Cameron Parish, Labor Day 2015 (9/7/2015)

With gratitude in my soul to all of the Joe Hills that died to make America a better place for workers, I took a Labor Day trip to the coast this morning to see what had changed since Saturday. In short, a lot had.  There was no eye level swallow surge along the beach this morning, Caspian Terns were in big flocks, gnatcatchers were in single digits in all of the stops I made combined, I saw my first Marsh Hawk of the fall, Baltimore Orioles were passing through in groups, blackbirds seemed to be bunching up, and warbler diversity was down. Compared to Dan O'Malley's report from Maurepas Swamp where he noted major songbird movement, such movement was sparse in Cameron Parish. Perhaps his area was in last night's windstream and mine in a doldrum?

Best birds were this White-tailed Hawk...which I was thinking was a juvenile based on buff feather edgings on the mantle and the white markings around the eye, but need to bone up on to see if juves should have that bay patch on the shoulder...

Spot the hawk.

...and a Bell's Vireo.

But as with any good day, there were plenty of nice things to look at.

Blue Grosbeak

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Long-tailed Skipper? 

Swainson's Hawk

Cameron Parish, August 29, 2015

I went outside on Thursday morning just before I left for school. It was still dark out, but even so the air felt unexpectedly cool. I could only hope the unseasonal weather would last through the weekend.

I was on the road by 4:30 this morning, driving toward the moon and hoping to see the sun rise over the coast. My weather app said the moon was 99% full, or something crazy like that. I've been hearing about a "super moon," and I may have been a day early for that, but when the moon turned orange on its way down, it looked pretty super to me.

It was morning twilight when I hit Holly Beach, but there were already gull flocks behind the shrimp boats just offshore. Riding with the windows down felt great, almost chilly. There weren't many people on the beach, just a few zipped tents, but the birds were a bit jumpy in the half-light.

Beach birds were typical, lots of Laughing Gulls and assorted terns with a few young birds mixed in. The only exception I noticed was a confused Marbled Godwit that walked up to see what I was.

Peveto was still wet with dew, but a recent mowing made it easy to walk around without getting soaked. The temperature was perfect, and bugs were few.

Fall flowers are really putting on a show now, as are the creatures that use them for various purposes.

(Hey now, what's that's hiding on this Kosteletzkya?)  

Painted Lady*

The birdlife was pretty good for the somewhat early migration date. Yellow-throated, Canada, Wilson's, and Black-and-White warblers, Traill's, Yellow-bellied, and Least flycatchers, and a few other migrants.

I made sure to take photos of the butterflies and moths so someone else can ID them for me*.  I did see a Monarch today, always a welcome fall sight.

Fiery Skipper*

Question Mark*

Alanthus Webworm Moth*

From Peveto I went to Lighthouse Road.  There's a lot of heavy work going on there. The leveed ponds have been leveled off and some are being drained. The drainage ditch has a steady flow of water pouring into a canal, and whatever's in the water, the birds love it.

And apparently the alligators do, too.

There were hundreds of Black Terns, dozens of spoonbills, and hundreds of Snowy and Great Egrets. A stealth white Reddish Egret was present as well.

Inside of the levees there were hundreds of shorebirds. Peeps were in roadside puddles as well. It was interesting to see fresh juvenile peeps like the Semipalmated Sandpiper below rubbing shoulders with molting Boat-tailed Grackles. 

The Lighthouse Woods are in good shape. Unfortunately, so are the mosquitoes and ticks. I had a swarm of the former and one of the latter.

I had a couple of interesting arthropods there as well. As I was walking through the field around the woods, a small butterfly moved ahead of me. It landed on a morning glory and then suddenly appeared to flop on its side. I knew what that meant. Remember the spider on the Kosteletzkya flower above? It has cousins at Lighthouse.

I guess that's a Pygmy Blue** it has in its grip. Whatever it is, it looks larger on my monitor than it did in real life. I'd call it a pygmy.

Birdwise, Lighthouse Woods was slow but interesting. A White-tailed Kite was there when I arrived. I managed a long-distance snap through the spotting scope that's OK but fails to do this beautiful bird justice.

Also present in the woods were Hooded Warbler, Scissortails, and a Baltimore Oriole.

As mentioned, the bugs were bad, but at least the giant ragweed wasn't. The magnificent stand of ragweed will be manna for the birds if it doesn't get mowed before it blooms and sets seed. It will be an allergic nightmare for allergy sufferers like me, though, and it's this closing to blooming:

After Lighthouse I headed to Hackberry Ridge/Secret Place. It held a couple of Prairie Warblers, more empid flycatchers, and surprisingly only a few Blue-gray Gnatcatchers.

The wires on the way in held a nice group of swallows, including some formerly rare Cave Swallows mixed in with Bank and Barn swallows. 

