Gators, Otters and Blue Crabs

   About midafternoon, my brother yelled across the yard "The gator is at your pier.  You were just asking about it and now it has come to see you."  That was my cue to head to the pier!  For some odd reason, the alligators still thrill me just as they did when I was a kid.  The photo ops with the alligator did not go as expected as the critter stayed just far enough away from me to make clear shots a no-go.  After a few weeks, it will, once again, become accustomed to my presence and will not be quite so wary.  Plus, a neighbor decided that it was an opportune time to run his big boat around the Bay which left the gator even more uneasy.

  The odd thing about the pier visit was that, along with the gator, there were two otters nearby.  Either the otters were unaware of the nine foot long  alligator's presence or they just did not care.  The pair were busy raiding my brother's crab traps!  Once they each had their meal, the duo swam toward the pier.  They did not even notice me until they were within ten feet.  Then, one looked straight at me with crab in mouth!  Crazy otters!  After checking me, they both opted to hide in the marsh to crunch their prizes.

  All in all, the time was enjoyable even if the pictures taken were not the best.  It is nice to see old friends after the winter has passed.

Murky Waters, Murky Skies

  I will be the first to tell you that the waters of the Bayou are quite murky.  Hearing of the clear, bluish-green water of other places almost seems surreal to me since I have never witnessed that.  Our water is muddy and. at times, has a sort of golden tint due to clay that is washed down through the creeks.  We are accustomed to it but visitors are sometimes taken aback thinking it is polluted.  Nope, it is brackish.  There is a difference.  

  This morning, a heavy fog laid in across the Bay and Bayou almost entirely blocking out the sunrise.  When the sun did try to peep through, the best it could do was tint everything the same gold of the water.  Honestly, it was difficult to tell where one ended and the other began as the color was so similar.  Perhaps, we also have brackish fog!

  As far as I could tell, the only other critter out during this drippy mess was a lone crab sidling along under the pier.  He seemed to be just about as fogged out as I was.

Oddly Enough....

  It was strange.  While on the pier early this afternoon, I heard a very clear rasping sound.  It almost sounded as if someone was crunching potato chips but no one was in the area, so this could not be.  Oddly enough, the sound was coming from the water and not the marsh.  Well, strange things always need investigating so I plopped down on the pier to be nearer the water.

  Since we have been have lots of rain, the water is clear making it quite easy to find the source of the crackle.  A blue crab was clinging to a barnacle encrusted board that was used to stabilize the small skiff.  That raspy sound was the crab's claws on the barnacles.  Oh, my!  The blue crab was actually raking out the small critter inside the shell.  The crab was dining on barnacles!  

  Barnacles, themselves, are arthropods and are actually kin to crabs and lobsters.  I never knew that the crabs would eat the barnacles but, then again, crabs eat most anything.  Apparently, this fellow was hungry enough to work for his snack.  So, barnacles were on the menu.

  The mystery was solved!  I now have a new tidbit of useless information to pass along to visitors to the Bayou.  That's what makes life interesting...useless information!  It is the stuff you can twist and turn to make tall tales seem much taller!

Cute Little Rascals!

  The Bayou seems to be the source of never-ending discoveries.  Whether it be from the life found within or from that washed ashore by a storm, new things can be found each day.  This morning, those new things were truly "new".  Mark and I were checking the crab traps and soft-shell boxes when I found something far more interesting.  Baby crabs!  Yep, teeny, tiny crabs were clinging to the boxes.  They had obviously just molted into their true crabby form and sought safety from the wooden boxes.  It was quite the amazing and humbling sight to see something so tiny trying to survive in this wild (and sometimes cruel) world.

  Blue crab eggs hatch into something that looks far different than the shape we all know.  This larvae sort of floats around with the waves for a month or so.  It munches pretty much on a diet of plankton until its next molt which makes it look a bit more like its parents but is rather elongated.  This tiny tot rides the tides into places like the Bayou where it food is plentiful.  Once there, it eats and eats until it molts again and this time, it is a miniature version of its parents.  At this stage, it is only about twice the size of a pin head!  The wee crab must find lots more food in order to continue to grow and molt but it also has to keep a wary eye out for predators!  Just about every other critter in the Bayou is bigger than it at this point!

