Catahoula NWR Christmas Bird Count, 12/30/2019

Greater White-fronted Geese (foreground) and Snow Geese (distance) - 12/30/19

Related Posts:
 - LACA CBC 1/2/18 (no post for last winter's CBC)
https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2018/01/catahoula-nwr-christmas-bird-count.html

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   This winter's Catahoula NWR Christmas Bird Count (LACA CBC) was held on December 30, 2019. Weather conditions were pretty good: clear skies, temperatures in the 40s and 50s F.; there was a breeze pretty much the whole time, but not too strong. However, it had rained heavily the previous day, so some dirt and gravel roads were impassible during the count. That said, it was a far preferable situation to last winter's CBC (1/2019), as it rained most of the day during that CBC and birding became impossible after a while.
   My father and I teamed up to cover Zones 2 and 5, as we have on previous counts. Zone 5, which we did first, covers a large portion of the east side of the circle, and consists of bottomland terrain with lots of agricultural fields, as well as areas of bottomland hardwoods, seasonal wetlands, brushy areas, open bodies of water, and rural residential areas. An important part of Zone 5 is Louisiana Delta Plantation, which we got advance permission to bird on.

 (video: calls of Killdeer, Wilson's Snipe, and distant geese while we waited for enough daylight to start birding)

Here are some habitat shots from Zone 5.

Delta Plantation

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Evergreen Church Road

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Little River Rec. Area

Little River Rec. Area

Little River Rec. Area

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Big Bayou Road

Cypress Bayou Loop

Cypress Bayou Loop

   Zone 2, which we did in the afternoon, covers the northwestern portions of the circle, north of Catahoula Lake. This is basically the area from Whitehall through Nebo, and provides the count's only upland, hilly, piney woods habitat. Much of this zone is rural residential areas with lots of houses, and much of the rest of the area is only accessed by gated-off timber company roads, so actual birding opportunities can be somewhat sparse. Here are some habitat shots from Zone 2.

Riverfront Road

LA-460 west of Whitehall

Galvin's Creek Road -- Most of the road is houses and small pastures (I don't bird close to houses), but there's a little area of woods just off the highway. A logging operation was going on just a little ways through the woods, so it was noisy here. 

Hailey Road near Shady Grove -- There was almost no birdlife around here (you'd think there'd be a fair number of sparrows and other skulkers in all these weeds and brush!).

Devil's Creek bottoms along Indian Bluff Road

a birdy spot along Lakeview Road -- mixed flock here

   Below are our lists for these two zones. Following that are some comments on the day's observations.


Zone 5 ("Delta East")
2 observers
6:30 am - 11:55 am
by truck: 3 hrs, 55 mins; 7.4 miles
on foot: 1 hr; 0.2 miles

Snow Goose - 1700

Snow Geese -- Delta Plantation

Snow Geese

Greater White-fronted Goose - 1000

Greater White-fronted Geese -- Delta Plantation

Eurasian Collared-Dove - 1
Mourning Dove - 22
Killdeer - 53
Wilson's Snipe - 2
Greater Yellowlegs - 5
shorebird sp. - 25
Great Blue Heron - 3
Great Egret - 5

Great Egret - Little River Rec. Area

Black Vulture - 4
Turkey Vulture - 8
Northern Harrier - 2
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk (calurus/abieticola) - 1

Red-tailed Hawk (calurus/abieticola) -- Delta Plantation

Red-tailed Hawk (calurus/abieticola)

Belted Kingfisher - 2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 5
Downy Woodpecker - 2
Northern Flicker - 4
American Kestrel - 1
Eastern Phoebe - 9

Eastern Phoebe -- Little River Rec. Area

Loggerhead Shrike - 3
Blue-headed Vireo - 1
Blue Jay - 10
American Crow - 32
Carolina Chickadee - 7
Tufted Titmouse - 4
Horned Lark - 9
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 8
House Wren - 1
Carolina Wren - 13
European Starling - 52

European Starlings -- Delta Plantation

Northern Mockingbird - 6
Eastern Bluebird - 8
American Robin - 1
House Sparrow - 1
American Pipit - 3
American Goldfinch - 8
Chipping Sparrow - 2
Dark-eyed Junco - 2
White-throated Sparrow - 27
Savannah Sparrow - 112

Savannah Sparrows - Delta Plantation

Savannah Sparrow -- Evergreen Church Road

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Savannah Sparrow -- Evergreen Church Rd

