 |
| Gulf Fritillary - FS Rd. 128 - 10/28/2022 |
.
Related Posts:
- KNF June-July 2022: https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2022/09/kisatchie-national-forest-including.html
- KNF Oct. 2021: https://falloutbird2014.blogspot.com/2021/12/kisatchie-national-forest-including.html
*******************************************
October 14, 2022: Butterfly Garden and Adjacent Parts of Kisatchie NF
.
On October 14th I visited the Catahoula Hummingbird and Butterfly Garden, located in Kisatchie National Forest, on Work Center Road near the Catahoula Ranger District office. From the garden I walked the dirt/gravel road/trail that surrounds the large block of open pines, part of he Stuart Seed Orchard, immediately southwest of the garden.
Below are some habitat shots before continuing...
.
 |
| butterfly garden |
.
 |
| ditto |
.
 |
| ditto |
.
 |
| woods beside garden recently thinned; logging/thinning operation was going on by LA-8 |
.
 |
| ... |
.
 |
| hitting the trail... |
.
 |
| large block of open pines, surrounded by trail and weedy/grassy/brushy meadow, SW of garden |
.
 |
| ... |
.
 |
| ... |
.
 |
| ... |
.
 |
| ... |
.
 |
| ... |
.
 |
| ... |
.
 |
| There was more human activity this day than I had expected, including work being done on roads around the seed orchard. You can see the dust from passing gravel trucks (or crushed rock, actually I think) on FS Rd. 146 in this pic. |
.
 |
| SE corner of the block of open pines - I saw Palm Warbler and Bachman's Sparrow in this locale, along with a sizable group of Pine Warblers and co. |
.
 |
| ditto |
.
 |
| ditto |
.
 |
| ditto |
.
 |
| ... |
.
 |
| ... |
.
Bird activity was fairly good, as was butterfly activity. I got a few first-of-season (FOS) bird species (House Wren, Sedge Wren, Palm Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler). I heard a Great Horned Owl call three times over an approx. 5-minute period in the western side of the block of pines, just north of the shortcut across the pines. This was around 1:40pm on a sunny day (not every owl is a "night-owl", haha). In the southeast corner of the block of open pines there was a very busy mixed flock--actually it was mostly Pine Warblers (about 14, if I recall correctly), but with a few Eastern Bluebirds and Brown-headed Nuthatches tagging along. Checking each bird that I could see as best I could, I found one Palm Warbler in the mix as well (could have been more than one, but seemed more likely the same individual seen repeatedly). Palm Warblers are found here in the seed orchard and butterfly garden environs this time of year with some regularity. I also flushed a Bachman's Sparrow at this spot, and got a very quick look at it when it landed on a branch for a moment.
There were a good many butterflies out (especially at the garden, but also in places along the trail), but the diversity of species was disappointingly low, with some expected species for this location and time of the season curiously missing (no Long-tailed Skippers, for example). I was especially keen to double-check all the Eastern Tailed-Blues that I saw to make sure that I wasn't overlooking any Ceraunus Blues, a species that has been found here in the part of the NF around the garden and seed orchard in autumn some years. I saw none this time.
Bird list and butterfly list are below...
Catahoula Hummingbird and Butterfly Garden and Stuart Seed Orchard (Kisatchie NF, Catahoula Ranger District)
October 14, 2022
12:04pm-3:45pm; approx. 2 miles on foot
warm; clear; light breeze
Birds:
Mourning Dove - 2
Turkey Dove - 2
Great Horned Owl - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 2
Downy Woodpecker - 2
Red-cockaded Woodpecker - 2
Pileated Woodpecker - 1
Northern Flicker - 1
Eastern Phoebe - 2
Blue Jay - 5
American Crow - 1
Carolina Chickadee - 2
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 8
House Wren - 7 (FOS)
Sedge Wren - 1 (FOS)
Carolina Wren - 11
Gray Catbird - 2
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 13
House Finch - 2
Bachman's Sparrow - 1
Chipping Sparrow - 4
Eastern Meadowlark - 1
Palm Warbler - 1 (FOS)
Pine Warbler - 20
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 7 (FOS)
Northern Cardinal - 2
Indigo Bunting - 3
passerine sp. - 5
Butterflies (1st number is for garden, 2nd number is for trail/meadow/woods):
Common Checkered-Skipper - 1, 1
checkered-skipper sp. - 0, 2
Fiery Skipper - 3, 8
Ocola Skipper - 0, 1
Pipevine Swallowtail - 6, 1
Cloudless Sulphur - 29, 8
.
 |
| Cloudless Sulphur - butterfly garden |
.
