Mud Circles!

And now we have another enigma of the Bayou....crop circles! Granted these are not your normal, everyday, run-of-the-mill crop circles that are found in the middle of some wheat field or corn field! These are found entirely in the Bayou! No, no, no...not in the marsh...in the mud! Perhaps I am fudging a bit in calling them crop circles unless our visiting aliens were harvesting....seaweed? Who knows????? Anyway, I discovered the circles this morning when Ezzy, the mutt, and I made out morning trek to the pier. She was intent on staring down the otter that was out fishing in the early morn's mist and I was aimed at photographing a lone heron that was perched on a small stump far out from the marsh. The tide was extremely low making the mudflats go on seemingly forever! I did not see my..lets say.."mud circles" at first since the sun had not made its way above the horizon yet.

After taking a few pictures of the heron, I began to see the circles. The standing water in each concentric circle gave off a faint glimmer as the sun rose. Then as the eastern sky brightened, I was amazed at the number of circles! As far as I could tell, there were six pairs of circles between the pier and the mouth of the Bayou. Each outer circle was about forty feet in diameter and about eight feet inside was another smaller circle. The individual circle path looked to be at least a foot wide and perhaps three inches deep. To get an idea of how they were positioned..just imagine a car making a huge "donut". The path of the wheels would make something similar to these circles. (So maybe these aliens drive cars under water! snicker, snicker!) All these circles were connected by "rays" that were just sort of randomly placed here and there.

All in all, the pattern was rather intricate and I cannot imagine this being some natural occurrence caused by the tide. Also, it is hard for me to imagine some animal..say maybe the otter..causing these perfectly round circles and surely this mud is far too soft (think quicksand almost) to support any kind of vehicle. I am just at a loss of the origin of the "mud circles". They were interesting to say the least but unlike crop circles in a field, these would not last. The tide was rising quickly and the circles would be gone forever. I am just sorry that I had no high vantage point from which to take better photographs. I could see the circles and rays but the camera just would not focus clearly on them nor could I get the full spectrum of the circles in one shot. Even with the overlapping of the design it was a good hundred and fifty feet across. At least I managed to snap a few pictures so I could convince others that I was not imagining this! Mud Circles...what next! Ahhh, the wonders of living on the Bayou! Mud Circles!