  While it was fascinating to observe the tiny crabs, it was also very reassuring.  If the Bayou and surrounding Bay area is home to millions of baby crabs, the waters must be healthy.  The Bayou is flourishing with the cutest, little rascals ever!

 

Nothing Goes To Waste

  Back in the day, I was taught never to waste anything.  If something broke, you repaired it.  If something was not longer needed as its original purpose, you made it into something else.  You repaired, reused or repurposed everything.  Items were saved because money was tight back on the farm.  Nowadays, we live in a throwaway society. People cringe at the thought of reusing items or remaking items but that was not the norm years ago.  Now, as garbage dumps are overflowing, folks have a toss it attitude even when things can still be used.  I guess I still cannot break the train of thought that "Put it up. Some day, you made need that!" drilled into my head.  To this day, waste is a pet peeve of mine.  Use it until it is gone.  Make it over to be useful again.  Give it second life.  

  Critters on the Bayou are much the same.  They make do.  They use what they find.  They do not waste.  Just this afternoon, I noticed critters making use of something that others had tossed the wayside. The family of otters are great scavengers that will crack open and eat the mollusks that are embedded in the marsh.  It only takes a second for them to crack the shell, fish out the tasty treat and go on to the next one.  Once they drop the (almost) empty shell, others that cannot crack the shells, feast upon the remnants.  I observed as a small crab was pulling the shreds of mollusk from the now opened shell.  The little crab was a happy camper at his good fortune.  He would not go hungry tonight!  Once the crab had gotten his fill and buried down in the mud for a rest, a school of bull minnows raided the shell.  The shell was flipped, turned, uprighted and twisted.  Every tiny tidbit was being pulled from the mollusk shell. The minnows were in a feeding frenzy! Dozens of the wee fish fought over each and every scrap until the shell was pulled clean.  Nothing was wasted.  The shell sat empty.  That empty shell, itself, will not go to waste.  Algae will grow on the shell and Olive Nerites will harvest this as their food. Over time, the shell will slowly sink beneath the mud and give stability to the shoreline.  The marsh grass will become better rooted because of the presence of the shells making erosion from tides and storms less likely.  As the shell eventually deteriorates,  calcium is returned into the soil.  Nothing goes to waste.

  If only people could follow the example set forth by Mother Nature, this world would be a far better place.  There is no need to constantly replace what can be used again.  Waste is a terrible thing.  I think I will stick with the teaching of those long ago.  Reuse, repurpose, repair or recycle. My critter friends are onto something good here.

Watch Those Claws!

  The other day while on the pier, my cousin called my attention to two blue crabs that were clinging to an old bait barrel just below the water. The large male crab had a much smaller female in his clutches as they mated.  She obviously had just shed and was still in the "paper shell" stage.  This is when most of the mating occurs with the huge male protecting the tiny female as her shell hardens.  With his gigantic claws waving about threateningly, not too many predators are going to take a chance at a crab dinner.  Even other crabs (who will cannibalize the another crab during the soft shell stage), stay far away.  They do not want to do battle with a dominant male.

  This pair are pushing the season a bit as crabs usually mate anywhere from May to October.  Here it was nigh on November.  The warm winters we have here on the Bayou sometimes confuses the critters, I suppose. Soon though, the crabs will move to deeper water and vacate the shallows.  There the waters are warmer and even if Mama Crab hatches her eggs, the little ones should fair well.  

  It is always a good sign when wildlife reproduces.  Seeing the crabs made me think that the Bay's water must be relatively clear of pollutants. Most of the sea life will head out to the Gulf of Mexico if the water in the bays and bayous is not in a healthy state.  The sighting of the crabs gives me hope that perhaps things are going right with my little Bayou.

What??????

  With all of the rain of recent days, strange things have been happening on the Bayou.  One in particular sticks out sort of like that proverbial sore thumb.  The other morning saw me up with the birds.  I was having to get outside chores accomplished in between the rainstorms and it seemed that right at daybreak, the weather was clear.  As I stepped outside the front door, I immediately knew something was amiss.  Right there on the board path was a crab.  This was not some small fiddler crab that wandered up from the marsh but rather a nice sized blue crab.  It is not likely that this fellow wandered all the way up the hillside just to pay me a visit!

