List of Lists

I don't travel outside of Louisiana as much as I used to, and rarely just to bird. That's OK. My way of thinking about my Life List has evolved with age. I've accepted that anybody with a tank of gas or a wallet full of plastic can travel around the continent seeing the birds that are supposed to be there. More power to 'em, and sometimes I envy them, but luckily there's no shortage of exciting birds here.


I've become much more interested in the local birds and my local lists, and the challenge of finding surprises here.


Here is a quick, rough count of the many birding lists I do care about right now and the number of species on each:


My Louisiana state list--399

Cameron Parish list--357

Lafayette Parish--292

Vermilion Parish--284

SW LA--376  

Yard list--163

Harris's Sparrow

Harris's Sparrows are big, boldly patterned sparrows of the far north. So far north, in fact, that for them, going south for the winter means going to the Midwest--from Wyoming and Nebraska down to north Texas and Louisiana. In north Louisiana, they are regular but uncommon. In south Louisiana, we're lucky to see a small handful every winter.

This Harris's Sparrow was taped down in Cameron Parish, in the Baton Rouge Audubon Society's sanctuary at Peveto Woods. It has been seen a couple of times in December, but like most Harris's Sparrows, it's wary and doesn't often offer good looks.

Burrowing Owl

Burrowing Owls are primarily owls of prairie dog towns. In the winter, they migrate south and look for flat fields with some sort of burrow or debris heap they can take shelter in. These owls are somewhat diurnal, especially on overcast days.

I recall the first time I saw a Burrowing Owl. I was walking levees on my uncle's farm near Kaplan when a small pale brown bird flew out of a little concrete culvert. It flew low to the ground, pulled up on a clod a few yards away, and started to bob up and down and swivel its head back and forth. I was amazed to find one of these birds (that I'd only ever seen on nature shows) in the rice country of SW LA. Over the years, I found that coverts on levees in dry fields were good places to look for these owls. I recall finding 2 or 3 in such settings in the winter of 1979 alone.

Since then, Burrowing Owls have become much harder to find in Louisiana. Now, in a good year, 2 or 3 might be found across the entire state. This individual was found in the greater metropolitan Holly Beach area earlier this month, and was still present as of December 19th.

Franklin's Gulls

One of the quiet highlights of fall migration is picking Franklin's Gulls out of Laughing Gull flocks. Franklin's Gulls are small gulls that nest on the North American prairies and spend their winters in South America. Their migration path takes most Franklin's through Texas, but a small percentage of the species often meanders a bit off course, which accounts for the individuals we see in Louisiana. Usually, one or two Franklin's can be found in a day of coastal birding from October through late November or early December. Sometimes, hundreds can be encountered.

Franklin's Gulls can be picked out from Laughing Gulls by their smaller size, by the darker, more complete traces of the black hood of summer, and by their smaller, more delicate bills. There are also difference in wing and tail pattern that aren't visible in this video clip.

This bird was on Holly Beach in late November.

Geese

A flock of geese putting down in a cut ricefield near Kaplan.

From Drum Roll to Humdrum

Having done Christmas Bird Counts for a couple of decades, I always find the changes in bird numbers fascinating. It's also amazing how much the status of certain birds has changed. It wasn't long ago when adding Ross's Goose to your territory count was something you had to try hard to do. Nowadays, you'd have to try hard to avoid seeing one. Likewise, imagine the oohs and ahhs that Caracara would've earned just a few years ago. Now, it's not uncommon for multiple parties to get multiple Caracaras.

Other birds that have gone from drum roll to humdrum in the past few years:

Bald Eagle

Fulvous Whistling Duck

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

Cooper's Hawk

Inca Dove

many hummers, even Calliope!

Vermilion Flycatcher

This isn't because we've learned the trick for finding these birds; many of these species have simply become more common in SW LA. That's a good thing.

Unfortunately, some birds have gone the other route. Sharp-shinned Hawk, Purple Finch, and Eared Grebe come to mind as species formerly much easier to find.

From year to year, you never know what will change. The trick is to enjoy everything, because it may not last.

Harris's Hawk in Rayne

While driving down Highway 90 east of Rayne last week, Bill Hoffpauir spotted a Harris's Hawk perched on a telephone pole on the roadside. He let Dave Patton know, and Dave went out and got the nice documentary photo above. This is about the 4th or 5th credible record of the species for Louisiana, and the second from the Rayne area. This species is commonly used in falconry, so any record must be carefully screened to make sure no there are no bands or jesses on the legs.

