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| Little River on Little River WMA |
I made this trip before Hurricane Laura struck Louisiana. The areas covered on this blog post probably saw fairly significant damage during the hurricane.
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On August 17 I made a trip to an under-birded area in southern Winn Parish before continuing on into Grant Parish with the final destination in mind being the Little River WMA.
Beulah Road, in Winn Parish, runs north from LA-1230 (which roughly follows the Grant-Winn parish line) to US-84 between Tullos and Colgrade. I birded the south 3.9 miles of Beulah, from LA-1230 to a little ways north of the Dugdemona River bottoms. I spent about a half hour on foot on the road where it passes through the river bottoms, otherwise I birded driving, making numerous short stops at safe pull-over spots away from houses.
Habitat Shots:
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| Beulah Rd. ... |
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| ... |
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| the White-breasted Nuthatch location |
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| Dugdemona River - upstream |
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| Dugdemona River - downstream |
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| ... |
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| pine plantation area north of river bottoms |
Below is the bird list for Beulah Road.
Beulah Road (Winn Parish)
8/17/2020
6:57 a.m.; 1 hr, 11 mins; 3.9 miles
about 70 F.; sunny with some clouds, calm
Mourning Dove - 3
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 4
Cattle Egret - 3
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Red-headed Woodpecker - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker- 3
Downy Woodpecker - 2
Pileated Woodpecker - 3
Eastern Wood-Pewee - 3
Acadian Flycatcher - 3
Great Crested Flycatcher - 1
Eastern Kingbird - 2
White-eyed Vireo - 12
Red-eyed Vireo - 4
Blue Jay - 3
American Crow - 13
Carolina Chickadee - 3
Tufted Titmouse - 5
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
Carolina Wren - 14
Northern Mockingbird - 2
Eastern Bluebird - 3
House Sparrow - 6
Eastern Towhee - 1
Hooded Warbler - 13
Pine Warbler - 2
Northern Cardinal - 13
After that, I went down FS Rd 568 in Kisatchie National Forest Winn Ranger District. This road runs from LA-1230 at roughly the Winn-Grant Parish line, south into Grant to LA-500. I've birded this road a couple of times already this year and found it to be a pretty good location. On both of the previous visits I'd found White-breasted Nuthatch and Red-cockaded Woodpecker, but found neither species this time.
Habitat Shots:
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| FS Rd 568 |
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| FS Rd 568 |
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| ... |
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| ... |
Kisatchie National Forest, FS Rd 568 (Grant Parish)
8/17/2020
8:10 a.m.; 1 hr, 8 mins; 2.9 miles
low 70's F.; sunny; calm at first, then light breeze
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 2
Eastern Screech-Owl - 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 4
Hairy Woodpecker- 1
Pileated Woodpecker - 4
Eastern Wood-Pewee - 2
Eastern Kingbird - 1
White-eyed Vireo - 7
Red-eyed Vireo - 2
Blue Jay - 3
American Crow- 1
Carolina Chickadee - 2
Tufted Titmouse - 5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 3
Carolina Wren - 14
Kentucky Warbler - 1
Hooded Warbler - 6
Pine Warbler - 5
Northern Cardinal - 5
Finally, I went to the main Grant Parish portion of Little River WMA. Despite wanting to go there for years now, this was my first time. The main tract of the WMA is located in eastern Grant Parish, sandwiched between Camp Hardtner Road and Little River. It can be accessed from Camp Hardtner Rd north of Camp Hardtner. The area I went to, accessing the interior of the WMA on Fish Creek Rd, is in the southern half of this large tract; there's another road (I believe it's called Rambo Road on the LDWF website map) to access the interior of the WMA further north.
The habitat in the area I visited is pretty diverse, with young open pine woods in the western portion, seasonally flooded river bottom hardwood forest in much of the territory, and areas of nice mixed pine-hardwoods and creek bottom type hardwoods down Fish Creek Camp Rd.
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| LR WMA along Camp Hardtner Rd |
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| LR WMA -- habitat along western part of Fish Creek Rd |
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| Fish Creek Rd at Fish Creek Camp Rd |
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| Fish Creek bridge |
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| Fish Creek |
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| walking Fish Creek Camp Rd south of Fish Creek (east towards river) |
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| woods along Fish Creek Camp Rd |
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| ... |
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| ... |
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| driving Fish Creek Rd east of Fish Creek Camp Rd -- Significant parts of the WMA, including the locations in the rest of the habitat shots, will likely be underwater when Little River is in flood or hard to access due to muddy roads during extended periods rain. |
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| Fish Creek comes up alongside the road in multiple places |
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| ... |
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| ... |
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| Fish Creek Rd |
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| ... |
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| oxbow lake (Devil's Brake) at end of one fork of the road |
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| primitive campground beside Little River |
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| ... |
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| Little River viewed from boat launch |
I birded some along the section of Camp Hardtner Rd where it runs along the edge of the WMA between Grover Atwell Road and Fish Creek Road, before entering the WMA on Fish Creek Rd (check-in kiosk at the entrance to Fish Creek Rd). A ways in, Fish Creek Camp Road turns south (right), and I drove down there to the bridge on the creek. From here I walked the road on the south side of the creek east toward the river, stopping after approximately a half mile where the road is gated at some private land. After that I went back and continued driving Fish Creek Road, making many stops and getting out to check out the creek where it runs beside the road. At one fork in the road, I went left, ending up at the small oxbow lake that I think is called Devil's Brake, then backtracking a short distance, I took the other fork which took me to the primitive campground and boat launch area on the banks of Little River.
Below are the lists for birds and butterflies from this visit. I look forward to making more trips to this location to document what species are present at different times of the year and checking out other areas on this WMA.
Little River WMA
August 17, 2020
9:39 a.m.; 3 hrs, 15 mins; 4 miles (0.5 on foot)
warm; sunny; light breeze
August 17, 2020
9:39 a.m.; 3 hrs, 15 mins; 4 miles (0.5 on foot)
warm; sunny; light breeze
Camp Hardtner Rd, Fish Creek Rd, Fish Creek Camp Rd
Birds
Mourning Dove - 2
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 5
Chimney Swift - 1
Turkey Vulture - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Pileated Woodpecker - 7
Acadian Flycatcher - 1
White-eyed Vireo - 4
Red-eyed Vireo - 3
Blue Jay - 3
American Crow - 5
Carolina Chickadee - 6
Tufted Titmouse - 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 1
Carolina Wren - 8
Hooded Warbler - 5
Northern Cardinal - 7
Butterflies
Horace's Duskywing - 3
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| Horace's Duskywing |
Tropical Checkered-Skipper - 38 (25 male, 10 female, 3 not sure)
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| male Tropical Checkered-Skipper |
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| female Tropical Checkered-Skipper |
Clouded Skipper - 2
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| Clouded Skipper |
Southern Broken-Dash - 1
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| Southern Broken-Dash |
dark swallowtail sp. - 1
Orange Sulphur - 1
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| Orange Sulphur |
Cloudless Sulphur - 1
Barred Yellow - 3
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| Barred Yellow |
Little Yellow - 12
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| Little Yellow |
Red-banded Hairstreak - 1
'Astyanax' Red-spotted Purple - 4
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| 'Astyanax' Red-spotted Purple |
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| 'Astyanax' Red-spotted Purple |
Pearl Crescent - 3
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| Pearl Crescent |
Common Buckeye - 1
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| Common Buckeye |
Question Mark - 1
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| Question Mark |
Carolina Satyr - 9
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| Carolina Satyr |
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