Come take a Louisiana Wetland Tour!
My wetland tour business has existed for several years now. Are folks beating down my door? No. Why? Because the majority of folks in the northern part of this state and the rest of the nation and world have no idea the spectrum of wildlife and marine life and botanicals and insects that can be experienced here.
So I had an idea about taking you on a virtual tour. That idea is still ripening. It will come to fruition. Until then, I thought I would share with you some of the things I saw recently on a little boat excursion. It started out as a fishing trip, but since they weren’t biting, it turned into a photo shoot just for you.
Grab your camera and hop on board!
Interesting and amazing is that this area is only a short boat ride from the landing, is only accessible by water, and covers only about a 100 yard stretch. I hope you enjoy the trip!
After weeks of daily summer thunderstorms, the daybreak is heavy again with warning: “Red sky at morning–sailors take warning!” First off, we aren’t sailing, and secondly, the sky is pink and not red! So relax.
(Besides, Termite has been cooped up for too many days, and he is determined to get “me” out of the house by setting up this whole jaunt. It is our first fall-like morning of the year and unseasonably cool. The earth, my friends, has tilted.)
This is what confronts us upon our arrival at the gate to our lease in the marsh. With only a 9.9 HP engine to grind this stuff up, we aren’t going anywhere fast. This is a two-foot thick mat of giant salvinia--a non-native species of water fern from South America. Grab a paddle, everyone!
Close up, it really is an interesting plant–tiny succulent ferns–that cause quite a problem in small bottle-neck waterways. We struggle through it, somehow.
As you glide slowly through the black waters, you must have your camera ready in order to catch images like the one above. In the tree! There! Do you see it? Hurry, snap a picture! It won’t sit there long! Anyone care to pull out your bird field guide and identify this shy tree duck for us?
Before you even have a chance to look to see if you got a good shot of that bird, you hear a big SPLASH that almost makes you jump out of the boat. You can’t see what it was, because it’s in the water now, but this was it’s resting place.
What catches your attention next, just a few yards away on the same bank, is this burrow. Could it be a gator hole? Maybe so. Maybe not.
And if you’re brave enough, you get a closer look and possibly disturb whatever is hiding inside. Hello? Anybody home? Nope, not today.
Keep that lens out there, because this place abounds with photo ops, like this blue dragon fly sitting atop a lily pad.
Look! Shhh! Quiet!! Don’t put that camera down because right there on the bank is a young gator digesting his breakfast. How can I tell? Because he’s smiling! Seriously, though. After gators eat, they must lie in the sun and heat their bodies up in order to digest their food. On this cool morning, he is so busy digesting, he sits there while we snap off about 25 photos.
Look out! Always keep your eyes scanning the water for predators. Nearby, this gator is out looking for its first meal of the day. Though no gator has ever jumped into my boat, they have the ability to do so. Using their powerful tails, gators can propel their bodies out of the water about half their length. Yep, you heard me. So, we do like to keep a safe distance and our hand on the throttle! (Remember, Termite was my tour guide–I was the excited tourist snapping pics for the poor saps back home.)
Had enough? Well, there’s much more to this trip, but the real work-a-day world calls, and because no one is ringing my phone to take a tour this morning, I’m off to my “job”!
BW
Stay tuned! More tour to come . . . .
CONGRATULATIONS TO JULIE S. THE WINNER OF THE “WHAT WAS DIANE DOING?” CONTEST. SHE WAS THE FIRST TO GUESS, SHE GUESSED RIGHT, AND TERMITE PICKED HER FROM A RANDOM DRAWING. SHE WINS HER CHOICE OF A TRAVEL MUG! DIANE WAS RIDING THE FOUR WHEELER, PULLING A UTILITY TRAILER, PICKING UP EVERYONE’S TRASH FROM THEM. I WAS SITTING BEHIND HER, TAKING PHOTOS AND HANDING OUT EXTRA TRASH BAGS. THE WATER WAS SELF-SERVE FROM AN ICE CHEST THAT WAS RIDING ON THE TRAILER. IT WAS A GREAT SYSTEM, A WONDERFUL DAY, AND A REWARDING JOB!!!
bw
Thanks for the tour! I didn’t even have to use any vacation time. Although it does have me “dreaming” about taking a vacation next summer to your neck of the woods (or marsh).
WoW!! My camera is wanting to come work out there 🙂
Can’t wait to give the new camera a workout and bring those gators to life! Yee haw baby!
Lighten up T_mite. Life’s short and duck season will be here shortly. Nice looking boat. Clean but why wouldn’t it be. Gonna see if a few back exercises will get me down for a day or so before Labor Day.
Where are you, specifically? I would love to go on a guided tour. And I’m in the SE corner of LA.
Hey, Sue, just go up to the top of the page and click the Bayou Woman tab and I think there is information there about my tours. Located below Houma, LA. You can email me from the Wetland Tour website or you can fill in the contact box here on the blog page.
BW, I hope this virtual tour doesn’t count for the one I won and never collected on. This was very nice, but I couldn’t get the full effect without the bayou “smells”. I hope you don’t scare off potential clients telling them too much about gators. You won’t get them on your much larger boat.
OH, the much larger boat is waaaaay above the water!
Hey, What was Diane doing in the Grand Isle photos? You left us hanging.
Thanks for reminding me that I need to go back and finish that contest, right? Or do I? I’m lost as a goose right now! Termite’s homework gave me a brain pain!
Wow. This is beautiful, BW. One day I will come down there. I want to see it for myself.
“Anyone care to pull out your bird field guide and identify this shy tree duck for us?”
