Stealth Fishing!

   Earlier today, I gathered together a bunch of table scraps to put out for the critters.  With the cold, rainy weather we are having, the critters are extremely appreciative of the easy meal.  I only wish I had enough to set out a buffet for all of them.  While I was scattering the pecan hulls, fruit peels and other goodies, a flash of white caught my eye.  Down by the pier, a gorgeous Great White Egret was working the mudflats.  That bird was smart!  The tide had been pushed far out from the marsh leaving only tiny puddles on the flats.  Thousands of tiny bull minnows had become trapped in the inch deep puddles.   They would have been fine had they not come out to bask in the few moments of sunshine.   Normally, these tiny minnows can hide in the soupy mud and escape the certain death that awaits at the whim of the bird.  That sunshine and its warmth lured the minnows to clear water and that meant their demise. 

  The Great White Egret is a stealth hunter meaning that it can stand motionless until the minnows are within range.  Then with precise aim, the daggerlike beak is plunged down and the bird enjoys a fishy lunch.  This afternoon, the bird could be seen catching minnow after minnow.  Its belly will be full tonight and that will help ward off the cold.  After snapping a few photos, I scurried back to the warmth of the Little Bayou House and left my critter friends to enjoy their meals.  

Mosquito Munchers!

  Early this afternoon, I took a break from painting the arbor that Son just built.  It is a fine arbor that is to replace the termite-ridden one.  Painting anything around here always seems to be my job.  I do not mind but this afternoon, I needed a break from the ladder so the pier called.  While there, I noticed that the tide was really low.  In fact, what we call "The Cut" (a small inlet) was completely empty.  Only a few small puddles remained on the mudflats but those puddles were teaming with minnows.  The bull minnows (Gulf Killifish) had obviously hatched a few days back and were happily enjoying the warm weather until the north wind pushed the tide far out from shore.  Now they were stranded in tiny puddles.  There was no exit to larger bodies of water and this put them in extreme danger.  The little minnows were trapped and were literally "sitting ducks".  Any birds that wanted a quick and easy meal could catch its fill in a matter of minutes.  It is amazing that any survive these low tides.

  Gulf Killifish are resilient little critters.  They usually live in the brackish waters but can easily adapt to fresh or salty water.  As in their case today, they can also adapt to live in hardly no water!  In fact, those that get stranded on the mudflats will simply wiggle down beneath the sloppy mud and wait for the tide to come in again.  The fish can go for hours on end hovering just beneath the mud.  Another strange fact that shows their hardiness is that often after a female lays her eggs, they become stuck to marsh grass.  If the tide goes out (like the past few days), the eggs are suspended with no water.  They can last for up to two weeks and still be viable!  When the tide does fill the marsh again, the eggs are able to hatch and the baby fish show no ill effects from being high and dry.

  It was good to see so many baby bull minnows in the puddles today but I hope that they survive.  These little fish are good for our health.  One of the most important parts of their diet is the mosquito larva.  A single adult killifish can devour hundreds of mosquito larvae in a day.  Not only is this highly important in view of the disease that mosquitoes can carry but, for any of us living around here, it means a few less mosquitoes to aggravate us.  We owe a big thank you to this tiny fish!

Using Your Wits

  Here on the Bayou, life is all about survival of the fittest.  If a weak or sickly critter is meandering about, it becomes food for something stronger.  If a critter is a bit dull witted, a smarter predator is there waiting for it.  This goes on night and day.  At night, you can hear the tussle of critters as they fight for the right to the territory.  The strongest of critters get the good nesting sites and the right to choose their mates.  The weaker ones either are killed or move to a different area.  The squeals and cries of those not strong, are reminiscent of a horror movie at times.  It is not much different during the daytime hours.  Predators abound...some are strong...some depend on their wits...but other critters have to be wary at all times.

  Just today, I watched a few of the wilier ones at work.  While I was not near enough to get photographs of the largest of the bunch, I knew exactly what was occurring.  With the northwest wind whipping about, I knew there would be a low tide. The critters knew this as well.  They are cunning and watch the weather changes.  An otter had made deep slides in the mudflats.  These slides were several inches deep and about a foot wide.  A mishmash of trails literally created a maze in the mud.  The otter was aware that the bull minnows are not the brightest of critters so she created this maze to catch her supper.  She has little ones in the marsh nearby and cannot leave the nest for long to fish.  Her fishing now would rely on this trap.  The dimwitted bull minnows would dawdle about long enough for the tide to trap them in the maze of ruts.  Once the exits were cutoff by lack of water, the minnows would aimlessly go round and round in the maze searching for deeper water.  There was none.  The only water to be found was in the otter slides.  Now it was like catching fish in a barrel for the otter.

  Mama Otter was not the only one smart enough to use the maze to catch her dinner.  A small Gulf Saltmarsh Snake had slipped out of the marsh to patiently way for the minnows to turn a curve in the maze.  The snake would dart in and grab a minnow.  As it swallowed the first one, the minnows frantically swam through the maze only to wind up right back in front of the little snake.  It did not take long before the snake had eaten its fill of minnows.  It then relaxed a bit in the warm sunshine.

