Central Louisiana Birding & Wildlife: Catahoula Lake (La Salle Parish) -- August 30, 2018

looking northwest across Catahoula Lake from a point out on the lake bed

When I posted the previous blog entry, originally titled "Catahoula Lake -- August, 2018", I didn't expect to be making another trip to Catahoula Lake before the end of the month. Below is a link to that blog entry, which besides covering the two visits to the lake earlier this month, also contains a list of shorebirds from my August, 2010 visits to this location, for comparison.
https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2018/08/catahoula-lake-august-2018.html

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On the morning of August 30 I decided to make another trip out to Catahoula Lake, curious to see what new shorebirds had arrived since the last visit, on August 23. It was very foggy, but wind was nearly calm and temperatures mild and it turned out to be a solid morning for birding.

Red-shouldered Hawk in the morning fog -- Diversion Canal Road

I started by birding along Diversion Canal Road, making several stops to watch and listen. A silent Yellow-breasted Chat and a noisy young Northern Parula were at the first stop; a Swainson's Warbler was heard singing a couple of times at another stop about 0.35 miles or so north of the highway.
At the recreation area I watched a group of nine Killdeer in the parking area just downstream from the spillway. Also at this spot was part of a family of Painted Buntings. Mama bunting was seen feeding one of the youngsters.
There wasn't much bird activity on the walk down the dirt road to the lake. Mosquitoes were pretty awful here, so I found myself making very few stops.

Snowy Owl! ...no...wait.

Once on the lake, it was a considerable walk out across the grass to get to where the birds were. Along the canal channel where it crosses the open lake bed, there were a nice assortment of shorebirds, including Killdeer, Semipalmated Plover, and Black-bellied Plover; Least, Western, and Pectoral Sandpiper; dowitchers, yellowlegs, and Black-necked Stilt. Also here was the day's one Tricolored Heron. Further eastward, as I walked paralleling the water of the lake (not very close, it was rather muddy on open ground after the recent rain), I encountered more individuals of most of these shorebirds, including more than twenty Black-bellied Plovers that were off in the shallow water and mudflats, and dozens of Killdeer in groups that would burst up from the grass and fly off making their signature calls.

Below are the bird lists for each of these two locations. After that is a brief rundown of some other things from this outing.

Catahoula Lake Recreation Area, 8/30/18:

7:08 a.m. - 8:28 a.m.
1.5 miles (including ~0.25 on foot)
low 70's F.; dense fog; wind near calm
This location includes the part of Diversion Canal Road between LA-28 and the rec. area, the rec. area itself, and the short dirt road down to the lake bed. Here are some habitat shots:

Div. Canal Rd

Swainson's Warbler location along Div. Canal Rd

diversion canal at rec. area (downstream of spillway)

rec. area

parking and boat launch area on canal, lake side of spillway

dirt road to lake

Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 2
Killdeer - 9

Killdeer

Great Blue Heron - 3
Great Egret - 2
Snowy Egret - 6

Snowy Egret at the canal

Cattle Egret - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1

Red-bellied Woodpecker having a stretch....

...and a yawn, first thing in the morning.

Hairy Woodpecker - 1
White-eyed Vireo - 8
Yellow-throated Vireo - 1
American Crow - 2
Carolina Chickadee - 5
Tufted Titmouse - 4
Carolina Wren - 9
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 3
Yellow-breasted Chat - 1

Yellow-breasted Chat

Swainson's Warbler - 1
Northern Parula - 1
Northern Cardinal - 5
Painted Bunting - 6

young Painted Buntings (spillway structure in background) -- I initially thought they were Indigo Bunting, but looking at the pictures, I'm thinking Painted. (I'll blame the fog.)

In addition to the species listed above, I also saw Turkey Vulture (2), Broad-winged Hawk (1), and Pileated Woodpecker (1) on my drive back out to the highway on Diversion Canal Road (11:33 - ~11:37 a.m.) after finishing up at the lake.

Catahoula Lake, 8/30/18:

8:30 a.m. - 11:08 a.m.
walking ~1.5 miles in the area east/north of the canal
70's - 80's F.; foggy at first; mixed cloud and sun once fog dissipated; wind from near calm to light breeze
Here are some habitat shots:

approaching the lake

...

looking back toward the woods

canal channel

...

some of the shallows and mudflats NE of canal, where many shorebirds were

Blue-winged Teal - 35 - 1x1 count of a couple of flyby groups
Black-necked Stilt - 12
Black-bellied Plover - 25 - 1x1 count of birds in two places, probably more among distant "shorebird sp."

Black-bellied Plover

Black-bellied Plovers

Semipalmated Plover - 1

Semipalmated Plover

Killdeer - 61
Least Sandpiper - ~20 (certainly there were more around, see: peep sp.)
Pectoral Sandpiper - 10
Western Sandpiper - 1 (probably more among peep sp.)
peep sp. - ~100
dowitcher sp. - 3
Spotted Sandpiper - 1
yellowlegs sp. - 3
shorebird sp. - ~300 - distant or otherwise hard to see
Great Blue Heron - 3
Great Egret - 5
Little Blue Heron - 4
Tricolored Heron - 1
Cattle Egret - 7
white egret sp. - ~100 - very distant
White Ibis - 9
Turkey Vulture - 2
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Pileated Woodpecker - 1 - call coming from back in the woods
Barn Swallow - 2
swallow sp. - 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 1

Herps (both locations):
Squirrel Treefrog, Green Treefrog, Blanchard's Cricket Frog

Butterflies & Moths (both locations):
Butterflies:
Horace's Duskywing, Fiery Skipper, Spicebush Swallowtail, Southern Dogface, Cloudless Sulphur, Little Yellow, Gulf Fritillary, Viceroy, Common Buckeye, Question Mark

Fiery Skipper out on the lake

Moths:

moth (sp. TBD) -- dirt road to lake

moth, TBD sp. -- out on Catahoula Lake

ditto

Dragonflies & Damselflies (both locations):
Dragonflies:
Eastern Pondhawk, Eastern Amberwing, Common Whitetail, Wandering Glider, saddlebags sp., and probably others.