Bumps in the Night

Whenever I was younger, I would sleep in my tree house sometimes. There would always be strange noises and I would wonder what they were. But now that we bought a trailcam, I have a good idea what those noises are! We have gotten pictures of multiple opossums at a time, neighbors' cats, our cats, armadillos, raccoons and deer! Just think, with all that activity going on at night, it's no wonder that there is so much racket!

Hummingbirds Head South

This is some information my great-aunt Celeste sent me after she read my hummingbird blog a few weeks ago. Turns out, she teaches ornithology at the University of South Alabama, so we asked her about the little birds.

"Hummers have been banded and some found to live up to 8 yrs - the general scope of science agrees that on average they live 4 or 5 yrs. From coastal areas most migrate across the Gulf to the Yucatan and S. America although a few follow the coast, rather than flying across the Gulf.

In banding hummers - if I puff very gently on the breast to ruffle the feathers I see tiny globules of fat next the skin. This fat is reserve energy for the long migration flight.

You may be seeing more than the usual number of hummers because their food supply (nectar from flowers) along the coast was severely diminished by Ike - thus they remain inland instead of "staging" along the immediate coastal areas. Staging means they congregate and wait for conditions to be right, preferably a tail wind, for the long flight across the Gulf.

Hummers spend the winter where there is food supply including but not limited to nectar. Hummers also consume a large number of tiny insects.

You may know the tongue is not a straw - it is tool for "lapping" up nectar or sugar water.

I predict your numbers will be less every day and by mid-Oct most will have gone south. If you leave a feeder or two up during cold months you might get a western hummer like a Rufous or Black Chinned - but 99% of Rubies go south for the winter.

Do not put food coloring in the feeder water - 1 part sugar to 4 parts water and no coloring."

And she was right, it's mid-October now and all the hummingbirds are gone.

Mowing Your Water?

Another cool story from the trip with Capt. Sonny Schindler! After that great trip we went back to the lodge to clean the fish. When we got out we heard this strange noise but didn't think anything of it.

We kind of sat around waiting for Sonny to come back. And waited. And waited. We were starting to wonder what was taking him so long when he pulled up. He parked his boat, then got out. Then he started telling us how he stopped and talked to a neighbor who was working on his mower. (where the odd noises came from) The neighbor told Sonny how his son was mowing the yard, went right off the bulkhead and into the water. Apparently, the grass in one spot grows up to where you can't see where your going and by the time you notice... SPLASH!! The best part was the dad told Sonny "Seems like he woulda' learned after the first time!"

Move Your Boat

The dock we fished out of was Bayou Caddy and when we were leaving it was dark so we couldn't really see anything except a few missing planks Capt. Sonny Schindler warned us about. When we got back from a great day of fishing with Sonny, we noticed what damage had really been caused. This area was still recovering from Katrina when Gustav hit, and it left a big mess afterward.

There were sunken boats, boats half on docks, and boats hanging off into the water from land. The one that stuck out most was a big head-boat that was picked up and set right back down on a couple pilings that smashed right through her hull. After we loaded our boat up and were driving out, we realized how bad it was. There were boats on trailers on boats and just all kinds of mess. There were piles of debris along side the road, and even more boats.

If there is a hurricane coming with a 40 foot surge like Katrina or a just a 9 foot surge like Gustav, you probably need to move your boat somewhere else, like Tennessee.

Needle Fish

Here's a cool little fish. The needle fish!! On the trip with Sonny Schindler we had a cool little experience. Sonny's rod moved like it was hit, but then when he reeled in he didn't feel much. We couldn't figure out what it was, because he could feel something, but it was not fighting at all. As it got closer we realized that it was a needle fish, a fish that looked just like a mini gar.



It has very sharp teeth, really slim body, little fins, I mean it is exactly like a gar, just really small. But he pulled it in and it was just holding on to the line... kind of odd. We were trying to figure out why it was still holding on instead of letting go out over the water. It was all tangled up in the line, and could not spin himself back around. So we let him get some pictures then he was on his way. (click on the pictures and you can see the line wrapped around his mouth) Well here's his picture, hoped you found this experience interesting like I did.