  Had the otter visited her maze trap and found the little snake, she would have happily munched it as well as the trapped minnows.  The snake was smart enough to quickly dart back under the roots of the marsh grass when it heard the splashing of the otter.  Both had used their intelligence to gather a meal for the day.  The otter will be back out again tomorrow but since another cool front is coming with the winds, the little snake will stay snug.  Its belly is full so it will wait out the next few days safe and sound under the roots.  Life goes on with the strongest and most intelligent surviving.

Like a Sitting Duck

  Life on the Bayou can be perilous at times.  There are always predators on the prowl looking for an easy meal.  It is a wise move to take precaution and be alert.  I feel more at ease with the old dog on my hikes as one never knows what might be just around the bend.  Several times before PJ came to stay with us, I walked up on coyotes and once a bobcat.  I was fortunate that these potential predators were curious but not vicious.  They kept their distance as did I.  Plus, the alligators. cottonmouths and snapping turtles can give nasty bites given a chance so it just pays to be wary at all times.  

  Not all predators are easily evaded, though.  This afternoon, the tide was low..so low that the mudflats were fully exposed.  Tiny rivulets were all that connected one shallow tide pool to another.  More oft than not, these rivulets were formed by a snake that had slithered across the mudflats in search of a quick meal.  The shallow tide pools were mere puddles in the mud.  These were not fit for any living critter but were, indeed, housing thousands of minnows.  The small bull minnows had become trapped by the falling tide and did not make it to deeper water.  They were stranded.  

  The stranded minnows were like sitting ducks.  Any predator seeking that noontime meal had easy pickings.  While I was watching the minnows frantically trying to skim across the mud to the next puddle, a small garter snake came out of the marsh and wiggled its way to the first puddle.  It was no hard task for the garter snake to catch a minnow....then another...and another. Watching the garter snake feast made me think of how easy it would be for a heron or egret to eat its fill from the very same puddles.  Raccoons, rice rats, otters, turtles, birds snakes and crabs make use of the low tide to fill their bellies.  It is a matter of survival of the fittest.  Had the minnows not lingered in the shallows, they would have been able to reach deeper waters and safety.  Now they were sitting ducks that had nowhere to go.  I started to attempt a "Catch and Release" program but, then, thought better.  Yes, it was a sure death situation (by their own doing) for the bull minnows but the other critters were able to survive merely on this mistake.  The little garter snake soon had its fill and slithered into the marsh to rest....far away from predators!

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.

Minnows and Frogs for Hire!

  Well, now.  A notice was posted that mosquitoes in our area are testing positive as carriers of the West Nile Virus.  We were told to do the usual commonsense things such as empty containers of standing water, use some sort of mosquito repellent, stay indoors in the evenings and use screens on the windows.  I've got most of those covered!  After each rain, the standing water is emptied.  My supply of vanilla is dwindling since I found that it helps in repelling the rascals so I must get more!  By the time evening rolls around, I am exhausted from chores so I am pretty much indoors.  Window screens have always been a must on the Bayou since we have pretty much every kind of insect just waiting to come inside.  We are doing our part!

  Then, there is the Bayou.  That would be rather hard to drain after a rain or any other time.  Sorry but some things are just out of my hands.  I cannot be responsible for the wiggletails, aka mosquito larvae, that are there in hoards.  Mosquitoes and bayous go hand in hand and there is not a lot you can do to remedy that situation.  Mother Nature will just have to do her part with that.  Did I mention window screens???  They sure do come in handy!

  The Frog Pond, on the other hand, is not a problem.  A dozen or so baby bull minnows were tossed in there back during early spring and now have grown to several inches in length.  The minnows are keeping the frog pond free of any larvae and are happy campers in their virtually predator free living space.  Between those and the frogs, the little pond is a pretty happy place. This afternoon while I was out back, I noticed that the frogs must be feasting upon the adult mosquitoes.  My goodness!  Those frogs are FAT!  

  So, while this was not happy news about the virus, with all of the rains we have been experiencing, I cannot say I am surprised.  It has made the area a haven for the critters.  I can only hope that others are doing their part in alleviating the problem.  Maybe I should hire out my bull minnows and frogs!

Slowly I turn...step by step...

  There used to be an old vaudeville act where one of the actors recounts an incident of revenge he took on an enemy.  A trigger phrase or word sets the narrator into a state of frenzy where instead of just telling the story, he acts on his foul deed. In mid attack, the storyteller comes to his senses only to fall back into the trance when hearing the word again. His poor listener is quite beat up by the time the skit ends.  While my tale today, has nothing to do with vaudeville, revenge or even trigger words, it is what came to mind as I watched a bird hunting its breakfast.

  Slowly, I turn...step by step...and I snatch another bull minnow from the shallows!  A little Green Heron was working the pools left on the mudflats.  The recent bout of north wind had pushed the tide far out from the shore and trapped hundreds of minnows.  This is a boon for the shorebirds as the trapped minnows are easy prey.  The Green Heron eased its way around the edge of the puddle of water.  These are "fishing" birds in the true sense as they actually use bait.  With each slow step, the heron would pick up its particle of fiddler crab, toss it a wee bit then take a very slooow step.  It foot would slowly rise out of the water, stay in mid air for a bit then ever so slowly sink back into the water.  Slowly I step...

