Winter Friends Return to the Bayou!

  I will be the first to admit that since aging, my eyesight is not what it used to be.  Without the spectacles, I probably would not be able to identify the broad side of a barn.  Things are a bit fuzzy to say the least.  A visit to my optometrist got me glasses but trying to look through them is about as bad as it gets.  I see perfectly fine if I look straight ahead...not to the left. nor to the right...not up. nor down.  I do not blame the fine doctor that prescribed the lenses but rather the bossy lady who filled the prescription.  "You just have to get used to them." was her explanation as to why I could not see any better than before getting those confounded things.  But....it is purely my fault for tossing them on the dresser and going back to my old glasses.  All of this brings me up to this morning and a case of a misidentified critter.

  Early this morning, Mark and I headed fishing.  The sun was just starting to rise in the east when I spied a fine bird roosting on my brother's pier post. Aha!  I whipped out the camera and started snapping photographs of my new-found bird!  This was unlike any bird seen on the Bayou!  It was black with a grey wing bar and brown head.  While there are several birds that could worm their way into that general color category, the shape of this one was throwing a kink in the identifying process.  Since shape is a key tool in bird ID, I was in a quandary.  The bird had a "squatty" neck!

  Still photographs were being snapped in hopes that researching the bird would lead to us knowing who was visiting.  After a good ten minutes of thinking this was a rare sighting, the bird moved.  It was!  When my fine feathered friend unfolded its long neck, its true identity became known.  This was none other than a Anhinga!  This is a first for me!  What threw me off was the fact that the bird was resting with its head tucked beneath its wing.  Duh, that was no short, squatty neck, it was a tired bird!  

  The cormorants are starting to filter into the area after their long, migration flights. I am supposing that an anhinga decided to pay the birds a visit!  All sorts of birds will soon fill the Bayou and Bay areas and stay throughout the winter months.  While most fishermen do not care for the large birds munching the minnows and little mullet (aka bait), I think they are all interestig birds.  Both the anhingas and cormorants dive better than any birds I have ever seen and have a peculiar way of "drying" their wings while resting. Obviously, this one had come in sometime during the night and found a resting spot on the pier post.  There it was relatively safe from predators and could get a much needed nap. Rest easy, Bird Friend, rest easy.  Welcome!