Strange Things Are Happening

   Today has been blustery to say the least.  The high winds kicked the waters up a bit putting the pier almost underwater.  The marshes are flooded!  This causes me sadness because there are several species of birds that nest in the marshes and their nests are now completely submerged.  The same goes for the rabbits, lizards, mice and any other critters that normally nest even in the dry edges of the marsh line.  Some of these may have been alright had the tide rose then receded quickly but it has been unusually high all day.  Weather is crazy sometimes.

  Earlier while on the pier checking the mooring of the skiff, something odd was found.  A green tree frog was perched upon one of the stringer boards off the edge of the pier.  Little Froggy looked lost and I so wanted to reach down to rescue it.  Son had more logical ideas and convinced me that Froggy was perfectly fine where it was.  We checked the boat and on our way back up to the Little Bayou House, I once again commented that I needed to help Froggy.  At that very moment, Froggy did a flying leap into the water and swam to the marsh!  Oops!  Froggy must have overheard the conversation and was having no part of my "help".

  The frog population in the Bayou and marshes seems to have exploded.  Normally, the frogs were more apt to be found in the fresh water creeks and ponds but lately thousands have spread into the brackish waters.  This is not only tree frogs but bullfrogs, leopard frogs, green frogs, bronze frogs, Cajun frogs and just about any sort of frog or toad you wish to find can be heard at night.  Their songs are deafening now that there are so many.  This population explosion is strange, to say the least.

Suits Me To A "T"

  Sorry, folks, but I am not ready to end that social distancing or self isolation thing just yet.  No, I never feared for my life nor felt that I was going to get some dreaded illness.  I just prefer to be alone and away from all of the drama being stirred up and spread around by "Oh, so wonderful people!"  Sorry...not sorry.  As far as I am concerned, the Bayou is still off-limits.  Since I have had plenty of time to do soul-searching and reevaluating, I find I am much happier!  This blog is enough social interacting for me.  Perhaps I truly am becoming a hermitess...or I am truly just tired of peopling.

  Today as I was out investigating what Tropical Storm Cristobal left behind, I had to laugh when I came across a "T".  It is quite apparent that this was not some accident that the storm created but rather something that was made by human hands.  Why?  I have no idea other than perhaps someone was cleaning and did a bit of a balancing act.  A cutoff chunk of wood was laid neatly across the top of  a stump.  Twined partially around it was some sort of aluminum strip.  The whole thing made me think of a crude monument perhaps akin to stone balancing!  What had I happened upon? 

  This "T" is in the middle of a small clearing on property next to ours.  There is no mysterious tale behind it other than how much it reminds me of me.  Here is a somewhat quirky item out in the middle of nowhere that is fully happy (as happy as a tree stump can be) being by itself. It just fit.  So much so that I wish my "T" was on our property.  Perhaps I should start erecting some bizarre monuments here and there just to confuse anyone traipsing around the place. It could be interesting!

Weird Stuff!

  For the past week, my cousin has been telling me of some pretty odd finds in her yard.  She lives up north and after the snow melted around her house, she went out to do some yard work. One of the first things found was a spoon.  Not thinking much about it, she put it on the porch rail. Later when she cleaned the spoon, she realized that it was not one of hers.   Then, she found a jacket that did not belong to her.  It was stuffed under a log.  A few days later, a robe sash was on the ground in the middle of her yard.  Odd finds that sort of unnerved her a bit.  We talked a bit about the items and came to no conclusion why the items were in her yard.

  Today, an oddity was located on the Bayou.  Although the item was recognizable, it was the placement that was confusing.  Son was sweeping the leaves from the rooftop when he saw something glinting in the sunlight.  When he swept it free from the leaves, he found it to be a knife!   Why was a knife on my roof???  This particular knife is a filleting knife that we have long kept on the pier.  For years, it remained stabbed in the top of a pier post.  We kept it there to be used when cutting bait so were not worried about the knife being exposed to the elements.  To find it on top of the house was a tad weird, however!

Son and I have about come to the conclusion that the knife was picked up by one of the ospreys that mistook the handle as a fish.  Once the bird flew a ways with the knife, it realized that it was not a fish and promptly dropped it.  It was mere coincidence that the bird was directly over the house when the knife was released from the talons.  Kerplunk!  It fell right down on the roof!

  The assumption that an ambitious osprey may account for our find of a knife and a large bird could possibly explain the spoon and robe sash at my cousin's house.  The jacket stuffed under the log, however, is a bit befuddling!  Weird stuff happening!

Left Behind...

  It is not unusual to see pelicans around the Bayou.  In fact, it is an unusual day when you cannot spot a dozen or more Brown Pelicans diving for fish or perched atop the pier posts soaking up the sunshine.  They are some of the "local folks" around here and we all take their presence in stride.  They beg for handouts and, then in return, mess up the pier with their poop.  There is not much you can do about it other than letting the rain do its job.  (Thankfully, we have been having lots of rain!)  These pelicans usually go by the name of "Gus" for just about everyone around here.  The Brown Pelicans are all named Gus....except one and that one is Cinderella (name courtesy of my granddaughter.)  The pelicans are so familiar with the people around here that they have lost all fear and just go about doing their every day things as we do ours.  Pelicans belong in the Bayou.

  This afternoon, I was watching a Brown Pelican dive in the shallows in the back of the Bayou when another fine, feathered friend caught my eye.  Paddling along with the Browns was a White Pelican!  This bird seemed to be out of place since there were no other White Pelicans anywhere to be seen.  Just a few weeks ago, dozens of the Whites were congregating but they seem to have already flown from the area.  I think they forgot something, however,  as they left this one.  

