Otis Returns

What's new on the Bayou
by Kurt Zuelsdorf


"I want to speak with so many things and I will not leave this planet without knowing what I came to find out, without solving this affair, and people are not enough. I have to go much farther and I have to go much closer." - Pablo Neruda

Otis the Grebe
November's weather snuck in nicely from the north carrying with it the “real” snowbirds. Willets, dowitchers and godwits are huddling on the south pass oyster bars. The local oyster catchers seem happy to have them back after a lonely summer with the gabby gulls.

Green and black-crowned heron nesting habitat in the upper creeks looks fabulous thanks to countless volunteer greenies that prepped the nursery for their return to nesting. One of this year's late hatchers stuck around to take advantage of the fiddler crab crop on Brandt's Island. This year’s crop seems a little down from last year, but the food source is alive and well.

Now 5 years in a row the pie-billed grebe has returned to the south pass----always great to see him again. Since he is the only one, a name would be fitting.... Otis seems appropriate, unless you have other suggestions?

A brief glimpse of the black-crowned night heron and an encounter with the ghostly bittern keeps my spirits alive as the summer was slow here. A most exciting discovery in the upper creeks is a series of small teacup size nests (perhaps a palm warbler). I've always wondered what the purpose of the spiders is in the bayou and these nests have revealed that the web is being used to weave the twigs and bind the nest! In addition, they (the birds) have chosen a strand with a string of eggs on it. The baby spiders are said to eat the parasites that cause harm to the baby birds, then at some stage of growth the birds eat the spiders! Such amazing things in the place called Clam Bayou if you just adjust your eyes accordingly!

Black vultures are gathering in the skies about the bayou waiting for nature’s call to clean up when the temps drop and turn the tilapia belly-up.

Bald eagles are back in the area. On a recent photo tour with Denise from PA a huge male performed an aerial drop-swoop-grab on a mullet right in front of us, only to be shooed away by the osprey. Still no nesting activity on the osprey posts. The small nest that was built last year was blown away in a recent storm.
 
White Pelican migration is on. I was fortunate to witness three drop into the region on a clear blue sky over the bayou. (Please visit NATURE VIDEOS page  and other recent videos). Their bill can hold 3 gallons of water... it's beak really can hold more than his belly can!