There is no water!

  My goodness!   When one thinks of a bayou, usually a bit of water winding through marsh comes to mind.  When one thinks of a bay, usually a large inlet of water comes to mind.  Not today.  Today, there was no water.  Nope.  The Bayou and the Back Bay were almost devoid of the wet stuff.  The water was gone...nowhere to be seen...vamoosed.  Overnight, the water had disappeared almost into thin air.  Where has all of the water gone?

  While there is definitely a lack of water here, it is no mystery.  Overnight, a cold front made its way southward until the north wind visited the Bayou.  It blew and blew.  Limbs crashed to the ground, outdoor furniture toppled and the water disappeared.  The north wind blew the water far out into the Gulf of Mexico and left mudflats nigh on as far as you could see.  Mud!  Lovely, mushy, quicksand-like mud now was laid bare by the winds.

The red arrow shows how far out the water was from the end of the pier this morning.  Mud flats!

  It always amazes me when this happens.  It is interesting to see what hides beneath the murky waters of the Bayou and Back Bay.  Exposed were all of the logs, derelict crab traps that (irresponsible) people leave behind and garbage that (stupid) people dump into the water.  Also to be seen was the myriad of critter tracks left behind by those in search of an easy meal.  Raccoons, fox, otters, herons, egrets and any other hungry critter could dine upon small fish and crustaceans trapped in the small puddles.  

  By late afternoon, the winds died down and the water returned to normal.  The temperatures started plummeting as soon as the sun set behind the pines and we will be witnesses to a tad bit of winter...albeit a short lived bit of winter.   With the cold tonight, the critters will surely appreciate the feast they found on the mudflats.  With their bellies full, they can hunker down in some snug spot and wait for the chill to pass.  I plan on doing the same.