Thank a Strider!

  It seems strange to me that vultures get such a bad rap and folks find them disgusting.  Face it.  The birds do us a huge favor by cleaning up roadkill.  It is their nature to circle an area until they find the opportune moment to swoop down and feed.  Turkey vultures have a keen sense of smell that leads them to dead animals.  Black vultures' sense of smell is not nearly as good so they have learned to follow the turkey vultures to a kill.  Both types will follow predators around and simply steal the prey if given the opportunity.  The sheer number of vultures approaching is often enough to intimidate a small predator into giving up its supper.  These birds are sort of the garbagemen of the avian world. Without them, we would find far more dead critters about the place. The vultures do a grand job of cleaning up what others leave behind.

  This all leads me to what I call "pond vultures".  These are not birds but rather insects.  Pond skippers, pond skimmers, water walkers, Jesus bugs or water striders...call them what you will but they are pretty much the vultures of the pond.  They clean up the place.  The water striders eat anything that hits the water.  Let the surface wiggle just a bit and dozens of the striders will scurry across the top of the water to investigate.  If it is what they deem edible, the bugs will immediately set to work devouring their prize.  One big difference between the striders and vultures is that the striders will also take live prey and will attack an insect that is much larger than themselves.  Here again, the numbers are the key.  Let a larger insect alight on the water's surface and dozens upon dozens of the striders will launch an attack.  

  With all of the rain for the past few days, the water striders are not only busy in the Frog Pond, they are occupying puddles.  Any standing water is home to these critters which is a good thing as they eat a lot of mosquito larvae which also dwell in any standing water.  The "pond vultures" are not choosy!  So, if you see one of these critters, let them live and even thank them that there are a few less mosquitoes biting you! 

I Knew It!!

  Yesterday when I made my great escape from the "sick house", I had a feeling.  Something just did not feel quite right with the old body so I knew it was just a matter of time before the inevitable happened and I caught this nasty bug from Mark and Son.  Mark seems to have encountered someone somewhere that was ill and he carried the stuff back to the Little Bayou House. Son caught it soon after since they were working side by side on house repairs.  So, I took care of the two of them.  Now, who is going to care for me?  Me, I guess.  I knew it was going to happen and, sure enough, I woke up this morning with the telltale signs of headache, scratchy throat, nausea, muscle aches and chills.  This stuff is not happy.  It racks the body until it seems that it is about to go to pieces.  

  But...back to that great escape and the omen that I should have heeded or, at least, paid attention and done something...anything...to ward off this illness.  The omen?  A trio of turkey vultures circled above our heads as we lounged on the pier.  The old dog was oblivious to what was soaring high in the sky but I was pondering what had their attention.  Lets hope it was not me!  Go away vultures!  I ain't dead yet!!

  The Bayou Fire brew has been fermenting now for some two months.  It has been waiting for someone to fall ill and need a "helping hand".  Hopefully, that will be all it takes to nip this stuff in the bud but, if not, a visit to the doctor may be in the near future. I have made threats to people that they are not to bring illness to the Little Bayou House but, in all fairness, Mark lives here and it was unavoidable.  So now...Folks, stay away from the Little Bayou House as we are sick folk here!  And do go away, vultures!

Vultures of the Pond

  Back in the day, it seems that Westerns were the movies of choice.  At least, in our house, they were.  Every Saturday evening, we would all pile into the old Studebaker station wagon and head to my grandparents' house.  THEY had a TV!! We did not.  Well, to be perfectly honest, we had two.  One had great sound and the other had a very fuzzy picture.  Pop kept trying to fix them but to no avail.  So, we did without.  But on those Saturday nights, we had a grand time!  More oft than not, we were treated to a John Wayne movie!  Invariably, during the movie, some hapless cowboy became hopelessly stranded in the desert!  Why?  Why did he go into the desert in the first place?  Why did he not just turn around and ride that horse right back out of the place when he realized that there was no escape?  Why in the world did every movie contain a desert scene?  Why?  Because we were all gullible enough to become enthralled by the fact that the guy was stuck there....and there were vultures!  Vultures flocked around the cowboy dude that crawled in the desert sand.  They flew in great circles around him after he let his horse run free.  Their numbers grew as word got out that a free meal was for the taking as soon as the thirsty dude succumbed.  Vultures are like that, you know.

  This morning, I watched as a Eastern Lubber Grasshopper struggled to maintain her balance on the side of the Frog Pond.  The critter was weakened as her time was near.  These grasshoppers' lives wane during the late fall after their egg-laying is complete.  This critter was wobbling precariously close to the edge when suddenly it hopped..not toward the grass but rather into the water.  Once there, the grasshopper panicked and thrashed about a bit.  Ripples fluttered outward from the insect.  This was a call for all of the "vultures" of the pond to hasten to the dying critter.  At first, one came out from the water hyacinths.  Then, two from the water lilies.  Four more rushed in from the driftwood on the edge.  Then it seemed as if hundreds of the "vultures" appeared all at once.  They surrounded the dying grasshopper and waited.  Some darted in closer when her thrashing stopped but would back off once the grasshopper moved again.  This kept on for some time.  At times, I felt as if I should rescue the grasshopper but, then, since she was dying anyway, what good would it do.  On land, she would be covered in ants or yellow jackets by this time.  Here, she would feed the Pond Vultures.

  These are actually a family of true bugs called Gerridae or Water Striders, Jesus Bugs, or Pond Skippers...or whatever you wish to call them...I call them Pond Vultures.  They are small bugs that can walk on the surface of the water.  They inhabit most fresh or brackish waters and do a good job of  "cleaning" up the place.  They wait until some hapless insect dude (or gal, in this morning's case) falls into the desert...errrr...water and then make short work of him.  The Pond Vultures have specialized mouthparts that are used for piercing and sucking.  The grasshopper this morning became breakfast for dozens of the Pond Vultures.  It is all about survival of the fittest.  Just remember these "friendly" critters the next time you go wading in a pond!  They are there.....just waiting....circling...eyeing...waiting for the chance.