  As I poked at the poor (dead) crab, I pondered just how in the world that thing wound up practically on my doorstep.  Had some critter thought to share its supper with me?  Perhaps the heron that I nursed back to health decided to repay me.  Maybe a large predator such as a coyote or fox caught the poor, hapless crab and then dropped it when Ms. Ez, the Bayou Dog started barking furiously at it.  On the other hand, a large predatory bird such as a hawk could have snatched up the crab and flew over the house.  Maybe the crab reached up and clamped down on the bird's leg causing it to drop its catch.  That catch (the crab) just happened to fall right in the Rose Garden with the impact killing it.  So sad.  Whatever, I now had to deal with a dead crab.

  I still must say that finding a usually water-based crab inside the confines of the garden fence was a bit confusing.  Well, I figured that it deserved to be returned to the Bay so I toted it to the pier and gave it a proper "burial at sea", also known as, chunking it into the water.  Goodbye crab!

Worth its weight in gold!

Living on the Bayou, I am constantly surrounded by all sorts of things to do with the water.  The Little Bayou House is more or less decorated like some sort of fishing camp.  This is not to be confused with the trendy "seaside" type decor that you see in all of the popular home decorating magazines but rather..a real "working" fishing camp.  I don't really mind and actually have come to embrace all of the trappings that go along with fishing/crabbing/shrimping.  So much so that today, I pondered just how to display a crab shell!  When I checked the crab traps a few days ago, one nice sized crab had shed his shell.  I was a bit too late to get him in his "soft-shell" stage so I just let him finish the process of hardening.  His castoff shell was still in the trap and this, my friends, was a source of interest.  I toted the discarded thing up the hillside to let it dry in the sun.

Now came the problem of displaying the empty exoskeleton.  The sun-drying had caused the shell to lose much of its bluish color. The crab's shell was more of a golden brown making it not have much appeal.  Michael was building me a case to use in displaying the crab and suggested that I repaint the crab to its original colors.  Ok...this was far easier said than done.  I have painted crabs on canvas and on gourds to some degree of satisfaction but painting an entire crab shell..legs, claws, shell..the whole thing, was a different story.  It looked HORRIBLE!   My crab received an instant bath!  I let the thing sun-dry again.  Ugh!  It faded even more.  Now, it was more of a sick, washed out gold..a far cry from the beautiful blues and greens that a live crab would have.  I pondered again.  Michael looked at the crab and said something about the crab "looks like a gold bug".  Aha!  What an idea! If you cannot recreate the original..go for the obvious! My crab took a hike outside and received a coat of gold paint!  It looked a whole lot better painted gold.

 I have to admit that this crab would never receive any accolades as a piece of art but still, if I want to display it, gold is better than "blech"!  Also, it is most definitely NOT worth its weight in gold.  It is probably not even worth a plug nickel to anyone except me.  After all this work, I had better like it!  The "Golden Crab" will hang in the entryway with all of the other neat finds from the Bayou!

The Perils of Life on the Bayou

Life on the Bayou is usually a pretty laid back existence...except if you are one of the critters that inhabit the area. Then daily trials begin and end with the ability to eat but not be eaten. It is a constant struggle for most of the animals. The food chain can be dangerous! This morning early, the Bottlenose Dolphins were busy hunting mullet. These mammals work together to corral the fish. They made huge loping circles around the mullet schooling them in tight wads. Once they had a good many in one area, the feeding would begin. The dolphins would dive deep and come up under the mullet. Their huge swells would send mullet jumping every which way. The dolphins would even toss mullet high above the water. Again and again, they would chase the mullet into a tight mass only to devour them. This large, marine mammal is near (if not at) the top of the food chain in the Bay. I love watching the teamwork of the dolphins.

I could not get a clear picture of the Bald Eagle that was fishing for mullet. The eagle was following along after the dolphin pod. It was in hopes of catching a fish for its breakfast but these hopes were dashed when another raptor intervened. The Osprey decided that there were not enough fish in the Bay for the Bald Eagle to have any so it started darting at the larger bird. Again and again, it swooped at the eagle. Eventually, the Bald Eagle gave up on the fish and headed inland. The Osprey had won the fishing rights to the Bay and soon took up the Bald Eagle's game. The mullet were in constant danger from both below the water and the sky above.

