Friday, October 14, 2011

Salt Marshes

 Above and Below: At the end of the trail, the swamp opens up into salt marshes. (Swamps have trees, marshes only have grass, according to the rangers.) There's a nice overlook platform here where we hung out for a while. Next time I will bring a picnic lunch.

 Spanish moss at the boundary between swamp and marsh.

Below: These fluffy things were blowing everywhere, which was very lovely. I swallowed one by mistake!
This baby raccoon totally posed for us. Then it ate some grubs from the top of the tree and climbed down. I didn't get any pictures of the water moccasin we almost stepped on, because really, that was careless, but chasing a poisonous snake for  pictures is seriously dumb, and I didn't have a zoom lens. It was beautiful though. Like a rattler, but shiny black.
We went on the 1.5 mile Bayou Coquille trail, but there's a 4-mile trail as well; I'd like to walk that one another day. If you go, bring lots of water, sunscreen, and bug repellent. (Avon Skin-So-Soft bath oil is like super mosquito Kryptonite, so totally I recommend that.) And don't feed the alligators. As the sign at the ranger's station hilariously and accurately says, "Alligators cannot tell the difference between a HANDOUT and a HAND."


Let's play Spot the Alligator

 Above: There is an alligator in this picture. Can you see him? He kind of just looks like a truck tire tossed into the bushes. Actually, someone told us that it's hatching season, so there were baby gators around, but they were all hiding from the herons.

A fairy path into the swamp.

 Spanish moss. I thought there was a lot in New Orleans, but there's a ton out here.

Doesn't this look like a Berkeley garden spider? She was huge, and some others we saw were even bigger. We took these from the boardwalk that goes through the swampy bits. It's the dry season, though, so things weren't as squishy as we expected.

Proceed to the Swamp

 Above: Spanish moss in the bald cypress and swamp tupelo trees.
Below: These pink flowers were everywhere.



A cute fat swamp bee. They'll kind of buzz your head, but they aren't aggressive.

My mom is visiting, and yesterday we drove out to the Jean Lafitte Barataria Bay Preserve, about 40 minutes outside of New Orleans. ("Proceed to the swamp" was what Mom wrote on our dry-erase board in the morning.) It was totally cool! And it was free, too. But when they say "Watch out for poisonous snakes" they're not kidding--on the way out, we almost stepped on a fat water moccasin that was hanging out right beside the path. Which really made us rethink the times earlier in the day we snuck off the trail to take pictures. Nature is fangy down here.



Magazine Street, and a rainstorm

 Above: A house on Magazine Street, uptown.
 Below: Also uptown. This tree is huge! That's my Honda under it, looking like a toy.

 Same Spanish oak, with breaker boxes for outdoor lights mounted on it--I think that's what they are, anyway. It's illegal to cut down a Spanish oak in Louisiana, but this is OK, apparently.

 The Circle Food Store on Claiborne Avenue. It's been closed since Katrina. Claiborne Ave was the center of a thriving African-American business district until I-10 was installed on top of it in the 1960s. Now this stretch of Claiborne is pretty bleak--it runs under the freeway for miles.

A summer thunderstorm, with Mardi Gras beads.


A hibiscus flower I found in the street. They start blooming in the fall. They don't last long, but they sure are pretty; I see them in red, orange, pink, and white.