Last night I heard the eeriest sounds imaginable! If I had not known better, I would have assumed that there were banshees on the roam in the Bayou! Banshees! The mournful wail that resounded in the Bayou for the better part of an hour just after dark was being answered from the nearby creek. No, I am not crazy! Maybe a bit loon-ey but not crazy! The wails were the calls of the Common Loon that I had photographed just a few hours earlier on the Bay. These haunting wails are more prevalent at night and are not "alarm" calls but are more a way of the loons to keep track of other Loons in the area. The Common Loon alarm call sounds much more like insane laughter that the mournful wail that I heard. My birds must have felt safe through the night although their wail could be heard for miles around echoing through the marshes.
It took me a while to recognize the birds as Common Loons since this pair was dressed in their winter plumage of browns and did not have the black and white patterned back. Still, Common Loons they were and I was thrilled to have them as winter visitors to the Bayou! Loons cannot take off in flight from the water like some of the other water fowl. They have to have a long "runway" and a tad of wind to airlift them! They are just too heavy without the extra boost. It is quite comical to watch them "run" on the water to gain speed..flapping their wings the whole way!
The loons I photographed had just flown in and I imagine are only here as a stopover on some migration journey as I never see too many during the summer. In a way, I wish they would stay..I do enjoy the haunting sounds of banshees in my Bayou!
Speaking of the Bayou, I trekked to where it joins the creek on the North side of the property! I have not journeyed too far into this area since the year after Hurricane Katrina. There was just too much debris to feel safe in climbing around in there at that time. Now, I was sort of taken aback at just how much lumber still remained in the creekbed. It is totally blocking off the flow of water and causing it to flood the area, making it one big, mucky mess. My son and I have decided that now is the time to start making our way down to the main creek and give it a major overhaul. I am not sure how in the world we will ever get some of the beams from the creek but we shall try. It is not going to be an easy task, but at least now we do not have to deal with all of the smaller trash that floated in with the tidal surge. This has all decomposed and has left mainly clear
lumber. The threat of snakes will increase tremendously in the next few months as they come out of hibernation so now is the time to tackle the job. I did come across one humongous snake skin shed as we were trying to pull some of the smaller limbs out of the water. I have a feeling that this monumental undertaking is going to take years!