  The bird show went on for quite some time as the little guy filled his belly with the fat minnows.  It was quite comical to watch the bird and once I made the connection with the old vaudeville sketch, I was even more amused. The Bayou is a great place to be entertained!

Wastefulness!

We live in a "throwaway" society.  Most folks think nothing of tossing items instead of reusing them.  Also, most folks waste food on a daily basis. I have this thing about wastefulness.  Granddad used to always tell me "Better save that..you might need it one day!"   I passed this along to my kids and pushed them to not be wasteful.  To this day, it makes me cringe when I see things being tossed that might come in handy.

 It is a rare thing for one of Mother Nature's critters to be wasteful.  For most wild critters, food is hard to come by and is definitely not considered to be inedible just because it is a day or two old!  So it was a surprise when I found food left behind after some serious foraging.  On the pier, thirty or so nice, plump bull minnows were left to rot.  Some critter had caught more than it could eat and wasted the rest.  Why did the animal keep catching the little fish if its belly was already full?  Perhaps it was just the thrill of the catch.

I suspect the critter in question was none other than one of the otters that live in the marsh.  Time and time again, this otter will kill masses of little fish with no intention of eating them. My brother has told me of times when the critter will raid the bait wells of his boat and merely lay all of the minnows out to die.  The otter does not eat them, he just kills them.  I wonder if seeing the bull minnows trapped in the wells triggers some instinctual desire to catch the prey.  The same could be what caused the otter to catch the minnows left on the pier.  Low tide most likely trapped a good many minnows in small tide pools under the pier.  The otter had easy pickings so a frenzy occurred.

I was surprised that one of the many seagulls had not discovered this treasure trove of free food.  The minnows were all laid out on the pier in full view of the "not-so-picky-about-what-they-eat" gulls.  Granted by the time I found the minnows, they were rather, ummm, stiff but I do not think that would have bothered one of the gulls or even a raccoon.  They are not above eating someone else's leftovers!  Now the problem..how am I ever going to convince that otter to stop wasting food??

One wonders..

One wonders just what crosses critters' minds at times.  I suppose they are a lot like humans as I have the same thoughts about a lot of us as well.  But back to the critters..I pondered fish minds today.  Someone once told me that fish have tiny brains.  Well, I cannot be sure of that as I have never pried into what is in a fish head.  It just seemed to be adding insult to injury to do that after already mangling the poor thing while cleaning it.  Still, fish have to be smart enough to catch food so they cannot be all dumb.  Or can they?  If anyone can talk with fish, I sure have a few questions to ask!

I was on the pier this afternoon taking advantage of a cool breeze coming across the Bay.  About half way down our pier, there is a wallowed out place where a huge piece of machinery became bogged when the pier was being built.  That, in itself, is a story worth telling some day but for now, we will focus on that hole.  Although it is a nice size space that is void of any marsh grass, time and tide has filled it with mud so it is quite shallow (even during high tide).  A myriad of small fishes take advantage of the relative safety of this enclosed area.  Bull minnows and small mullet congregate here to be free from any threat of being eaten by large fish.  For the longest time, all they have had to worry about was the shore birds.  Today, however, things changed.  This territory became dangerous for the little fishies!   While I was sitting there watching several hundred tiny mullet play, a large fish attacked the group!  Oh, my!  I stared into the water.  Sure enough, a redfish was in the small pool.  It had come down a narrow chute of water from the Bayou.  This is the only entrance into the pool that a fish this size could possibly use.  I watched as the redfish chased the mullet around in the small pool of water.  The mullet had no escape.  I wondered why they did not head out the same narrow channel that the redfish had used to enter.  Nope.  Round and round they went in the pool with the redfish always right behind them.  After a bit, I noticed bull minnows rushing out of the small chute.  Then a large flounder shuffled into the pool.  Wow!  This is unusual!  Now there were two large fish in the small pool.  Both were making a fine meal of the little mullet.

With this whole tale, keep in mind that small, fourteen inch or so wide chute is merely about a foot deep at high tide.  But..our tide was falling.  Water was rapidly leaving out of the chute and back into the Bayou.  Soon there would be no exit for any of the fish.  The smaller ones could make it out fine in just a couple of inches of water.  The flounder might be ok swimming through the same but that redfish..that redfish needed at least a good eight inches of water.  Still, he lingered.

I did not make it back to the pier before dark to see if the fish had made it safely out of the pool and back into the Bayou.  If not, I would never know.  Some larger critter would be happy finding a free meal stranded on the mudflats.  Still, I have to wonder..what possessed those two large fish to venture into such a confined area.  It was not because of a lack of food in the Bayou.  I could fully see thousands of the small mullet and other tiny fishes making ripples there.  Why journey a good hundred feet or so down a narrow chute to wind up in a pool of water that was rapidly diminishing.  Fish have no sense!  Or..they like to live on the dangerous side and take huge chances!