TOP 10 SPECIES

Top 10 lists are voted upon by the participants at the completion of each tour.

 

SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA:
31 March - 7 April 2007

  1) RED-COCKADADED WOODPECKER--prolonged scope views of a family group (clan) in Wisatchie National Forest.
  2) Fulvous Whistling-Duck--numerous nice views of this handsome duck, perched, swimming, and in flight.
  3) Burrowing Owl--this was a stake-out north of Cameron Prairie. Great looks.
  4) Black-throated Green Warbler--an adult male in Sabine Woods, coastal Texas.
  5) Wilson’s Plover--at least two at East Jetty Beach in comparison with Semipalmated Sandpiper.
  6) Clapper Rail--several different individuals, one on the shoulder of the road near Cameron.
  7) Barn Owl--two seen perched and flying on our way into Cameron, the first night of the tour.
  8) Yellow-crowned Night-Heron--this striking long-legged wader was seen on numerous occasions. The rookery near the bridge gave us especially good views.
  9) Prothonotary Warbler--we had wonderful looks at many individuals.
10) Mississippi Kite--high-flying migrants were seen along with Broad-winged Hawks on the final day of the tour.

 

SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA:
8-15 April 2005

  1) PURPLE GALLINULE--after looking for them all week, the stranglehold fight between the two birds was incredible!
  2) Yellow-throated Vireo--spectacular looks in the late day light at Peveto Woods.
  3) Red-cockaded Woodpecker--we worked for them and finally found them at Kisatchie National Forest.
  4) Least Bittern--Marion summed it up: 25 in half an hour at Rockefeller Refuge--WOW!
  5) Painted Bunting--great looks at half a dozen males.
  6) King Rail--the views from the observation platform at Sabine NWR were incredible.
  7) Cerulean Warbler--4 males at Sabine Woods in the big fallout.
  8) Western Grebe--one offshore near Holly Beach, a rare Louisiana sighting.
  9) Blue-winged Warbler--many seen after the fallout at Sabine and Peveto.
10) Prothonotary Warbler--numerous good views at Martin Lake and Sam Houston Jones State Park.

Additional interesting sightings included many American Alligators, a nearby River Otter, and several Atlantic Bottle-nosed Dolphins. We witnessed an incredible fallout of Neotropic migrants as a result a heavy mid-day downpour, and saw a fight between two Purple Gallinules that rivaled the World Wrestling Federation--Smackdown!

 

CAMERON PARISH, LOUISIANA
8-15 April 2005
Trip Report by Bob Schutsky, Tour Leader

Cameron Parish is Louisiana's version of High Island, Texas--great Neotropical migrants without the crowds of people. In Louisiana you bird the cheniers, in Texas they are called oak mottes. Both are names for the same thing: small wooded ridges used by migrants coming in from the Gulf. We birded many coastal areas and marshy refuges, then moved inland 50 miles for some of the upland birds. It was a very productive week: 191 species, including 24 different warblers. Here are the highlights, based upon the Top 10 birds that everyone voted for at the end of the tour.

# 10) Prothonotary Warbler seems to be a perennial favorite, whether we're birding in Costa Rica or Presque Isle on Lake Erie. We found good numbers of them at the Lake Martin Rookery, our first stop after landing at the Lafayette Airport. A scope view of a male in good light is hard to beat.

# 9) Large numbers of Blue-winged Warblers were present during a classic coastal fallout that began after lunch on 11 April and continued into the next day. The weather forecast called for a line of showers moving east around mid-day on the 11th. We were at Sea Rim State Park (eastern Texas) when it hit, so we moved on to Sabine Woods to await the end of the storm. As the rain subsided, the trees were filled with birds. There was always a new bird to see, no matter where you looked. Among them were 25 or more Blue-winged Warblers.

# 8) One morning we were driving the beach, watching for shorebirds and occasionally scanning the ocean. We had already found Wilson's and Snowy Plovers, when a lean, trim black and white bird caught my eye beyond the surf. It was a Western Grebe, a very rare visitor to Louisiana. Some years go by without a single sighting. This was probably the biggest surprise of the tour.

# 7) During the fallout at Sabine Woods, we were treated to excellent views of several different male Cerulean Warblers. At first they were feeding heavily, then they began singing. Our group was able to see them well, plus we showed them to several other birders that had arrived to enjoy the fallout.

# 6) Rails are another big tour favorite and we certainly had our share of them: 1Virginia, a dozen Clappers, two dozen or more Soras, and nice assemblage of Kings. The two King Rails that really stood out were below an observation deck at Sabine NWR, while we were on the deck. They flew, swam, and continually returned to the base of the platform, calling almost constantly. Watching through the scope as they called, at point blank range, is quite a treat.

# 5) Another product of the fallout were the Painted Buntings that we saw at Sabine Woods and Peveto Woods. The females are bright yellowy-green, but the males are simply gaudy, with almost every color of the rainbow. Very few people tire of watching a Painted Bunting.

# 4) We were not seeing Least Bitterns during the first 4-5 days of the tour, when finally we found one in a roadside ditch, not far from our Cameron motel. But the next day everything would change at Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge. During an hour of slowly driving along a mile of marshland habitat, we counted 25 Least Bitterns, many no more that 10-20 feet away. Everyone came to know them well, including their call that sounds like a Black-billed Cuckoo.

# 3) A big target bird away from the coast was the Red-cockaded Woodpecker. We collected our data, researched our maps, and headed for Kisatchie National Forest, north of Lake Charles. The habitat looked wonderful and the area is managed for this endangered species. After staking out a nesting area and being entertained by the Bachman's Sparrows, we finally had good looks at the woodpeckers, another successful hunt.

# 2) Late on April 11th we stopped at Peveto Woods to check on the migrants. There were many, including Hooded Warbler, Swainson's Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, and Philadelphia Vireo. But the bird that caught everyone's eye was the singing Yellow-throated Vireo, in perfect late day light. Everything came together to make this the number 2 bird of the tour.

# 1) First place honors went to the Purple Gallinule. One of our participants desperately wanted to see this bird, and we had certainly put in a lot of time looking for it. We did well at Lacassine NWR, finding half a dozen of these colorful marsh dwellers. But the scene that is indelibly etched in our minds were the three birds in close proximity, apparently a female and two males. The female stood by nonchalantly as the males were engaged in a death grip with their ultra long toes wrapped around each other's neck. Toss in a lot of gallinule screaming, slashing water, and a few random feathers, and perhaps you can picture the scene. The female stepped in, the males separated, and everyone went their own way. WOW--what a show!

In 2006 we have back-to-back tours to the Gulf Coast: Dauphin Island, Alabama with Dan Watkins, 2-7 April 2006 and a repeat of the Louisiana Gallinule Mud Wrestling Adventure, 8-15 April 2006. We scheduled the tours so that you can participate in both. See you there.

 


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