A Little Help for my Friends!

Lately, I have been writing a good bit about my critter friends here on the Bayou. I have received a lot of flak about the possibility that I am making "pets" out of these animals and that would not be healthy for them. Some folks seem to think that by hand-feeding the birds, raccoons and possums, I am depriving them of their innate ability to hunt or scavenge their own food. By these folks determination, the critters will become lazy and dependent on my handouts and will soon die. I believe differently.

I do feed a lot of the animals on the Bayou. They make me happy. I do not, however, look upon them as pets as I have far too many of those already. The wild animals are just that..wild..but for some reason seem to see me as one of them. They do not fear me nor do I fear them. We have a mutual trusting relationship. I feed them whenever I get the chance or whenever they seem to be hungry but that is as far as it goes.

The newest of my friends is a Clapper Rail. A couple of mornings ago, I headed to the pier sans Ezzy, the dog. She had decided that her warm bed was much more comfortable than a cold, wet pier. As I walked down the board path to the pier, I noticed a largish bird fishing in the small washout place near the base of the pier. The bird was busy trying to catch breakfast in the before dawn darkness. Minnows were scarce though as the cold weather had driven them to deeper water. Thinking that the bird would surely scurry off into the marsh as I neared, I made no effort to hide my footsteps. Instead of darting into the reeds, the bird just stared at me when I stepped up onto the pier. After getting directly above the bird, I sat down on the pier to watch. Oh, how many problems the poor bird was having. It would swish its beak back and forth in the water trying to scare up breakfast but this seemed to be futile.

After watching a bit, I rose and headed to the end of the pier. Here there was a bit more water and small mullet were running in schools. A thought hit me..I could supply the Rail with breakfast! A few tiny mullet were caught in the net and then, camera in one hand and squiggly mullet in the other, I headed back to see if the Rail would still be there. Sure enough, the bird was right where I had left it. The first mullet was tossed to the bird..a distance of about five feet. Breakfast was served!

By the time I had just one mullet left, the Clapper Rail had come with arm's reach. I held the last fish out to it and sure enough...SNATCH! The bird took its meal from my hand! It seemed to sense that minnow was the last. The Rail looked at me, did a funny little shuffle with its feet and darted into the marsh grass.

A few days later, the bird was back in the same place. I, again, sat on the pier and talked to my friend. Following the same idea as before, I tried to catch a few mullet but none could be found. I had to go back and tell my friend that breakfast would be bleak that morning. After showing it that I had empty hands, the Rail slipped into the marsh chattering all the while. It was chastising me for my poor attempts at fishing. I headed to the house to raid the freezer of a few shrimp. I thought perhaps I could make amends but when I returned to the spot..no bird. It had gone elsewhere in search of a meal.

I am sure that soon the Clapper Rail will visit again. Maybe then, I will have better luck at fishing and can share my catch. As you can see, I have no qualms about feeding my Bayou friends as I do not think it harms them one bit. Most likely, even with the folks trying to find fault with this activity, I will continue to help my friends survive the winter months.