roseate Spoonbill (video: Roseate Spoonbills foraging, Watkins Road)

immature Bald Eagle, Hwy 102 southeast of Fenton

Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Bald Eagle
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk

King Rail
Common Gallinule
American Coot

Sandhill Crane

Black-necked Stilt
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Long-billed Curlew
Dunlin
Western Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher

Long-billed Curlew, Turf Grass Road

Ring-billed Gull

Eurasian Collared-Dove
Inca Dove
Mourning Dove

Belted Kingfisher

Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker

Crested Caracara, Hwy 102 east of Fenton

Crested Caracara
American Kestrel

Eastern Phoebe

Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow

Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse

House Wren
Carolina Wren

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Eastern Bluebird
American Robin

Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird

European Starling

American Pipit

American Pipit, Turf Grass Road

Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler

Chipping Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

blackbirds (Red-winged Blackbird and Brown-headed Cowbird and possibly others), Hwy 102 southeast of Fenton

Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Common Grackle
Great-tailed Grackle
Great-tailed or Boat-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
blackbird sp.

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow

female House Sparrow, Hwy 102 southeast of Fenton

Pintail Loop, Cameron Prairie NWR, Cameron Parish

Catahoula NWR Christmas Bird Count (zone 5 team), 12/29/2015

Little River at Little River Recreation Area, Catahoula Parish

   This year's CA CBC wasn't as exciting as some years (no Burrowing Owl or Say's Phoebe or anything like that) but it was good to get out there and check out some locations that I don't often visit outside the CBC. This is especially the case with Delta Plantation - the farm that encompasses a large part of my coverage zone (zone 5) and the adjacent zone 6. I was joined by my father who, though not really a "birder", has a lot of outdoor experience and has come along on the CBC before.

CBC count day sunrise

   The first birds of the day were Killdeer, Barred Owl, Great Horned Owl at the entrance to the farm on the boundary with Dewey W Wills WMA. Here, bottomland hardwood forest meets open, wet farmland. My father spotted a Bald Eagle which I didn't notice from my position a little ways from him until the bird began vocalizing, even though it apparently flew right by me! (too busy fiddling with the camera. I'll learn my lesson.).  I did some walking, but mostly we birded from the truck while on the farm. During a brief chat with the team from zone 6 at the zone boundary, the juvenile eagle reappeared and we also spotted a Merlin fly overhead. The Merlin (presumably the same one) would be seen again later. The farm was disappointingly dead in many areas; not at all like my first couple of years doing the count (2009 and 2010) when the place seemed like a paradise for open-country and wetland birds. However, we were impressed with the large flocks of Snow and Greater White-fronted Geese and greatly enjoyed spending some time watching them flying in to join those already on the ground.

Snow Geese (both "Blue" and White phases)

   At the edge of some woods on the way back to the entrance gate we spotted a couple of Inca Doves (shown in video below) fly up from where they'd been feeding on the roadside with cardinals, sparrows, and others. A group of four Pine Warblers were also at this spot.


   For a while after that, it was mostly the usual birds, with a flock of Vesper Sparrows on Cypress Bayou Loop (NE end) near the junction with Highway 28 being a little highlight. We spent a considerable while at the Little River Recreation Area at Archie, where I walked the grounds and did a pretty thorough survey of the birds there. The highlight was at least two Neotropic Cormorants hanging around with the several Double-crested Cormorants in the river. Often the Neotropic Cormorants were side-by-side with their larger and more frequently encountered cousins, making for easy comparison.

Neotropic Cormorant on the left, w/ Double-crested Cormorants, at Little River Rec. Area

The Neo's, though small numbers of them are a fairly regular sight in the area in the summer and autumn, are harder to find during the winter and are, in fact, not on the CA CBC checklist.

Neotropic Cormorants (with Great Egret) at Little River Rec. Area

   A little more birding along Hwy 84 and side roads brought us only the expected species, and added only one species - House Sparrow - to the day's list, but it was gratifying birding all the same.
   Some notable absentees from my CBC list this year include Horned Lark (usually abundant on the farm), Common Grackle (All day without any grackles? Seriously?!), Brewer's Blackbird, Blue-headed Vireo, several species both of ducks and shorebirds, and I think this is the first year where I didn't get an accipiter species (Sharp-shinned Hawk or Cooper's Hawk) on the count. There were unexpectedly low numbers of some species such as American Pipit and Northern Harrier, and all-around disappointingly low numbers of ducks.
   At the time that I'm writing this, I haven't heard what the other teams who covered the other zones of the count circle found. Here's hoping we have an impressive list for the CA CBC as a whole!
   A few non-avian things ...
We noticed several species of wildflowers in bloom. Some of the ones I feel pretty confident of the correct identification for include these colorful Cotton Morning-Glory on Delta Plantation (edge of woods by Inca Dove spot),