Hard to see much from the picture, short bill, no bright colors, could be a mallard hen, but more likely a mottled. Lots of then towards Cameron, Holly Beach and futher west. It definitely ain’t Daffy, maybe his girlfriend Melissa though.
Beautiful pictures again!
BTW, Ternite its less than two weeks till its ball season again. That means its time to start clearing and setting up blinds and stands. Work the dog, yeah its the best season all year.
Brain pain from Termite’s homework? LOL Are you still Home Schooling Termite now that you’re a “Working Girl”? LOL LOL I couldn’t resist! I’m bad.
Oh, I set myself up for that one, Steffi. I’m so tired, you can’t even get a rise out of me any more! Truth is, homeschooling him was easier than overseeing 2 hours of homework. No lie. I wish I could bring him back home. I want my old life back!
Beautiful photos!! I am with the rest of the ladies, I would love to be able to go on a tour. And, I bet my husband would love it too.
Yay for Julie! Now, the thing is though that if I remember correctly, Julie was the first to comment. And if I also remember correctly, hasn’t that random integer generator thingy picked the first commentor more often than other commentors. So just how random is this random integer generator thing anyway? I’m not sure why I care since I obviously wasn’t eligible for the last contest even though I was fairly fuzzy on exactly what it was that I was doing at Grand Isle. You just told me that we were going to the beach and the next thing I knew I was riding around on a 4-wheeler picking up trash from a bunch of people wearing groovy lime green shirts.
Take the tour. Captain Wendy knows the territory. Her love of the wetlands comes through during the course of the tour. You will come away richer.
Quinta Scott
Thank you, Quinta, you are too kind!
BW!……..the last pic of you with the colors of the sky behind is just unreal. I want one.
Ha! Hey BW, that is one nice photo. I bet someone worked really hard on that.
Someone DID work very hard on that pic! Was it YOU?
Another photog friend of mine sent me an email tonight about that photo and how much she likes it. Said it should be entered in a contest somewhere! I think the subject surely has a big schnoz in that pic!!!!
Well, I’ll have to try to get the owner of the original to sell me a copy of it!!! She’s a very famous photographer, ya know? Her name is . . . . . Diane Huhn!!! That’s just one of many of her awesome pics. Diane, post a link to your picasa page!
Geez, I am unable to go to breakfast now as my head will not fit through the door. Here’s a link http://picasaweb.google.com/diane.huhn but there’s a whole lot of not so great pics on there. Need to create a “Photos that don’t suck as much as other photos I’ve taken” folder. I’m sure I’ll get to that real soon with all the spare time on my hands.
I’m with you, Diane. Three times I’ve passed up being the first commenter. Never again!
Diane and Heather – Why are ya’ll picking on the new girl? LOL!
D – Spare time? Your fishing buddy must be sick!!! They’ll be biting again soon enough, cher, and we will be there with bells on . . I mean lures on!
I know the new girl so it’s allowed. She’s pretty tough and has the way coolest hammer ever. And, sorry, I’m not sure if I can go fishing cause my new lure is hanging from a power line along Falgout Canal taunting me every time I drive by and see it sparkling in the sun.
Hey D – just stop a bucket truck and ask him to give you a lift!!!!
Hey! I didn’t know she was new, and you know how competitive I am. No more Mr. Nice Guy. If the new girl’s gonna play here, she’s got to learn to take what’s dished out LOL!
Heather–I am very much looking forward to meeting you in person one day.
I’m goint to guess Java Tree Duck? The Photo is nice!!
LOL! I think it’s some type of grebe, but could not get close enough to identify beak, etc. The closer I got, the farther in he went. Thanks, though!
For some reason, your last photo isn’t showing up for me.
Wonderful pics, and as one who has had the privilege of going on the tour let me say, you’ve got to be there to get the full experience: including watching the locals as they go about their everyday work on the water, the expanse of sky and flat, flat land as you cruise across Lake Decade, the huge variety of plant AND wildlife, and yes, the utter thrill of an alligator gliding silently, but intently toward the boat.
All of you who want to experience the wilds of south Louisiana, don’t put it off. Go while it’s still here. You will have a blast and a new appreciation for a unique place filled with unique people.
Thanks for this, Heather—it means more than you know! I see the beauty here and it always does me good to read or hear when others see things the way I do! Is anyone else having trouble seeing the bottom photo? It’s a silhouette of me driving the boat with the sunset behind me . . . edited to beautiful hues of blue and pink and gold and . . . sorry you can’t see it!
It seems to disappear when you click on comments. Weird.
Love the virtual tour! I’ll have to see if I can convince a few people to go a day or two early when we come in November for our mission trip. So much to see, so little time… sigh
I would love to have you and several others come aboard the Wetland Tours boat! BW
Julie–If you can convince some of your favorite K8 (or is it K9) buddies to come down early, y’all might consider getting together and renting Camp Dularge. Then you’d have dockside service for your tour.
I just realized that if November does make it K9, it kind of sounds like I’m telling you to find a bunch of dogs to come down with. But actually, knowing the Turtle crowd, that might not be far from the truth.
All it takes to spark a love affair with south Louisiana is a wetland tour with Captain Wendy! Although not on the “official” list, I truly believe it has to be one of the wonders of the world. And, no one can open your eyes to the treasure trove of mystical bayou magic the way Captain Wendy can. Experience a wetland tour with her once and your heart will forever long to return.
Let me know when they’re biting! I need a day off from helping scrape “popcorn” ceilings, priming, texturing )is this a real word?) and painting EVERYTHING!