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| Wild Turkey - Sicily Island Hills |
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Related Posts:
- March, 2022 observations, including this location:
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Unfortunately, I didn't make it out to Sicily Island Hills during April this year, but did visit on May 6th. There's lots of wildlife activity here this time of year--birds and butterflies and more--and of course many wildflowers are in bloom. Well, typically. Likely because it was somewhat windy, butterfly activity was a little less than expected this time, but there were still some interesting species observed.
On this trip I drove the length of the main road through the southern part of the WMA, making numerous stops and taking short walks, and also walked the length of the primitive campground road (road that turns left at check-in kiosk). Some habitat shots before continuing:
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| creek just inside entrance to WMA |
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| main road |
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| habitat along main road |
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| walking primitive campground road |
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| habitat along campground road |
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| ditto |
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| campground road |
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| next side road on the left after campground road/check-in kiosk - area was partly logged a few years ago |
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| woods along main road |
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| main road |
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| ditto |
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| ditto |
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| ditto |
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| ditto |
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| towards the northwestern end of the road , the woods take on a more piney-woods quality |
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| ditto |
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| looking out over the Big Creek bottoms near northwest end of main road - Ouachita River isn't too far from here |
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Bird activity was good. At one spot south of the kiosk I was watching a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird flitting from branch to branch, doing ...something. Then she settled in at one spot for a longer moment and I realized that here was a nest and she had appareently been gathering nesting material which she was now adding to the nest.
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| Ruby-throated Hummingbird nest |
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There weren't many transient spring migrant species detected, but I did hear Tennessee and Chestnut-sided Warbler, and see a Magnolia Warbler foraging and occasionally singing as it moved through roadside tangles of vines and branches along the campground road.
Several neotropical wood warbler species nest in Sicily Island Hills and can be quite numerous. This is an especially good place to find Worm-eating Warblers. Other neotropical songbirds are found here during breeding season in good densities as well, including Acadian Flycatcher, Summer Tanager, and Wood Thrush. Of course many of the year-round species are abundant here as well.
I flushed a Wild Turkey from the tall grass beside the road. I got a few pics of her in the tree where she landed before I moved on, not wanting to disturb her too much. Wild Turkeys are common in Sicily Island Hills, compared to most places around. Though I often find feathers or tracks, it had been a while since I'd actually seen a turkey here.
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| Wild Turkey |
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| Wild Turkey |
As far as butterflies go, true there weren't as many individuals or species observed as I had thought there would be, but there were some particularly interesting species on the wing this day, some of which I'd come hoping/expecting to find. One of the first butterflies of the day was this lovely Mourning Cloak (pictured below), which was sunning in the road a short distance south the check-in kiosk. I had seen one of this species in Sicily Island Hills during May of last year, over on the north side near the HQ. SI Hills is the only place I've seen them, so I was hoping I might encounter one on this May visit.
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| Mourning Cloak - I would have gotten better photos, but with my focus on the butterfly I stepped in ants and by the time I'd rectified that little situation, the butterfly had flown. |
Walking the primitive campground road is usually one of the best ways to find butterflies in SI Hills and this time didn't disappoint. I found this Creole Pearly-eye (another species I've only seen in SI Hills). This was another species I was hoping I might see this day. They are cane feeders (host plant), like their close kin the Southern Pearly-eye (common in SI Hills), and there's certainly a lot of cane growing in SI Hills. I find the Southerns much more often than the Creoles, but I do find Creole Pearly-eyes here with some regularity (most often in May and August-September).
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| Creole Pearly-eye |
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The species I was probably most expecting to find, though, was Banded Hairstreak. I spotted one sunning on vegetation along the primitive campground road. After watching it for a few minutes and taking some photos, another Banded Hairstreak came along, and the two engaged in an aerial dogfight that lasted several minutes, at least (they were still at it when I decided to move along).
