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| view from near northwest end of main road in southern part of WMA (looking out over Big Creek bottoms) - 8/4/21 |
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Related Posts
- Sicily Island Hills - March-June, 2021:
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This post covers four visits to the Sicily Island Hills (mostly JC "Sonny" Gilbert WMA) in northern Catahoula Parish, during August, September, and October, 2021.
August 4, 2021...
On August 4 I drove the length of the main road in the south part of the WMA, making numerous stops.
Admittedly, this was a relatively uneventful trip to Sicily Island Hills: wildlife activity was slow; I abandoned my plan to do a long walk through the woods to Big Creek because I just wasn't feeling it. But, even a slow day in Sicily Island Hills yields some worthwhile observations.
Habitat Shots, 8/4/21:
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| creek just inside entrance to WMA - 8/4/21 |
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| looking out over Big Creek bottoms at NW end of main road - 8/4/21 |
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Species lists for this date are below:
August 4, Sicily Island Hills (JC "Sonny" Gilbert WMA south side)
7:37 am; 2 hr 42 min; 4.4 miles
start temp. 72 F.; clear; NE wind ~5mph
Birds:
Mourning Dove - 7
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 1
Chimney Swift - 4
Mississippi Kite - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 2
Downy Woodpecker - 6
Pileated Woodpecker - 5
Eastern Wood-Pewee - 2
Acadian Flycatcher - 6
Great Crested Flycatcher - 1
White-eyed Vireo - 9
Red-eyed Vireo - 10
Blue Jay - 5
American Crow - 4
Carolina Chickadee - 6
Tufted Titmouse - 7
Northern Rough-winged Swallow - 3
Cliff Swallow - 2
swallow sp. - 10
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 3
Carolina Wren - 21
Eastern Bluebird - 2
Worm-eating Warbler - 2
Louisiana Waterthrush - 1
Hooded Warbler - 8
Summer Tanager - 3
Northern Cardinal - 14
Butterflies:
Horace's Duskywing - 2
Clouded Skipper - 2+
Lace-winged Roadside-Skipper - 1
Spicebush Swallowtail - 1 or 2
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - 2
Giant Swallowtail - 4
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| Giant Swallowtail |
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'Astyanax' Red-spotted Purple - 1
Pearl Crescent - 3
Carolina Satyr - 37
? butterfly sp. - 2
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August 26, 2021...
On August 26 I went to the north side of Sicily Island Hills. First I traveled the main east-west road (1 mile between LA-915 and the WMA entrance, 3.7 miles in the WMA) all the way to the Ouachita Hunting Club gate, stopping along the way to walk just a short ways down the Big Creek trail to the bluff overlooking one of the ponds. After turning around at the hunting club gate, I went back and drove the side road to the south that passes through the area that was partly logged a few years ago (about 0.9 miles). Finally, I went down the road that goes south, past the WMA HQ, to the ponds (0.9 miles not on WMA, then 1.1 miles on WMA), and spent some time on foot at the big pond.
Some habitat shots before we continue:
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| check-in kiosk on main east-west road through north part of WMA |
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| check-in kiosk / primitive campground environs |
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| main east-west road through northern part of WMA |
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| ditto |
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| Big Creek Trail at bluff overlooking one of the ponds (former gravel pits, I think) |
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| main east-west road through section of WMA that was partly logged a few years ago |
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| ditto |
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| down the side road that goes south through the logged area |
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| back on the main east-west road, westward / back into the woods |
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| ditto |
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| ditto |
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| Creole Pearly-eye spot |
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| hunting club gate at WMA boundary - barely any room to turn a truck around here |
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| the big pond |
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Woodland bird activity is never great during late summer, but birds were more active than I expected and birding was, over all, decent (at least until it started getting too hot). All were expected species for summer; no obvious fall migrants yet.
Butterfly numbers were modest, but I tallied 19 species with the highlight being my first Creole Pearly-eye of 2021. I find these butterflies out here with some regularity, but not nearly as often as Southern Pearly-eye.
