Frogmore Breeding Bird Survey -- June 7, 2018

LA-566 near the Tensas River, east of Dunbarton

**Related Posts:
 Frogmore route, past years: https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2017/06/breeding-bird-survey-frogmore-route-2017.html
 & https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2016/06/frogmore-bbs-route-2016-concordia.html

 Enterprise route, this year: https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2018/06/enterprise-breeding-bird-survey-june-3.html

 Enterprise route, past years: https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2017/06/breeding-bird-survey-enterprise-route.html
 & https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2016/06/enterprise-bbs-route-2016-catahoula.html

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   This year, I conducted the North American Breeding Bird Survey Frogmore Route on June 7. My father accompanied me as the "assistant", as he sometimes does on BBS's.
   The way a BBS is conducted is that there are 50 stops at half-mile intervals along a preset route. The observer stops at these same stops each year, and counts the birds seen or heard during a three minute period at each stop. Over the years, this builds a picture of populations of birds at the same locations during the height of breeding season.
   The Frogmore BBS route is in northern and central Concordia Parish, and runs basically north to south, with some east-west stair-steps along the way. The starting point is on LA-566 at the north end of Bob Rife Road, a few miles east of Dunbarton. The route runs along LA-566 west to Dunbarton...

stop 2 -- LA-566 east of Dunbarton

...where the highway turns south...

LA-566 around Dunbarton/south

LA-566 between Dunbarton and Frogmore

...and continues on until meeting US-84 at Frogmore, at the halfway point of the route.

stop 27 along US-84 at Frogmore

From here, it's a mile-and-a-half west along US-84 to LA-129. The route turns south on LA-129...

stop 33 -- LA-129

 ...then west onto Ames Road at stop 35. The route then runs west on Ames...

Ames Road

...south on Gallup Road...

Gallup Road

...turns west onto LA-565 very briefly, with the final couple of stops being on Deadning Road south of LA-565, near the Lismore community.
   The terrain/habitat is all part of the broad alluvial plain of the Tensas and Black Rivers and features the typical sort of landscapes of that area. Most of the route is dominated by agriculture fields planted with soybean, sorgum, corn, or cotton, bordered or separated by wooded and brushy sloughs, bayous, swamps, and ditches. There are some houses and clusters of houses, and farm buildings, some small pasture-type settings and hayfields, and even the occasional thicket with young pines (though many of the pines seem sickly after this Spring's flood). There is the occasional more significant area of mature bottomland hardwoods, with the longest stretches of this habitat being along the north side of LA-566 east of Dunbarton where the route runs close to the Tensas River adn along the eastern couple of miles of Ames Road where the route cuts through the woods. There will often be a lake, river, or larger bayou near the route, though the route doesn't cross or have a clear view of any of these larger bodies of water.
   Despite excellent weather conditions and things going smoothly, there were several species that went undetected which I had come to expect on the route. Some of those are Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Northern Bobwhite, Red-shouldered Hawk, Pileated Woodpecker, Red-eyed Vireo (CAN YOU BELIEVE NO RED-EYED VIREOS?!), Swainson's Warbler, and Dickcissel. Why so many misses? Perhaps the high water this spring is directly of indirectly responsible for some of this.  The Swainson's Warblers' usual spots might have been flooded when the species arrived early this spring. Late planting in some of the ag. fields because of water or mud might have effected the Dickcissel and Bobwhite situation. Some, such as the B-B Whistling Duck, were simply down to luck. But it does seem odd not to find any Red-eyed Vireos.

The composite bird list is below, combing birds from the BBS stops and those detected between stops.

Frogmore BBS:
June 7, 2018
two observers: Jonathan Clark (official "observer" for BBS stops) and Roland Clark ("assistant"; pointed out a lot of birds between count periods)
5:33 a.m. - 9:20 a.m.
~25 miles
68 - 75 degrees F.; clear; almost no wind

Anhinga - 3
Great Blue Heron - 4
Great Egret - 7
Little Blue Heron - 7
Tricolored Heron - 1
Cattle Egret - 19
White Ibis - 1
Plegadis sp. (Glossy/White-faced Ibis) - 11
Black Vulture - 1
Turkey Vulture - 5
Mississippi Kite - 1
Eurasian Collared-Dove - 7
Mourning Dove - 74
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 25
Barred Owl - 2
Chimney Swift - 6
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 20
Downy Woodpecker - 7
Eastern Wood-Pewee - 5
Acadian Flycatcher - 5
Great Crested Flycatcher - 10
Eastern Kingbird - 1
Loggerhead Shrike - 8

Loggerhead Shrike near Dunbarton

White-eyed Vireo - 10
Blue Jay - 13
American Crow - 12
Barn Swallow - 21
Cliff Swallow - 5
Carolina Chickadee - 15
Tufted Titmouse - 4
Carolina Wren - 47
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 3
Wood Thrush - 5
Brown Thrasher - 1
Northern Mockingbird - 34
European Starling - 34
Prothonotary Warbler - 13
Hooded Warbler - 1
Northern Parula - 4
Eastern Towhee - 17
Yellow-breasted Chat - 20
Summer Tanager - 5

male Summer Tanager -- LA-566 north of Frogmore

Northern Cardinal - 70
Blue Grosbeak - 5
Indigo Bunting - 44
Painted Bunting - 19
Eastern Meadowlark - 1
Orchard Oriole - 1
Red-winged Blackbird - 81
Brown-headed Cowbird - 39
Common Grackle - 3
House Sparrow - 4

   A few other sights along the route:

   Butterflies included duskywing sp.,  Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Black Swallowtail, Cloudless Sulphur, Orange Sulphur, 'Astyanax' Red-spotted Purple, Question Mark, and Red Admiral.


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