Orange Sulphur - 2, 0
Sleepy Orange - 5, 3
Little Yellow - 8, 70
.
 |
| Little Yellows puddling on trail |
.
Red-banded Hairstreak - 2, 0
.
 |
| Red-banded Hairstreak - butterfly garden |
.
Eastern Tailed-Blue - 0, 7
.
 |
| Eastern Tailed-Blue - trail |
.
Gulf Fritillary - 26, 16
.
 |
| Gulf Fritillary - garden |
.
 |
| Gulf Fritillary - trail |
.
Variegated Fritillary - 1, 2
.
 |
| Variegated Fritillary - trail |
.
Common Buckeye - 3, 30
Red Admiral - 0, 1
Pearl Crescent - 2, 14
Phaon Crescent - 1, 1
Carolina Satyr - 3, 5
butterfly sp. - 0, 13 (unsatisfactory looks: too distant or lost and not relocated)
.
A few wildflower pics...
.
 |
| false foxglove (Agilinus) sp. - trail |
.
 |
| Rabbit Tobacco or Sweet Everlasting (Pseudognphalium obtusifolium), I'm pretty sure - trail |
.
 |
| Downy Lobelia or similar lobelia species (Lobelia puberula / Lobelia sp.) - trail |
.
****************************
October 28, 2022: National Catahoula Wildlife Management Preserve and Kisatchie NF Catahoula Ranger District
.
On October 28 I returned to Kisatchie National Forest in Grant Parish, starting in National Catahoula Wildlife Management Preserve--part of Kisatchie NF, divided between the Winn and Catahoula Ranger Districts--then continuing through parts of KNF Catahoula Ranger District south of the WMP. The route I took in the WMP was in the eastern part, following Bear Creek Road and part of Forest Service Road 102. After exiting the WMP on 102, I passed through a short stretch of private land before reentering Kisatchie NF. Here I resumed birding, turning south down FS Rd 169, taking that to FS 128, east on 128 to where 169 turns south, then down 169 to 120. I took FS Rd 120 east to the junction with FS 103 at the edge of a block of private land. That's where I ended my birding effort for the day, but I passed through more of KNF Catahoula RD going SE along the rest of FS 120 on my way out to US-165.
Below are some habitat shots before continuing...
.
 |
| Bear Creek Rd. just inside WMP boundary south of Bear Creek (a major creek in these woods) |
.
 |
| Bear Creek Rd. |
.
 |
| habitat along Bear Creek Rd. |
.
 |
| ditto (a particularly birdy spot, including Red-cockaded Woodpeckers) |
.
 |
| ditto |
.
 |
| logging (thinning) operation going on near the 5-way intersection of Bear Creek Rd., Lincecum Village Rd., and FS Rds. 131 and 102. Noise from this could be heard for a long ways. For the first half-mile or so of 102 I didn't detect many birds or make many stops, until I got far enough along that the sound of the equipment wasn't much of an impediment. |
.
 |
| FS Rd. 102 |
.
 |
| ditto |
.
 |
| FS 102 at Indian Creek |
.
 |
| Indian Creek (one of the main creeks in these woods) - Low after weeks of drought conditions, but the recent rainfall event seems to have added a little much-needed water to what was remaining in this and other streams around here. |
.
 |
| Indian Creek |
.
 |
| FS Rd. 102 at swampy area/pond in creek bottoms west of Indian Creek - This area with the swampy pond, taken with the adjacent creek bottom woods in one direction and going up the hill to the WMP-private land boundary at the edge of the cutover in the other, was one of the birdy-est areas of the day. I walked approx. 0.3 miles along the road within the area described. |
.
 |
| ditto |
.
 |
| ditto |
.