Song Sparrow - 10

Song Sparrow -- Evergreen Church Rd

Swamp Sparrow - 4
Eastern Meadowlark - 3
Red-winged Blackbird - 14

Red-winged Blackbird feeding in Sweet Gum tree -- Evergreen Church Rd

Rusty Blackbird - 2
Brewer's Blackbird - 50
Common Grackle - 200
blackbird sp. - 5
Orange-crowned Warbler - 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 14
Northern Cardinal - 22

Zone 2 ("North" or "Nebo")
2 observers
12:06 pm - 2:32 pm
by truck: 1 hr, 50 mins; 10.8 miles
on foot: 20 mins; 0.25 miles

Great Egret - 1
Turkey Vulture - 14
Bald Eagle - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 3
Belted Kingfisher - 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 2
Pileated Woodpecker - 2
Northern Flicker - 2
Eastern Phoebe - 6
Blue Jay - 7
American Crow - 25
Carolina Chickadee - 8
Tufted Titmouse - 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 7
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 3
Carolina Wren - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 4
Hermit Thrush - 1
Chipping Sparrow - 21
White-throated Sparrow - 18
Savannah Sparrow - 6
Song Sparrow - 1
Eastern Towhee - 2
Orange-crowned Warbler - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 15
Northern Cardinal - 15

   Seeing the large groups of geese on Delta Plantation is always one of the highlights for us during the CBC.

Muddy conditions prevented us from traveling into some parts of the Delta farm, so we missed some species that can be found there and had lower numbers of others that we did find. However, birding was still pretty good on the farm.

Savannah Sparrows on Delta Plantation

Savannah Sparrows -- Delta Plantation

   There was a dark-bodied Red-tailed Hawk that we saw on the farm that appears to be an example of the "calurus/abieticola" subspecies.

Red-tailed Hawk (calurus/abieticola) -- Delta Plantation

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   The Brewer's Blackbirds were an addition to my year list (one of several species that didn't make it onto my 2019 list until after Christmas!).

Brewer's Blackbirds

   In the area of Archie and Walters in Zone 5, we found good birding on the short, dead-end Evergreen Church Road, off the north side of US-84 east of Archie. Here we found our best density of bird species of the day, including two Rusty Blackbirds, which were also last minute additions to my 2019 year list.

Eastern Phoebe -- Evergreen Church Rd

Savannah Sparrow -- Evergreen Church Rd

   I spent nearly an hour on foot at the Little River (or Archie) Recreation Area.

Savannah Sparrows -- Little River Rec. Area

Savannah Sparrows -- Little River Rec. Area

Other locales in this area that we birded include Big Bayou Loop and Cypress Bayou Loop, both of which are roads off the south side of LA-28. A little mixed flock in the trees along Big Bayou provided our team's only Blue-headed Vireo and Golden-crowned Kinglet of the day and first Orange-crowned Warblers of the day.
   The birding really went downhill in Zone 2. Even taking into account the time of day, less productive habitat, and other factors, we both felt that bird detection was curiously low in the upland areas compared with what we have experienced there before. We started at Riverfront Road, which follows the north side of Old River east of US-84. This is still swampy, hardwood terrain, but with lots of camps. From Whitehall, we took LA-460 west, which roughly follows the edge of the hilly, piney-woods, making a few stops where we could. There are very limited safe places to pull off the road that aren't too close to houses. A logging operation going on on both sides of the highway west of Galvin's Creek Road put an end to my plan to stop at some spots there. We birded parts of some side roads -- Galvin's Creek Road, Hailey Road, and Sharptown Loop.
   After that it was on to roads in and around Nebo south of LA-127, including Indian Bluff Road, Lakeview Road, and Indian Creek Road. We exercised caution and didn't go as far on these roads as we have in the past, due to muddy conditions and knowing of some rough stretches up ahead that could be tricky to get through after the previous day's rain. Honestly we were also pretty disheartened by the near lack of birds in much of this area as well. We did, however, luck into a mixed flock of woodland birds on Lakeview and sparrows in others areas. The highlight of Zone 5 for both of us was seeing an adult Bald Eagle. The eagle was soaring off to the south of Indian Creek Rd near the junction with Indian Bluff Rd. The eagle would have been pretty close to Catahoula Lake.

Bald Eagle -- south of Nebo

   After this we'd pretty much exhausted our options for where to bird. Despite some disappointments, it was a pretty good CBC for our party.
 
   I'll probably do a short follow-up post when I see the official tally for all zones.

   I'd like to thank count compiler Marty Floyd for his work, and Drew Keeth for granting permission to bird Delta Plantation.

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