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.
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!
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.
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