 |
| looking back to creek bottoms from part-way up hill west of bottoms |
.
 |
| property boundary / cutover on private land bordering KNF - FS Rd. 120 |
.
 |
| FS Rd 169 north of FS 128 |
.
 |
| FS Rd 169 - Red-breasted Nuthatch spot, and an all-around birdy locale. This was one of the best spots of the day, and by happenstance I got 3 FOS species here: the Red-breasted Nuthatches, plus, as luck would have it, flyovers of a Northern Harrier and Snow Geese. Also notable, to me at least, is that I had individuals of all three of our nuthatch species at this spot: Red-breasted (2), and 1 each of Brown-headed and White-breasted. Neat. |
.
 |
| FS Rd 128 - The habitat along 128 is sandy, hilly open pine woods, with some tiny spring-water gullies that head-up near the road. |
.
 |
| ... |
.
 |
| ... |
.
 |
| ... |
.
 |
| ... |
.
 |
| FS Rd. 169 just south of 128 |
.
 |
| FS Rd. 120 at south end of FS 169 - looking west to Sandy Branch bridge |
 |
| Sandy Branch (a tributary of Fish Creek) - For much of the year this is a clear, flowing spring-fed creek; the dry conditions during much of this Sept.-Oct. has taken its toll. The small spring seeps along 128 in above pics are heads of this creek. |
.
 |
| ditto - downstream side of bridge |
.
 |
| junction FS 169 and 120, looking east |
.
 |
| small spring gully (tributary of Sandy Branch) that 120 crosses |
.
 |
| small creek bottoms (Sandy Branch and tributary) along south side of 120 ~ south end of 169 |
.
 |
| Fish Creek bottoms along FS 120 |
.
 |
| Fish Creek (one of the main creeks in these woods) at FS Rd 120 - Even Fish Creek is very low and no longer flowing thanks to a largely dry Sept.-Oct. |
.
 |
| ditto |
.
 |
| Fish Creek bottoms - lots of fallen timber from Hurricane Laura in these creek bottom woods |
.
 |
| beaver pond at corner of FS Rds 120 and 103 - end of my birding route for the day |
.
It's always a good day's birding when you get to watch a group of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers going about their business. There are numerous colonies of these endangered birds scattered throughout KNF in Grant Parish, so it can be easy to forget that they are scarce in unprotected areas outside of the NF and other public lands, and likely extirpated from some parishes within their traditional piney-woods native range.
.
(video: Red-cockaded Woodpeckers - Bear Creek Rd., NCWMP)
.
.
This day was a great one for picking up first-of-season winter species. I ended up seeing or hearing my FOS Snow Goose, Northern Harrier, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Winter Wren, Hermit Thrush, Dark-eyed Junco, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, and Orange-crowned Warbler.
.
(video: a Winter Wren - FS Rd. 102, NCWMP -- I 'pished' and squeaked a few times to get it to stay on its perch for video and pic, but didn't pester it longer than needed.)
.
.
 |
| FOS Red-breasted Nuthatch - FS Rd 169 - same individual in both pics |
.
 |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch - FS Rd 169 |
.
Winter Wrens were relatively common (10 all day). I heard the first one of the day actually sing a few times. I also heard one of the Hermit Thrushes singing--a beautiful sound that you just don't hear enough here in their winter range. It only sang a few times, but what a nice surprise.
Best birding was in NCWMP and at select spots along the route after leaving the WMP, especially on the part of FS 169 north of 128. The worst birding was FS Rd 128 and the part of 169 south of 128: very few birds were detected in those areas. FS Rd. 120 was so-so this time around (usually a pretty good area for birding, especially the creek bottom areas). This might be an artifact of the fact that I was there midday/early afternoon, and so the areas I birded in the morning when birds are more active are going to end up looking much better by comparison.
Bird List...
.