A bit later near the marsh edge, another bit of the food chain was at work. Crabs usually eat whatever they can find that is already dead. Occasionally, they will catch small minnows and fish but more likely than not, they are the prey. When the crabs are small, most everything eats them. Most fish love dining on small crabs, shore birds will eat every one they can catch and even other crabs will make a meal of their neighbor. When the Blue Crab is in its soft-shell stage (when it is shedding its old shell), it is easy prey for anything that wishes to have a meal. The crab at this point is powerless to escape much less defend itself. For hours on end, the crab depends purely on luck to survive. It is helpless...but it is a different story when it is in its hard-shell stage. Then the prey can become the predator as was the case this morning.

A crab was easily seen in the about four inches of water near the marsh. This crab had hunted down and caught its meal for the day. It had actually caught another predator. The crab was scooting itself out into deeper water where it immediately buried itself and its dinner in the soft mud. At first glance, I was not sure just what in the world the crab had in its claws. The glint of the sun on the water made it difficult to see but once the crab was in the shade of the marsh grass, things were different. This Blue Crab had a death hold on my little Garter Snake! It was heading to deeper water to drown the snake! My poor little snake friend had succumbed to the food chain of the Bayou! Never once had it occurred to me that crabs would eat snakes! Good bye, Little Snake!

~Today was Hubby's birthday! We celebrated by having a perfectly lazy day! As much as the hallway needed finishing, we decided that fishing was much more important! I wish I could say that he caught this large red fish today but sorry, this is one from a fishing trip this past winter. (I just liked this picture!) Everyone needs a day like this! Happy Birthday, Mark! ~

Biloxi Bacon

While on the pier today catching minnows for my friendly Night Heron, I caught a rather nice size mullet. No..not the hairstyle mullet, rather the fish mullet. It was a beauty and soon became lunch. This mullet actually started me thinking about the term "Biloxi Bacon". This is a moniker attached to this fish and not many people realize the history behind the name. According to historians this fish was labelled "Biloxi Bacon" back during the Civil War. The Union troops had taken over nearby Ship Island and had a blockade on the Gulf of Mexico. The citizens of Biloxi protected the city from invasion by some pretty inventive measures. Only a very few older men and some young boys were left to defend the city with no weapons. With only their ingenuity to work with, they set up logs in the sand on the beach facing Ship Island. From a distance, these logs appeared to be cannons making the Union soldiers think the city was well armed. But..with the blockade on the Gulf, much needed supplies could not be brought into the city. And ingenuity was at work again..the local people survived by fishing the inland waters for the plentiful mullet. Usually served with grits and eggs the fish soon became known as "Biloxi Bacon". To this day, many locals still claim that the best way to serve mullet is fried crisp with a side of grits and scrambled eggs. It is popular to head out to the water early in the morning to throw a cast net, catch a "mess of mullet" and then hurry in to clean and fry them. Mullet are best served fresh, whether with the grits and eggs, potato salad and hush puppies or cold slaw and baked beans! A true Coast meal! And for those who do not know, hush puppies are a fried cornmeal concoction that is a must at every fish-fry. So you can easily see that the mullet is a staple here in Biloxi, not only on our table but also in our folklore.

Another staple on the Coast, that in some places is considered a delicacy, is the soft-shell crab. Here on the Bayou, we catch Blue Crabs. They are usually caught in "pots" (wire traps), hand lines or crab nets. Occasionally these crabs shed their hard shells and can be found in their "soft" state. This is after they have crawled from their hard exoskeleton or shell and their new shell has not hardened yet. They do this out of necessity since they outgrow their existing shell. At the soft stage they are particularly vulnerable to predators. Being soft, they have no control of their usually menacing claws and literally cannot move to hide. It is easy to just pick up a softshell crab and many people do that when floundering (spearing flounders) while wading in the shallow water on the beach. It is an interesting sight to see the lanterns bobbing along the water during flounder and softshell season. When checking our pots today, I found a nice plump one just finishing his molt. When eating a softshell crab not much is wasted. You merely cut off parts such as the head , lungs and apron. Interesting fact..the lungs are given the nickname of "Dead Man's Fingers" since that is sort of what they resemble! That done, you cook and eat the entire crab..shell, legs and all! After cleaning this one, he was placed in the skillet along side the aforementioned mullet!