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| Creole Pearly-eye |
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| Creole Pearly-eye |
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All 11 of the Red-banded Hairstreaks (and some of the Lace-winged Roadside-Skippers) tallied were seen nectaring on Devil's Walkingstick growing in one spot beside the south side-road.
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| hairstreaks and skippers nectaring on Devil's Walkingstick (Aralia spinosa) - tentative ID for the plant - 8/26 |
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At the big pond, I observed a pair of smallish Green Sunfish that seemed to be spawning, and a large individual patrolling the same spot.
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| Green Sunfish (large and small) - 8/26 |
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| Green Sunfish (spawning?) |
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| Green Sunfish |
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While at the big pond I noticed a pile of scat in the road that I suspect could only have come from a Black Bear (erased pic to make room on memory card for sunfish pics). I suppose that if it's a hot August day and you're covered head-to-toe in thick fur, a dip in the pond would be a nice way to cool off.
Lists for birds, butterflies, mammals, Herps, fishes, and Odonata for 8/26 are below:
August 26, Sicily Island Hills (JC "Sonny" Gilbert WMA north side, plus gravel roads through hills connecting LA-915 and WMA)
7:49 am - 1:30 pm; 7.7 miles
warm/hot; generally sunny; calm to light breeze
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| Wild Turkey wing feather |
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Birds:
Mourning Dove - 7
Anhinga - 1
Great Egret - 2
Little Blue Heron - 1 (juv.)
Turkey Vulture - 1
Mississippi Kite - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 10
Downy Woodpecker - 9
Pileated Woodpecker - 8
Eastern Wood-Pewee - 1
Acadian Flycatcher - 7
White-eyed Vireo - 25
Red-eyed Vireo - 5
Blue Jay - 16
American Crow - 10
Carolina Chickadee - 13
Tufted Titmouse - 22
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 9
Carolina Wren - 26
Yellow-breasted Chat - 1
Hooded Warbler - 9
Pine Warbler - 6
Summer Tanager - 4
Northern Cardinal - 21
passerine sp. - 3
Butterflies:
Horace's Duskywing - 1
Clouded Skipper - 5
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| Clouded Skipper - 8/26 |
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Least Skipper - 1
Southern Broken-Dash - 1
Lace-winged Roadside-Skipper - 5
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| Lace-winged Roadside-Skipper - 8/26 |
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skipper sp. - 3
Spicebush Swallowtail - 4
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - 1
Giant Swallowtail - 2
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| Giant Swallowtail - 8/26 |
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| left to right: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Giant Swallowtail, and Spicebush Swallowtail nectaring on Pycnanthemum (presumably Whiteleaf Mountainmint) - main road, in logged area |
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Cloudless Sulphur - 6
Sleepy Orange - 2
Red-banded Hairstreak - 11
Eastern Tailed-Blue - 2
American Snout - 1
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| American Snout - 8/26 |
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'Astyanax' Red-spotted Purple - 10
Common Buckeye - 2
American Lady - 1
Carolina Satyr - 5
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| Carolina Satyr - 8/26 |
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Creole Pearly-eye - 1
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| Creole Pearly-eye - 8/26 |
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Monarch - 1
butterfly sp. - 1
Mammals: Eastern Gray Squirrel; tracks of Northern Raccoon, White-tailed Deer, feral hog; possible Black Bear scat
Herps:
Blanchard's Cricket Frog
Green (Bronze) Frog
Green Anole
Common Five-lined Skink
Little Brown Skink
Fishes:
shiner/minnow (Cyprinid) sp.
Blackspotted/Blackstripe Topminnow
Green Sunfish
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| Green Sunfish |
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| Green Sunfish |
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sunfish sp.
Largemouth/Spotted Bass
Odonata:
Common Green Darner
Blue Dasher
Great Blue Skimmer
Halloween Pennant
Eastern Pondhawk
Eastern Amberwing
Common Whitetail
Black Saddlebags
Carolina Saddlebags
Ebony Jewelwing
Blue-tipped Dancer
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September 24, 2021....