Cotton Morning-Glory (Ipomoea cordatotriloba)

these Bird-eye Speedwell (or similar Veronica species) at the Little River Rec. Area,

tentative i.d.: Bird-eye Speedwell (Veronica persica)

and the Heliotrope (??Heliotropium procumbens??) that grows along the river bank there.

tentative i.d.: Heliotropium procumbens

Lots of the orange ripe fruit of the Maypop aka Purple Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) were seen on the farm (and a few at the rec. area), looking odd and out of place, like fruit dumped on the ground, now that the vines are largely wilted and inconspicuous.

Maypop fruit (Passiflora incarnata), the end product of those beautiful purple flowers of the spring and summer

   A couple of butterflies were seen, but only in fleeting glimpses from the truck, so I am just not sure what to make of them. There were, however, a lot of these moths at the Little River Rec. Area. They look to me a lot like Celery Leaftier Moths, which I've encountered a lot in the region earlier in the year. But, if I've learned anything about moths, its that they can be tricky to i.d.!

tentative i.d.: Celery Leaftier Moth (Udea rubigalis)

   Southern Leopard Frog, Spring Peeper, and I think Cajun Chorus Frog (memory a little foggy and didn't record in my notes all frogs that were heard) were heard calling a few times at a few places. Mammals were pretty scarce though there were of course a few Eastern Fox Squirrels seen during the day's birding.
Complete bird list for our time in the CBC circle is below.

6:30 am to 3:57 pm (3.5 hours on foot, the rest by vehicle)

 

miles birded by vehicle: 23

miles birded on foot: 1

 

45 to 54 degrees f.; cloudy, then significant clearing in the afternoon; light breeze.

73 species plus 2 taxa

Greater White-fronted Goose - 410

Snow Goose - 8,000

Wood Duck - 23

Mallard - 18

Northern Shoveler - 6

Green-winged Teal - 20

Ring-necked Duck - 21

Ruddy Duck - 11

duck sp. - roughly 200 (distant group on water, poorly-seen flyovers, and the like)

 

Neotropic Cormorant - 2

Double-crested Cormorant - 7

American White Pelican - 7

 

Neotropic Cormorant (left) and Double Crested Cormorants

Great Blue Heron - 8

Great Egret - 5

 

Black Vulture - 2

Turkey Vulture - 14

Northern Harrier - 2

Bald Eagle - 1

Red-shouldered Hawk - 1

Red-tailed Hawk - 14

 

American Coot - 50

 

Killdeer - 74

Greater Yellowlegs - 3

Long-billed Dowitcher - 200

shorebird sp. - 7

 

Eurasian Collared Dove - 8

Inca Dove - 2

Mourning Dove - 15

Great Horned Owl - 2

Barred Owl - 2

 

Belted Kingfisher - 1

 

Red-bellied Woodpecker - 12

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 4

Downy Woodpecker - 8

Northern Flicker - 6

Pileated Woodpecker - 1

 

American Kestrel - 9

Merlin - 1

Carolina Wren, Little River Rec. Area

 

Eastern Phoebe - 6

 

Loggerhead Shrike - 5

 

Blue Jay - 14

American Crow - 147

 

Carolina Chickadee - 19

Tufted Titmouse - 9

Brown Creeper - 1

 

House Wren - 1

Winter Wren - 2

Carolina Wren - 29

 

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 1

 

Golden-crowned Kinglet - 1

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 12

 

Eastern Bluebird - 10

Hermit Thrush - 5

American Robin - 4

 

Brown Thrasher - 2

Northern Mockingbird - 8


Northern Mockingbird, near Hwy 84/ Archie community

European Starling - 19

 

American Pipit - 24

 

Orange-crowned Warbler - 6

Common Yellowthroat - 1

Pine Warbler - 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 36

male Pine Warbler

 

Chipping Sparrow - 15

Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) - 2

White-throated Sparrow - 67

Vesper Sparrow - 9

Savannah Sparrow - 64

Song Sparrow - 22

Swamp Sparrow - 3

Eastern Towhee - 7

Swamp Sparrow, Evergreen Church Road, Catahoula Parish 

 

Northern Cardinal - 49

 

Red-winged Blackbird - 77

Eastern Meadowlark - 8

 

American Goldfinch - 39

 

House Sparrow - 3 

************************

Maypop fruit, Little River Rec. Area

Happy New Year!