The Cave Swallows were preening, and I managed to get snaps of their stretches that show their open wings.  Both show molt in progress in their primaries. The molt must be almost at a stopping point because the outer primaries are usually older and paler than the rest of the outer wing when we see them passing through in October. 

The best bird at Secret Place was the Bell's Vireo seen in several views below. It can be considered "formerly rare" as well, I guess, as it was recently removed from the state Review List.  This record seems early, but Matt Conn had a Bell's Vireo this week in Iberia Parish, so there must be a late August surge in progress.

I wrapped the day up after Secret Place, heading back early. What had started out as a temperate day had become bright, hot, and dry. Fall migration is just getting underway. There'll be other days.


*Thanks to Charlie Lyon for doing so; see all asterisked leps.
**Thanks to Charlie again for letting me know it's a Western Pygmy Blue. I know that Dave Patton has told me that many times, but...

Cameron Parish, 11/05/2011

At one of my first stops, this Ash-throated Flycatcher popped out in the open.  These birds can be secretive at times, but this one wasn't.  I've seen an Ash-throated at this spot for 3 or 4 weeks, always coming out to pose.  These sightings might all be the same bird, maybe a winterer.  

At the same spot, I came across this nice duo of sparrows, a Clay-colored and a Grasshopper.  The picture is lousy, but the pairing isn't bad.  

Marsh Hawks (a.k.a. Northern Harriers) were on the hunt everywhere.  These raptors float like air-hockey pucks over the fields, close to the ground, tilting from side to side as they scan the ground for small game.  Speaking of names for these birds, my grandfather had a cool one: coissarde (pronounced kind of like "Kway-sard").  Older Cajuns knew quite a bit about the birds of the area, and one as conspicuous as the Marsh Hawk, with its white rump band and slow-motion levitation, was probably well-known to many.  

Red-tailed Hawks were in good numbers along the coastal strip, probably making a great living off the native rat population.  Rats rebounded well after Hurricane Ike, and predators are only now putting a noticeable dent in their numbers.  Last year was a good one for hawks and owls, and I'm hoping for an encore this winter.  

Most winter birds haven't shown up in typical numbers yet, but Eastern Phoebes were pretty liberally spread throughout the landscape.  The one below was in a territorial struggle, and seemed more worried about flying off and giving ground to its rival than about landing next to me.  

Early November is a crossroads time on the coast, with a blend of winter arrivals and lingering fall migrants.  Among the lingerers were Nashville Warbler (which sometimes winters), and Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Summer Tanager, below.

White-winged Doves, now common along the coast throughout the year, were also present in decent numbers. 

I crossed the ferry into Cameron and headed east toward home late in the day.  This cool dark Red-tailed on the eastern edge of the town was cooperative, but the light was getting horrible.  I would've loved a closer look and just a few more minutes of sunlight, but the days are getting shorter.  

Nothing spectacular, but a lot of enjoyable birds.  

Cameron Parish, 9/10/11

Yesterday, I took advantage of the cooler weather and took a trip to the coast.  It was a great day, capped off by the evening drive home listening to the LSU game.  Fall is definitely in the air now.


Also in the air were Swainson's Hawks. I saw this bird kiting near Johnsons Bayou (not Johnson's Bayou, or Johnson Bayou) in extreme SW LA.  I don't know of any Swainson's that nest in that area, so the bird can probably be called a wanderer or migrant.  Swainson's are among the growing list of western/south Texas birds that have been creeping into Louisiana over the past several years.  I remember how excited I was when I saw my first Louisiana Swainson's Hawk a couple of decades ago.  Now, they're recorded in relatively large numbers in the state, and they even nest here.

Don't adjust your dials.  It's right-side-up.

Another large soaring bird that gave me a much closer look was this Turkey Vulture.  It was keeping close tabs on a dead Coyote on the highwayside.

In the early afternoon I found myself at Peveto Woods, where I ran into Gary Broussard.  Gary was leaving as I was arriving, but he stayed to bird with me for a few minutes.  Soon after he left, I stepped under a tree to look at some bird movement and spotted a hanging brown object that I first thought might be a wasp nest.  It was actually a bat, the first perched bat I've ever found.

Because Gary was a half-hour ahead of me on the route, I started getting calls about nice things he was finding, so I set off to check his birds out.  Gary has a pretty nice résumé of rare birds to his credit, but he also has a knack for finding oddball birds.  In other words, he looks closely at birds--even common birds--and spots differences.  He got a brief look at this Red-tailed Hawk up near Sweet Lake, and I caught up to him and helped him relocate it.  Maybe this bird is a perfectly normal Red-tailed Hawk; I'm not saying it isn't.  However, the tail pattern sure seems funny (looks pale-based with a broad blackish tip to me), and something about the tail shape, feet, and overall appearance of the bird keep catching my attention.

Good weather, good birds, good company, good game.  Good time of year.