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On September 24 I returned to the south side of Sicily Island Hills, driving the same route I did on August 4 (the length of the main road through the southern part of the WMA, with lots of stops, some short walks on the road). I also walked about 0.2 miles through the woods to a spot on Big Creek that I'd not been to before.
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Between the entrance and the check-in kiosk I encountered a Turkey Vulture walking down the road. It appeared to have an injured wing, and as I approached, it quickly ran off into the woods. Unfortunately there's really nothing I could have done for it.
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| Turkey Vulture |
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| Turkey Vulture |
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I heard a White-breasted Nuthatch calling while I was at the check-in kiosk. I heard and saw the species at this spot back in May as well. This is worth noting as WB Nuthatches are somewhat hard to find in Cenla. They're certainly not "rare", but here in Cenla they're not a species you expect to encounter when visiting just any random place with appropriate habitat.
Overall, bird activity was modest.
Frostweed were in bloom in large numbers along the road, and the butterflies were nectaring on them.
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| Frostweed |
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| Frostweed |
Among the butterfly species nectaring on these flowers were Yehl Skippers, a species that is common in Sicily Island Hills, but which can be hard to find in many parts of Cenla. I'm used to seeing their June flight in SIH, but I think this is my first time encountering them here during the fall.
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| Yehl Skipper - 9/24/21 |
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| Yehl Skipper - 9/24/21 |
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I had picked a spot on the map where it looked like it would be not-too-difficult to get from the main road to Big Creek without taking a long walk down an ATV road or following a trail (the ways I'd have gone on past walks to the creek). The going was difficult in places, of course (these hills are steep!), but it was a rewarding trek.
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| through the woods to Big Creek |
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| To get from the road to Big Creek, I roughly paralleled this little gully as the "easiest" direct route through the woods to the creek. The terrain most of the way was quite steep and criss-crossed with fallen limbs and logs and a couple of side gullies. |
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| the land flattening out in the Big Creek bottoms |
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| Cardinal Flower location - a seasonal slough in the Big Creek bottoms. |
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Down in the Big Creek bottoms I found a couple of blooming Cardinal Flowers growing in the wet ground of a seasonal slough. These members of the genus Lobelia are found here-and-there in wet woods and along the edges of streams and ditches where their brilliant red blooms can be seen in early autumn.
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| Cardinal Flower near Big Creek |
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| same Cardinal Flower |
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Unfortunately, when I arrived at Big Creek itself and tried to take a picture, the camera's batteries died. Really thought they had more juice than that! I was running late anyway, so I decided to leave and come back to explore this section of Big Creek and its environs another day (see: Oct. 30 account below).
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Species lists for 9/24:
September 24, 2021 - Sicily Island Hills (JC "Sonny" Gilbert WMA south side)
8:21 am; 5 hr 54 min; 4.4 miles
55-78F.; sunny; NE wind calm-5mph
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| Wild Turkey feather |
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Birds:
Killdeer - 1 (flyover)
Anhinga - 1 (flyover)
Turkey Vulture - 6
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Belted Kingfisher - 1 (at creek just after entering WMA)
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 12
Downy Woodpecker - 7
Hairy Woodpecker - 1
Pileated Woodpecker - 9
Northern Flicker - 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee - 1
White-eyed Vireo - 12
Blue Jay - 9
American Crow - 4
Carolina Chickadee - 7
Tufted Titmouse- 22
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 7
Carolina Wren - 20
Gray Catbird - 1 (presumably a southbound migrant)
Brown Thrasher - 2
Wood Thrush - 1 (calling, but not singing)
Hooded Warbler - 5
Pine Warbler - 6
warbler sp. - 1
Summer Tanager - 3
Northern Cardinal - 17
passerine sp. - 4
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Butterflies:
checkered-skipper sp. - 2
Clouded Skipper - 26
Southern Broken-Dash - 3
*possible Northern Broken-Dash*
Yehl Skipper - 6
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| Yehl Skipper nectaring on Frostweed |
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| Yehl Skipper nectaring on Blue Mistflower |
Dun Skipper - 6
Lace-winged Roadside-Skipper - 1
skipper sp. - 15+
Spicebush Swallowtail - 2
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - 6
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| black form female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - 9/24 - I commonly find the black form in SIH, but rarely encounter it in most other places that I go. |
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| typical yellow Eastern Tiger Swallowtail nectaring on Frostweed - 9/24 |
dark swallowtail sp. - 2+
Cloudless Sulphur -
Sleepy Orange - 1 or 2
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| Sleepy Orange nectaring on Blue Mistflower - 9/24 |
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Red-banded Hairstreak - 1
'Astyanax' Red-spotted Purple - 5
Pearl Crescent - 2+
Hackberry Emperor - 1
Carolina Satyr - 36
Monarch - 1
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October 30, 2021
On October 30 I drove part of the main road in the south part of the WMA, before once again trekking down through the woods to Big Creek. This time I continued on along the creek for a ways downstream, following the creek, then came back upstream on the Big Creek Trail.