National Catahoula Wildlife Management Preserve
10/28/22
7:14am; 3 hrs, 17 mins; 3.2 miles
50s-60F.; mixed/variable sky; wind from calm to N ~5mph
portions of Bear Creek Rd. and FS Rd. 102
Kisatchie NF Catahoula Ranger District
10/28/22
10:36am - 2:19pm ; 1.8+0.8+2+1.5 = 6.1 miles
60s-70F; sky variable--mostly sunny to start with, becoming overcast before end; wind N and E ~3-10mph
FS Rd. 169, parts of FS Rds. 128 and 120
First number is for NCWMP, second is for the portions of KNF south of the WMP
"FOS" = personal first-of-season detection of that species
'x' = species detected but number of individuals not ascertained
Snow Goose - 0, x (FOS)
Mourning Dove - 1, 0
Great Blue Heron - 1, 0
Northern Harrier - 0, 1 (FOS)
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1, 0
Buteo sp. - 0, 1
Red-headed Woodpecker - 4, 0
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 11, 4
Downy Woodpecker - 3, 3
Red-cockaded Woodpecker - 4 (maybe 5), 0
.
(video: Red-cockaded Woodpeckers - Bear Creek Rd.)
.
Pileated Woodpecker - 7, 3
Northern Flicker - 5, 2
American Kestrel - 1, 0
Eastern Phoebe - 7, 3
Blue Jay - 6, 2
American Crow - 6, 10
Carolina Chickadee - 11, 12
Tufted Titmouse - 8, 4
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 8, 7
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 10, 10
Brown Creeper - 0, 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 0, 2 (FOS)
White-breasted Nuthatch - 3, 1
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 1, 2
House Wren - 3, 0
Winter Wren - 5 (FOS), 5
.
 |
| Winter Wren - FS 102, NCWMP |
.
Carolina Wren - 17, 9
Gray Catbird - 1, 0
Brown Thrasher - 1, 0
Eastern Bluebird - 3, 0
Hermit Thrush - 4 (FOS), 2
American Robin - 1, 0
Chipping Sparrow - 0, 2
Dark-eyed Junco - 0, 2 (FOS)
White-throated Sparrow - 14, 4
Song Sparrow - 1 (FOS), 0
Swamp Sparrow - 5 (FOS), 2
Eastern Towhee - 3, 0
blackbird sp. - 1, 0
Orange-crowned Warbler - 1 (FOS), 0
Pine Warbler - 3, 0
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 19, 4
Northern Cardinal - 8, 4
passerine sp. - 8, 5
*Savannah Sparrow - 2 (FOS), FS Rd 120 at gas facility short distance west of US-165 (2:40pm)
.
Butterflies (all locations):
.
Tropical Checkered-Skipper - 3
.
 |
| Tropical Checkered-Skipper nectaring on Blue Mistflower - FS Rd 120 |
.
Cloudless Sulphur - 1
Little Yellow - 24
Gulf Fritillary - 7
.
 |
| Gulf Fritillary - FS Rd 128 |
.
 |
| Gulf Fritillary - FS Rd 120 at Sandy Branch |
.
 |
| Gulf Fritillary - FS Rd 120 at Sandy Branch |
.
Variegated Fritillary - 2
.
 |
| Variegated Fritillary - FS Rd 128 |
.
Common Buckeye - 5
.
 |
| Common Buckeye - FS Rd 128 |
.
Carolina Satyr - 1
possible Monarch - 2 or 3 (flyovers/flyby)
butterfly sp. - 1 or 2 un-IDed, poorly seen from vehicle
.
Other wildlife:
I saw two White-tailed Deer, each crossing the road. Squirrels were cutting/dropping acorns or other mast in a few places. I don't think I recorded any reptiles or amphibians.
.
 |
| tentative ID: Turbulent Phosphila Moth caterpillars - on the banks of Fish Creek at FS 120 |
.
Some wildflower pics...
.
 |
| Downy Lobelia or similar sp. (Lobelia puberula or other L. sp.) - FS Rd 102 at Indian Creek, NCWMP |
.
 |
| tentative ID: Golden Aster or Narrowleaf Silkgrass (Pityopsis graminifolia) - FS Rd 128 |
.
 |
| maybe Gaillardia aestivalis??? - FS Rd 128 |
.
 |
| Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria) or similar sp. of holly (Ilex) - Bear Creek Rd. |
.
As always , if you spot any incorrect IDs or have suggestions for those that I'm unsure about, feel free to comment and let me know.
.
************************ *****************
