Saturday, August 27, 2011

The Chair....


The other evening while we were sitting on the pier, Hubby noticed something against the far shore of the Bayou. "Someone is fishing over there." he stated. Now I admit that my eyesight is far from what it once was and I figured his must be the same. It is quite a far piece to the opposite shoreline and the evening was sort of hazy but I still could not see that this was someone fishing. At first, I thought it might have been several of the Snowy Egrets congregating on the far shore..but then I realized that it was a weird shape to be birds. We both stared at the spot for quite some time before I had the brilliant idea to use "my other eye"..the camera. With the zoom lens in place, I can take pictures of an object all the way across the Bay and still get a clear view. I was hoping this was the same and also hoping that if indeed it was a fisherman, he did not mind having nosy paparazzi snapping his picture! I took the picture and later when we viewed it, we got a good laugh at ourselves. What he thought was a boat with a fisherman and I thought was egrets, turned out to be a chair. Just a plastic lawn chair sitting on the shoreline as if someone had been taking in the view of the sunset. Where did the chair come from and how in the world did it get on the marsh edge is beyond me but there it sat. Had someone intentionally placed the chair at the water's edge? If so how? And why? To get to the water's edge from the shore side, someone would have had to traipse through about forty feet of tall marsh grass. This would not be the brightest of moves as these swampy areas are filled with Cottonmouth Moccasins, snapping turtles and even a few alligators. I know the area and still I would not dare attempt to trek through the marsh. It is not safe..nor smart. To bring the chair in by boat makes no sense either. Why in the world would anyone plop a chair in an area that is inaccessible except by boat. There is no other access to this small stretch of mud and during high tide, this is totally covered with water..it is not a "beach". I pondered the problem of the appearing chair....

The magical appearing chair!

The next day, the chair was gone. Not a trace of the plastic lawn chair remained. I scanned the Bayou..nope..not there. I peered across the Bay..nope..cannot be seen. Where, oh, where had the chair gone? Perhaps the chair had floated in on one high tide and then floated out with the next. Maybe it was bobbing around out there in the channel on its way to a new destination. There it would confuse some other poor hapless soul that espied the rogue seat. Or maybe whoever placed it there suddenly remembered that they had left their favorite chair on the mudflat. Perhaps they could not live without this highly (ahem!) valuable piece of furniture and risked life and limb crossing the marsh to retrieve it! Whatever happened, the chair was never seen again. It lives on only in the photograph!

Great Blue Heron and Great Egret..to the left a small raccoon, all three enjoying a meal of shrimp!

There was no chair on the mudflats this evening but there was an abundance of wildlife. All were taking advantage of the shallows that were teeming with shrimp. The Great Blue Heron and Great Egret were bobbing their heads almost in rhythm while a few feet from them a small raccoon grabbed shrimp with his paws. The Virginia Rail scurried along the marsh clattering the whole time. I thought to myself as I watched this wonderful nature show.."I love living on my Bayou!" Life is good.....

A Virginia Rail hunting at the shoreline.

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