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| Banded Hairstreak sunning |
Azures (Summer Azure seems likely, based on the date, but I am no expert and Spring Azures are very similar) were one of the more commonly seen species this day. Question Marks though were the most numerous butterflies on the wing. Most other butterfly species were represented by one or two individuals seen.
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| (Summer) Azures |
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One of my favorite wildflowers is Indian Pink or Woodland Pinkroot (Spigelia marilandica). Sicily Island Hills is the place where I find them to be most abundant, and this year they seemed especially numerous.
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| Indian Pink |
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| Indian Pink |
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Another flower that I look for in SI Hills this time of year are the Matalea (the exact species of which I am not sure, but this would be some kind of what's called "milkvine" or "climbing milkweed"). They can be found growing alongside the Indian Pink, where their dark purple flowers are a contrast to the Indian Pink's brilliant candy-colored red-and-yellow blossoms.
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| Matalea sp. |
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Below are the lists for Birds and Butterflies:
May 6, 2022
9:13am; 5hr, 40min; 4.7miles
69-82F.; mostly sun to clear; west wind ~5-15mph
Birds:
Wild Turkey - 1
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(video: Wild Turkey in tree)
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Mourning Dove - 3
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 9
Chimney Swift - 4
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 4
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| Ruby-throated Hummingbird nest |
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Black Vulture - 2
Turkey Vulture - 2
Mississippi Kite - 2
(video: Mississippi Kite. One is in the tree, where it had been calling, and the other would regularly fly past, as seen here. Presumably what we have here is a pair.)
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Broad-winged Hawk - 1
Buteo sp. - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 5
Downy Woodpecker - 4
Pileated Woodpecker - 3
Eastern Wood-Pewee - 2
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| Eastern Wood-Pewee |
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Acadian Flycatcher - 14
Great Crested Flycatcher - 10
White-eyed Vireo - 9
Yellow-throated Vireo - 2
Red-eyed Vireo - 17
Blue Jay - 5
American Crow - 1
Fish Crow - 1
Carolina Chickadee - 5
Tufted Titmouse - 25
Purple Martin - 1
Barn Swallow - 3
swallow sp. - 3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 5
Carolina Wren - 21
Wood Thrush - 10
Cedar Waxwing - 12
Eastern Towhee - 1
Yellow-breasted Chat - 1
Red-winged Blackbird - 1
Brown-headed Cowbird - 6
Worm-eating Warbler - 14
Louisiana Waterthrush - 2
Tennessee Warbler - 2
Kentucky Warbler - 2
Hooded Warbler - 17
Northern Parula - 8
Magnolia Warbler - 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler - 1
Pine Warbler - 4
Prairie Warbler - 1
Summer Tanager - 21
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| Summer Tanager |
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Northern Cardinal - 13
Indigo Bunting - 3
passerine sp. - 5
Butterflies:
Horace's Duskywing - 2
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| coupling pair of Horace's Duskywings |
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duskywing sp. - 2
Clouded Skipper - 3
Little Glassywing - 2
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| Little Glassywing |
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skipper sp. - 2
Black Swallowtail - 1
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| female Black Swallowtail ovipositing on host plant - primitive campground road |
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Pipevine Swallowtail - 2
swallowtail sp. - 1
Cloudless Sulphur - 4
Sleepy Orange - 2
Banded Hairstreak - 2
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| Banded Hairstreak - 5/6/22 |
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(Summer?) Azure - 10
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| (Summer) Azure |
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Eastern Tailed-Blue - 1
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| Eastern Tailed-Blue |
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American Snout - 1
Pearl Crescent - 1
Hackberry Emperor - 1
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| Hackberry Emperor |
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Red Admiral - 1
Mourning Cloak - 1
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| Mourning Cloak |
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Question Mark - 30
Goatweed Leafwing - 3+
Carolina Satyr - 2
Creole Pearly-eye - 1
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| Creole Pearly-eye |
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butterfly sp. - ~12 poorly seen, usually flying from road up ahead and not relocated
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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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