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| Eastern Gray Squirrel - main road |
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This was a fruitful walk for observing wildlife and flowering plants.
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| Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica) - 10/30 - This date is the latest that I've ever seen this plant in bloom. Peak flowering seems to be April-May, with some hanging on through summer. |
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Indian Pipes or Ghost Pipes (Monotropa uniflora) were numerous within a zone on the upper and middle slopes of the hills before I got down too far towards the creek bottoms. This was my first encounter with these fascinating-looking little flowering plants. Pics. below:
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| Indian Pipe or Ghost Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) - 10/30/21 |
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| Ghost Pipes |
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| Ghost Pipes |
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| Ghost Pipes just emerging from the leaf litter |
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| Ghost Pipe |
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| Ghost Pipes |
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| Ghost Pipes |
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| Ghost Pipe - an appropriate find for the day before Halloween! |
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| creek bottoms around Big Creek |
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| Camphor-Weed |
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| Big Creek |
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| Big Creek |
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| Big Creek |
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| Big Creek |
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| Big Creek |
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I do not like to wade creeks unnecessarily, as I wouldn't want to damage/disturb habitat/wildlife beyond what I have to, or introduce contaminants from my shoes or clothing. That said, a project like following Big Creek to observe its inhabitants requires some clod-footed stomping through the nice clear water at places where I have to ford the stream, though I tried to stick to traveling along the sturdier parts of the sandbars when I could, and sometimes moved up onto the creek banks and cut through the woods to get around stretches with too many obstacles or places with deeper water or soft sand/mud.
I observed a few fish species in Big Creek. Most interesting to me, and one that I was targeting, was Longnose Shiner (Notropis longirostris). (I assume I correctly IDed the fish I saw, but I am no expert. See: pics. below.) Their main range is to the east of the Mississippi River. In the part of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, these fish are known to occur in only a very limited number of streams (all in the Ouachita River drainage, if I understand correctly.) Big Creek is one of these known locations, so they're a species that I look for every time I make it down to this creek.
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| tentative ID: Longnose Shiner - Big Creek, 10/30 |
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| tentative ID - Longnose Shiner - Big Creek, 10/30 |
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There were of course also Creek Chubs and Striped Shiners, two of the more common fish in these kinds of streams in the region, along with a number of shiner/minnow (Cyprinid) sp. that I couldn't guess at an ID for, and the ubiquitous Blackspotted/Blackstripe Topminnows.
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| Creek Chub - Big Creek |
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| Striped Shiner - Big Creek |
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| shiner sp. (Cyprinid) - possibly a juvenile Striped Shiner? - Big Creek |
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While trying to photograph fish, I heard a deer snorting in alarm in the woods a good ways downstream, probably too far to be snorting at me. This continued for a while, and it sounded like the deer moved off toward the creek. A Fox Squirrel barked alarm calls after that. Later on, when I got to the stretch of creek where I estimate the deer might have gone, I saw deer tracks and Coyote tracks -- both pretty fresh-looking.
There were tracks of several mammal species along the creek, including another adult White-tailed Deer, this one with a fawn, Northern Raccoon, and some (too many) feral hogs. I also noticed one Wild Turkey track, fortuitously placed in a sandy spot surrounded by gravel.
