A walk in the park

I hiked over to City Park this morning, trying to loosen some joints… must be another cold front coming. I also wanted to see what progress was being made on the park renovations. There was construction proceeding on buildings and the golf course had added some nice cement walkways (or driveways for carts?). The bayou (Duplantier?) which flows into City Park Lake seemed wider. Maybe it has been worked; high water was unlikely, as the lake, itself, seemed low. Water quality still looked pretty good, but murkiness was growing with the warm weather and sunshine. I need to come back with my fly rod! I circled back the long way, and passed by that ship’s bow display. A few years ago, Little Sister and I liked to climb the back side of that concrete form… quite a few years ago.

It's gettin' hot in the hills

I abbreviated my trip after seeing this guy! Note that diamond- shaped head. That old cottonmouth was having the life of Reily with the high water blocking the creek flow. He was sipping something small from the water surface; just hanging there, feeding in the slow current. Ticks are crawling; I found 3 hiking around on me; and mosquitoes are getting worse... a few in the shade, and they got bad at sunset. Pigs are rooting the creek- bank again. One of them leaves a big track, and deep! The track, itself, must weigh 40 pounds. I sat in the reeds until nearly dark, but the pigs didn't show. I did, however get to see two deer headed down to water. The woods are thickening and getting shady. There are still lots of wildflowers; don't know this one but thought it was pretty... maybe wild verbena?

It’s getting’ warm in the swamp

The critters are out and busy; got youngsters to feed, I guess. The birds are everywhere, squirrels and rabbits are hopping around. A pair of wood ducks paddled into the weeds before I could get my camera out. This skink was particularly colorful. I wonder if that makes him more attractive to the girls… don’t know much about skink courtship. Snakes and tree frogs are out. Bugs are getting more numerous and zipping around, but the mosquitoes haven’t been around much.

How high’s the water?

I haven’t seen so much flooding in a while. The Mississippi’s backwater is pushed all the way up the creek to my property marker. I just came back from the hills… gotta work tonight. The water at Thompson’s Creek seems almost up to the Hwy 61 bridge… looks like a big lake. Several feet of water also under the Bayou Sara bridge, on Hwy 66.

It's Spring some more

I guess that was the last cool snap; soon be complaining about hot and muggy. Sure was pretty again today, though. I tried setting my camera for action photos and was able to stop those buttercups from waving in the wind. I have been seeing more bugs. No mosquitoes in the swamp; I guess the mosquitofish are doing their part. I noticed a patch of jack- in- the- pulpit, today; they seem very exotic... I never saw many before this year.

Nice weather to play outdoors

A cool afternoon, and this fellow found a spot of sunshine to warm- up in. Plenty goings- on in the swamp. Critters are busy; lots of wildflowers; trees, shrubs, and vines are leafing out in earnest; more dragonflies are out; and spiders are building their webs. I tried to video a swarm of bees; got the buzzing, but the picture was poor.

Dayhike Burden Research Center

Whoopee! I finally got to attend another outing with the Louisiana Hiking Club. Since my work schedule (alternate weekends) clashes with the monthly calendar, there’s only a 50: 50 chance for me to join the group’s second- Saturday hikes. Looks like I’ll be free for the 2nd Saturday in May, but foiled again after that. I tend to be a loner, but really enjoy the camaraderie of this bunch, and we had a good turn out… about 30 of us. It was a nice morning… started out cool enough for long sleeves, there was sunshine and light breeze. The Burden center has fields and research plots, of course, and the terrain is mostly flat, but there are some lush wooded areas with various tree species and lots of understory growth. They are considering development of public- use walking trails on the Burden property, so the Hiking Club got special permission for a visit. I hadn’t been out there in years… in a previous life. It’s a lovely and very interesting place. The Rural Life Museum is there, there are gardens and ponds, flowers and shrubs, old cabins and farm implements from bygone times. I was particularly enthralled by an old hay baler that looked like my grandfather’s. It was driven by a broad belt stretched from the tractor. I remember catching bales from the back end as hay was being forked into the top of the machine. I was probably less of a help and more in- the- way, as the bales were nearly as big as me. We had a nice hike; there is a lot of territory there, scenery, and many points of interest. I hope they go ahead with the trails idea; that’s a pretty place and public trails would be great use for some of their untilled acreage. I took a few pictures, but there was so much "stuff", I could have spent a week there with my camera... and, by then, weather, crops, and seasons would change and I would have to start a new round of picture- taking.

Follow this link for a slideshow.

Swampflora on yesterday's walk

Swampfauna on yesterday's walk.

Spring has sprung and geocaches are hiding

Spittlebugs were doing their thing, tulip poplar buds will soon open to full flower. Songbirds were trilling, owls hooting, and hawks keening. I noticed that the pecan trees are leafing out, sure sign that winter is over. I played a new game called geocaching; it’s a hi- tech version of Easter- egg hunts. There’s a hidden “treasure” (actually there are thousands of them all over the world). Latitude and Longitude coordinates and some hints are obtained from this website. Sign- in logs are the usual “treasure”, but there are sometimes trinkets you can trade or trackable items which want to be moved to another cache. Finds can be recorded on the website. Enter the coordinates into a GPS unit and let it lead to the hiding place. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, maybe I’m not that smart. I found one and signed the log at the Bluebonnet Swamp. However, there is another cache at the swamp that I must try again. And there is one at the library that I could not find… I stood at the point where my GPS said zero, but I couldn’t locate anything. Maybe I should stick with nature; dragonflies were zipping around. Muscadine vines were budding… they were loaded with fruit last year.

Louisiana iris

I needed a smile in my life, yesterday. This guy was trailside, waving at me in the swamp. I wondered whether it was native there or someone transplanted it; figure it must be a Louisiana iris, but I'm mostly ignorant about such things. Lately, my flower pictures are often blurred. I hate to start dragging a tripod; maybe it is more the wind than me... must study this situation some more.