  While I love the Whites as much as the Browns, I am a bit curious why this one is lagging behind the group.  Hopefully, it is not hurt and will soon make its way back to its squadron.  Until then, it is welcome here.  There are plenty of little mullet for it to eat and there is safety from predators on the pier with the Browns.  

That's a new one for me!

  My learning experiences never end, here on the Bayou.  There always seems to be a new discovery lurking in the shadows each and every day.  This is good.  The brain needs a new challenge now and again so it might as well be something to do with my own place.  My finds are researched as far as I can go and then compared with what is on hand.

  This morning, Mark and I were on the pier when I found a small tidbit of an oddity underfoot.  My first instinct was to flip the unusual item back into the water since it was quite obvious that was where it originated but something told me to pick it up.  I did and then the questions started.  What was this thing?  It was like nothing I had ever seen before...or was it?  As I was holding the piece, several small "nuggets" fell off and rolled between the boards and into the water.  Oops!  I had intended on getting a photo of it intact.  So much for that idea.  After a bit of discussion, Mark and I had a tentative idea of what the thing was but I needed more information.  That information proved to be difficult to come by, however.  It was definitely some piece of bone from a fish...we knew that much!

  The small piece of bone had dozens of tiny holes in it and in each hole was a "peg".  It was a few of those "pegs" that rolled out as I handled the piece.  Our idea of this being "teeth" from a catfish seems to be correct although I could not find any definitive photos of them.  The hardhead catfish have "plates" with small rounded teeth.  These plates are on the roof of their mouth.  The fish do not have sharp teeth like other fish which is why I have never thought about it.  For some reason, I assumed that they had no teeth whatsoever and perhaps just either swallowed their food whole or maybe mashed it.  The mashing is not too far off from reality as these teeth are small and rounded. We figured that the bone came from one of the catfish that we used as crab bait.  The crabs eat all of the flesh and leave behind the bones.  Emptying the bait box, we obviously dropped the small shard onto the pier and thus began our mystery!  So...now we know or, at least, maybe we do.  I will assume this is correct until I find evidence that says otherwise.  Oh, the things I find!

What?

  Every now and again something happens that just makes you scratch your head and say "What?"  Today, I was doing a lot of pondering and scratching that head.  Things were just not quite the way they should be.  Not that anything impossible happened.  More like things were just improbable.  

  Early this afternoon after the chores were finished, I headed to the pier.  The day was hot, the sun was bright and I needed a bit of cooler air.  With a slight breeze wafting across the Bay, the pier was the most likely spot to be.  On the way down the board path to the pier, I could hear the raucous calling of the seagulls and crows coming from the pier.  Seagulls?  Yeah, but crows?  What were crows doing on the pier?  It was best to investigate.

  Sure enough, two fine, black crows were occupying two of the pier posts right in the midst of a dozen or so seagulls.  Now that was different!  Not once have I seen crows visit the pier and mingle with the gulls!  The crows usually hang around closer to the woods or clearings but never out on the pier.  As I eased my way down the pier, all of the birds seemed oblivious of my presence until I was only about thirty feet from them.  Then, every bird down there started squawking!  What a din they were making!  Suddenly, the entire lot of them took flight, flew a few circles above my head and headed northward.  I suppose I will never know the actual reason the birds were together and will just chalk it up to another motley crew that ganged together in the search for food.

The Tale of Y

  Last week, my sweet daughter-in-law noticed that we had a lovely, albeit unusual, skink by the front door.  Joanna pointed out that the skink had two tails or at least an odd growth on its tail.   I had seen the lizard before but got nothing more than a quick glance.  The skink was fast to hide either under the steps or in the hollow tree nearby. Sweet Joanna, however, was able to get close enough to the lizard to describe the tail in detail!  By her description, the tail was more of a crooked Y than actually two tails. I needed to photograph the lizard so I could get a better view.

  Then a young friend of the family came calling.  "You have a two-tailed skink!" he said excitedly.  Christopher has been a life-long friend of Son's so he feels free to roam about the place.  Before he even announced his arrival at the Little Bayou House, he had already tried to capture the skink.  "He is quick and ran into the hollow tree."  Yep, that is my skink!  I really had to get a picture of that critter.

  This morning, Mark called my attention to the bizarre lizard.  This time, the skink did not dart away but sat on the steps as I photographed it.  Joanna was right.  The tail is not actually two tails but rather a rather pointy growth on the side of the original tail.  How did that happen??  Well, there are two scenarios that may have occurred.  One the tail was deformed while the skink was still in the egg.  Something could have damaged the egg slightly yet abruptly enough to disrupt the growth process.  Since lizards (skinks included) regenerate lost tails, this could happen even as the young skink is developing.  Once the tiny lizard emerged from the egg, the tail was already shaped.  Another possibility is that somewhere, somehow the lizard was hurt by a predator.  The "drop" mechanism kicked in and its tail was partially pulled off.  The "regenerate" message was processed and a new tail started to form at the injury site.  

  While a bit ungainly, the lizard will not feel any ill results from its unusual tail.  Obviously, the skink can still hunt as it is growing quite large.  It hunts by both day and night and has decided the front step is a delightful home.  I am elated as I love the skinks and their voracious appetites!  Bugs beware!  My Y-tailed Skink is on the loose and will hunt you down if you darken my doorway!