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| woods along Big Creek |
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| Big Creek |
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| Big Creek |
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| Big Creek |
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| habitat along Big Creek |
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| Big Creek |
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Sunny stretches of streambank with weeds and wildflowers, like the one pictured above, hosted many of the day's butterflies, including Tropical Checkered-Skipper, Least Skipper, Carolina and Gemmed Satyrs, and Pearl Crescent.
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| Tropical Checkered-Skipper - Big Creek - 10/30 |
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| Gemmed Satyr |
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At one point I heard the call of a Bald Eagle, and looked up to see three of them circling high overhead. Bald Eagles are a fairly common sight in Sicily Island Hills; usually it's flyover birds likely associated with the nearby Ouachita River.
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| Bald Eagle |
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Heard-only flyover groups of Greater White-fronted Geese were frequent for the duration of the time that I was on foot in the woods.
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| This spot, where a sand-and-gravel riffle empties into the sunny shallow end of one of the longer pools, had the most fish of any place that I looked along the creek. |
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| shiners - maybe second-year Longnose Shiners? - at the above spot on Big Creek |
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| ditto |
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| ditto |
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| Big Creek |
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| Big Creek |
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| rocky base of hills along Big Creek Trail |
Leaving the creek itself for a bit to cut across a bend, I found caterpillars, which I think are Fall Webworm Moth caterpillars, to be quite numerous on the forest floor.
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Here I joined up with the Big Creek Trail, and found a few additional individuals of some of the butterfly species that were present along the creek, as well as this Southern Pearly-eye.
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| Southern Pearly-eye - 10/30 |
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| Big Creek by Big Creek Trail |
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| Big Creek Trail |
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My plan was to go at least as far as the large tributary stream that flows south along the trail and joins Big Creek where Big Creek's coarse swings south (going by maps). However, a phone call at about this point on the trail let me know that I was needed back in civilization at X time, so I had to turn around before catching sight of this new stream and hoof it back along the trail for a ways (quicker than retracing my steps along the creek) then over the creek and through the woods (and up the hills) to the road.
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Below are the lists for birds and butterflies detected on this trip to the Sicily Island Hills.
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| Wild Turkey feather |
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October 30
8:07 am; 6hrs, 3 mins; 3.1 miles
52-66F.; overcast, then sunny; west wind ~5mph
Birds:
Greater White-fronted Goose - x
Turkey Vulture - 1
Bald Eagle - 3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 9
Downy Woodpecker - 5
Hairy Woodpecker - 1
Pileated Woodpecker - 10
Northern Flicker - 1
Eastern Phoebe - 2
Blue Jay - 1
American Crow - 6
Carolina Chickadee - 18
Tufted Titmouse - 20
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 7
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 11 (This is shaping up to be a good year for Golden-crowned Kinglets)
Brown Creeper - 2
Carolina Wren - 23
Hermit Thrush - 4
American Robin - 3 (flyover)
Red-winged Blackbird - 33 (flyover)
Pine Warbler - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 3
(No Northern Cardinals recorded!?!?!)
Butterflies:
Tropical Checkered-Skipper - 2
Common Checkered-Skipper - 1
checkered-skipper sp. - 6
Southern Broken-dash - 1
Least Skipper - 6
skipper sp.- 3
Cloudless Sulphur - x
Little Yellow - x
Sleepy Orange - x
Pearl Crescent - 7
Question Mark - 4
Goatweed Leafwing - 2
QM or GWLW (flew from road, seen while driving)? - 4
Southern Pearly-eye - 2
Gemmed Satyr - 4
Carolina Satyr - 2
G/C? satyr - 1
Monarch - 1
There's not much to report for other groups of animals. For Herps, I saw a couple of Little Brown Skinks while walking back through the woods in the afternoon (kind of a chilly/cool day for most herps to be very active I suppose). A few dragonflies were out, including some Common Green Darners patrolling along the creek.
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As always, if you spot an incorrect ID or have suggestions for those that I'm unsure about, feel free to comment and let me know.
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