Harris's Hawks are southern birds that barely make it into southern Texas and Arizona. However, the species was first described by Audubon when he was teaching near St. Francisville from a bird said to have been captured in Louisiana. Adults are easily recognized by the chocolate brown body, reddish shoulder patches, and white band around the base of the tail.

If you're interested in looking for this bird, it's been seen on the south side of Highway 90 about 1.3 miles west of the intersection of Highway 90 and Louisiana Highway 719. It also perches out of sight in the treeline on the north side of the highway, so you may need to wait a while. It seems to be easiest to find late in the day.

Fall Migration in Review

Fall migration 2009 never quite coalesced in Southwest Louisiana. If there was a big coordinated push of migrants, I don't know of anyone who experienced it. Part of the reason--probably the biggest part--was the lack of a strong cool front until well into October. And so, by the end of the first week of October when Indigo Buntings usually pass en masse on a good north tailwind, warm weather prevailed and the buntings passed unseen. Ditto for catbirds, waves of warblers, etc. There were dribs and drabs of birds in passage with a few exciting birds mixed in, but not one really memorable day of migration.

The End of the Gnatcatcher Days

On the eve of the last day in September, there's a hint of seasonal change in the air. The air's relatively cool, a steady breeze is sneaking around, and a few migrants are feeding up in the backyard. I'm not ready to claim that the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness has arrived; a quick look at the 10 day forecast puts that dream back to sleep. Still, with October barely 24 hours away, there's no denying that we're coming to the end of the Gnatcatcher Days.

I happen to like August and September birding. I've been down to the coast probably every weekend in the past two months and I can only think of two or three birdwatchers I've even crossed paths with. During the same span I have crossed paths with some pretty good birding days. In the woods I've seen a handful of Olive-sided Flycatchers, Mourning Warblers, and Bell's Vireos, and a couple dozen Yellow-bellied Flycatchers and Traill's Flycatchers. The beach has produced a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls, a couple of California Gulls, and some nice shorebirds. Inland, there's been good kingbird and scissor-tail action and good looks at every swallow on the state list. But the bird that's really emblematic of the dog days this year and every year is the tiny Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. These winged mice have been constant companions no matter what habitat I've birded in, and they haven't been shy about letting their presence be known. In August and September in Southwestern Louisiana, you're never far from a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. These are the Gnatcatcher Days.

We're lucky to have Blue-gray Gnatcatchers year round. They nest across most of the United States in summer, and while they winter well down into Central America, southern Louisiana is at the northern edge of their wide winter range. In transit they pass through in both spring and late summer, but they're most obvious at the latter time of year when they can be seen flitting over just above treetop level in the early hours of daylight. At this time, every woodlot and patch of scrub seems to have one--or many. Their curiosity draws them to check out everything that moves and makes them easy to find. Despite their minute size, they become the most conspicuous bird out there for a few long, hot weeks.

Soon--in a few days actually--gnatcatchers will give up their long run on center stage. Another huge wave of migrants, the birds that most birders think of as fall migrants (warblers, thrushes, catbirds, you name it) will swamp the gnatcatchers that are still with us. As a matter of fact, as I type this note, a new horde is building up, preparing to invade. Even though the temps will still be in the 80s then, we are now just a little over a week away from perhaps the most glorious day of fall, Indigo Bunting Day.

Bell's Vireo

This is one of my favorite times of year. Days are hot, but mornings and evenings are temperate. Migration is active but not so flashy that everyone is out. It's not uncommon to have a birding hotspot all to myself when I head out, and there are some pretty nice birds drifting through almost unseen.

This is the time of year to get out and look for regular but low-frequency migrants like Mourning Warbler and Olive-sided Flycatcher, and for spectacular longshots like Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher. It's also the time to try to document migrants that are probably a little more common than we realize, like Bell's Vireo.

Bell's Vireos are hard to find even when you know they're around, and chances are that a few pass through when we're not around, these hot dry days of migration when fall birding is still just a gleam in many birders' eyes. Bell's are also drab, so a quick look at one of them isn't the slam dunk that a look at a male Mourning Warbler might be.

Bell's Vireos are Review List birds in Louisiana, birds for which reports should be submitted to the Louisiana Bird Records Committee. In recent years reports of Bell's Vireo have increased and they may eventually be downgraded if they turn out to be more common than supposed. Sightings should be well-documented to eliminate the possibility of mistaken identity with young White-eyed Vireos (which don't have white eyes yet). Pictures of Bell's Vireos can be hard to get, but even a bad picture will often clinch the ID. The photo above, while not great, should be sufficient to document a recent sighting of this nondescript little songbird. I took the picture at the Baton Rouge Audubon Sanctuary at Peveto Woods down in Cameron Parish on August 30, 2009.