Eye of the Bayou!

  Somewhere deep beneath the murky waters of the Bayou, I am sure that there are critters that make themselves scarce.  They do not want to be found.  They want to live their lives in peace without the fuss and ado that folks tend to give things that are a tad unusual.  "It is giant!  Haul it ashore and kill it just so we can say we found it!"  This seems to be the mentality of a lot of folks.  Not me.  While I will be the first to keep a fish if needed for food, I refuse to kill critters just for the sake of killing it and satisfying some innate lust to be "king" (or queen) of all around me.  Nope.  I go by a mantra of live and let live.  Life is better that way.

  A couple of days ago, I spied what appeared to be a large "eye" staring up at me from beneath the shallows.  Alrighty then.  That would be an awful large eye for any critter small enough to be in about a foot of water.  I took several picture of the thing with and without the flash.  I was in hopes that whatever it was could be readily identified through the pictures.  Then an idea hit me! Perhaps whatever was glaring at me with its one eye was buried deep beneath the soft mud.  Things have been known to completely disappear in the almost quicksand like muck of the Bayou!  Pop accidentally dropped an outboard motor over the side of the boat (when he was in his 70's) and it was never found. That thing slipped out of sight and went down so far that we could never find it no matter how we prodded with poles.  Anyway, back to my  one-eyed critter.  With an eye of nigh on three inches across, the critter had to be huge!  I figured that perhaps it would not mind being nudged a bit to encourage it to move.  If it moved, maybe I could see it better and be able to identify my unknown (yet to be met) friend.  

  Mark eased the boat hook toward the "eye".  Nothing.  That critter had to be brave!  Closer...closer.  Nothing.  Not even the slightest wiggle. Hmmm...Then Mark actually touched the edge of the "eye".  Egad!  The whole thing swirled about in a sand storm of muck!  My "eye" was not an eyeball at all!  Obviously, a large clam was buried deep beneath the mud and was "squirting" water up to the surface as it fed.  Clams take in water and sediment and then "spit" out the water.  Any foodstuffs that remain are eaten and more water is taken in to repeat the process.  This clam was buried deep beneath the mud and as it "spit" the water surfaced and caused a ring around the "spit" hole.  Sediment and sand circled the hole causing the "eyeball" effect that I saw.  Pretty cool, huh? Spit on, Clam, spit on.  I will not dig you out of your home and kill you.  Keep making those "pretty eyes"!