March 15 SwampTour

Thursday, March 15

Another cool evening, but good for sleeping last night.

Greg goes to have coffee and talk with the Welcome Center folks when it opens at 8:30.  He gets some more literature and maps and talks about free places to camp, most of which are north of I-10.  Cereal,  bananas and blueberries for breakfast and then we head to our Swamp Tour location on Rookery Road in Breaux Bridge.

We arrive a little early, so drive along Lake Martin and take a few photos.  We run into some other photographers who share information on other locations for birding and point out several tree ducks.  We can see many egrets in trees, but they are too far away for good photos. Part of this area is controlled and protected by the Nature Conservancy.

We meet our guide, Bryce, at the local boat launch. He grew up here and seems very knowledgeable about the area. Beautiful day, temp around 70, sunshine and blue sky!

There are 6 of us in Bryce's small boat. Greg and I and a family of four from eastern Texas.
Lots of cypress trees and tupelo trees, both of which grow in the water.   Parts of the water are covered with a light green powder, which I thought at first was pollen.  Turns out it is a grass, called duck weed.  It is not native here but very invasive, and Bryce says there are many theories as to how it got here - boats, birds, animals, etc. It is a problem and it, along with water hyacinth, are both being battled. Non-native  nutria were originally brought here to eat the grasses, but they became a real hazard too and multiply like crazy. They have gotten rid of the nutria in this area (the alligators probably help), but they still thrive in other areas (including a pond only a few miles from our house).  They are considering bringing in yet another non-native critter - a beetle - to eat the grasses.

We soon spot a great blue heron, along with several egrets.  Then we begin to see alligators - a few sunning on logs and some swimming.

Bryce says the largest ones around here are 14', though like fish stories, you hear a lot of alligator stories of huge ones.  It is getting near breeding time, so he says you see more of them lately and there will be some bellowing and fighting as the males battle.  But today they are laid back.

He says that the number of inches between the gator's eyes and its snout is roughly the length of the gator in feet.  Also, the tail is about half the length.  The area is closed in June and July as that is nesting and birth time.  A female will lay 40-60 eggs and 80% will hatch.  But the number that make it to 3 feet in length is small.  They are eaten by various birds and by other gators.

We also see a bald eagle eating a fish, a few osprey, gorgeous (and elusive)red-headed pileated woodpeckers, and a few black-capped night herons. 

  Many red-eared turtles as well.  No snakes, although Bryce rattles off a long list of ones we might see.  This gator is sharing a log with a large turtle.... if the turtle was small, he may have been lunch!

 The Spanish moss gets its nutrients from the air and does not injure the trees it grows on.  It looks grey, but when put into water and hydrated it turns a pale green.

Bryce steers the boat into a duck blind.  Duck hunting is extremely popular here.

  He also pulls up a barrel trap for crawfish and shows us teeth and a scute from an alligator.  The scutes are a row of protective plates that cover the backbone of the alligator.

Quite an extraordinary world - a different kind of beauty.

 It would be interesting to see it a month or so from now when the trees are green.  We see nary a mosquito - just a few may flies in one shady area and Bryce says they usually aren't bad on the water.   All in all a very interesting two hours and we'd happily recommend Swamp Tours of Acadiana.

We drive the back roads a bit more and find the Nature Conservancy office, which is closed.  But we can walk a wooden boardwalk nature trail.

 And then weave our way to the freeway and head westward.  It will be about a 5 hour drive to home.  Beth makes sandwiches and works on the computer as Greg navigates busy I-10 traffic.  Great get-away!

Wednesday, March 14 More LA

Wednesday, March 14

We had read about Rob’s Donuts as THE place for beignets here in Thibodaux , so head there for breakfast.  Unfortunately they are OUT.  But we manage to find some very tasty substitutes, as well as coffee.

Next stop is Jean LaFitte National Historical Park & Preserve.  A nice location on the bayou, they have a local museum about Cajuns, as well as a helpful information center.  There is a confluence of  Bayou Fourchet and Bayou Terrebonne which is where a fort originally stood.   The Acadians, French who were forced to leave Nova Scotia’s English settlement during “The Great Upheaval”, settled here in 1765-1785.  Other French, German, Spanish and American Indians also stirred this melting pot, resulting in Cajun Acadiana.  A patois of French is still spoken by many.  

 The Cajuns are well known for their boat building, sugarcane crops and their Cajun and Zydeco music.  Jazz which found a home in nearby New Orleans didn’t flourish here.  The Cajuns have a reputation for working hard and playing hard, with music and dance being a big part of the playing.

 

On advice from Allyn, the Park Ranger here, we decide to head south to Houma and even further south to the Gulf.  Allyn raves about the scenery and wildlife in the area and so we head out towards LUMCO – Louisiana Universities Marene Consortium – a research center open to the public and a “must see” down that way.

Once we leave Houma, which is mainly a support city for Oil and Gas exploriation and companies, we follow along Petit Bayou Caillou.  Few actual cities, but a pretty steady line of homes and boats along the bayou.  Many shrimp boats as we near the Gulf.  

 Here is one of the many drawbridges in which the roadway lifts directly upward.  All these bayous plus all these boats = many drawbridges.

The homes and the boats come in all shapes and sizes.

We stop next at the Chauvin Sculpture Garden in Chauvin,  a collection of sculptures created by an artist named Kenny Hill.   While looking around there, we hear a local explain that Mr. Hill lived on this property in a tent and devoted his life to creating his sculpture.  Apparently, a Mr. Nichols (a local politician of some sort – there is a college named after him in Thibodaux) had Mr. Hill declared incompetent because he refused to build a house and had some pretty unusual art,  and took his land, then donated it to the parish.  A big  controversy at the time.  Mr. Hill left and developed a bit of a cult following, as folks from all over come to see his sculpture which has something to do with his take on the book of Revelations.  Lots of angels, along with cowboys, Indians, musicians and others.  Unique.

This is the artist’s self sculpture.

Before long we reach the end of the road and the LUMCO buildings and grounds.  There are a few aquariums, a viewing tower, and informational displays.  We learn that 90% of Terrebonne Parish is covered by wetlands or open water and that statewide there over 200,000 commercial fisherman.  The top 5 fisheries are for Gulf menhaden (an oily fish not consumed but used in commercial fish & livestock food), shrimp, blue crab, oysters and other finfish.  Much of the research here is done to learn how to manage this land which co-exists with a large oil and gas industry.   We aren’t sure why Allyn thought this was such an amazing place. Interesting, yes, but not imho, worth the drive.

 We opt to head back north by a different route, along Grand Bayou Caillou.  Pretty, open, empty wetland for a while, then back to stilted homes, boats, and some industry. Lots of oil field support companies.

Away from the coast, large oak trees appear.  Some must be quite old.  There are also many above-ground cemeteries.  This pic shows both at St. Luke’s Baptist Church somewhere along 182N.

We stop at Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge in Houma and walk the nature trail.  It is by now mid afternoon and “not a creature was stiring” other than an egret or two and some giant snails (about 3 inches long), and this interesting bird.

Since we have a swamp tour scheduled near Breaux Bridge tomorrow morning, we head that direction, about a two hour drive to the Atchafalaya Welcome Center which has a nice facility for overnighting.  But first, we stop for some more good food.  Greg opts for crawfish étouffée, while Beth has crab and shrimp gumbo and a yummy crab cake. (Forgot the pic till it was almost gone)