Critters We Left Behind

Having been back in Vermont for over a week, I've been thinking about some of the critters we encountered on our Southwestern trips.  While we have a wood fire going and snow pellets in the air here, it also is nice to take walks with the dog and not worry about poisonous or dangerous things.

We first encountered potential trouble in Louisiana when I was out on some trails hiking with the dog and saw this sign. It sort of got my attention but it was early spring and I figured that probably snakes were still staying warm underground or wherever.  Of course, it was a warm day for January and as I poked through some brush off trail, I was startled to see this cottonmouth coiled up on an old stump.  It had one of these, "And who might you be?" looks if snakes can have expressions.  Penny was off leash and sniffing here and there but I grabbed her before she found our friend.

After taking a couple of iPhone pictures, I made a quiet retreat and stayed on the trail the rest of the walk.



This state park, Lake Fausse Pointe, also gave us our first real exposure to mosquitoes.  Southern mosquitoes are big and nasty and it's not fair to have them around in January.  Mary seems to attract them and we had several bouts later in Texas.  They seem to find any small opening in the Airstream and with a white ceiling, give us a pre-bedtime ritual of swatting them.

Of course, you never know where you'll run into alligators.  It didn't raise our confidence level when one park ranger told Mary, "Ma'am, don't worry about them -- they only go after the old and the slow." Well ....   I tend to worry more about the dog hassling them and keep her on leash in alligator country.  Some of these get pretty big -- here's one we saw at a Louisiana refuge.

We have a few black bears here in Vermont but they are hardly ever about - I've only seen three or four in our woods in ten years of outings.  On the other hand, in Texas I've heard and seen coyotes frequently and also seen many wild pigs and javelinas.  Here's a coyote that crossed right in front of us at a campground at Big Bend.

Javelinas love to browse at feeding stations at Falcon State Park.  They seem skitterish but when they have young ones with them, they reportedly can get ornery.  We just give them a wide birth at any time.

And the worst critters we encountered this trip came at the end when both Penny and I hit infestations of ticks.  Now, we worry some about ticks in New England and Penny is on meds for fleas and ticks but we were out in the brushy woods at Village Creek State Park, north of Beaumont, Texas, and just got whacked.  I was wearing shorts and both of us were covered.  These suckers were hard to remove and we kept finding them.  We moved on to Mississippi and like an idiot, I went out again and apparently brushed by vegetation with more of them and we spent another evening searching and removing them.

I had bought some tick medicine from a vet in Texas.  I normally use Frontline on Penny but she carried something else, saying that it was just as good.  Well, these ticks just laughed at the generic substitute.  Our friends Jason and Kevin picked up some Frontline for Penny and we dosed her in Mississippi and it did the trick.  I just wore long pants and tucked in socks and stayed out of tick areas.  Neither of us seems to have developed any issues from our encounters.

And lastly, while we were at Falcon, a neighbor told me about a scorpion that some folks found dead in the women's bathroom.  He then showed me a live scorpion that he caught underneath a rock down by Falcon Lake.  He was going to bring it to his grandson who reportedly was excited to get it.

The thought of capturing a scorpion to bring back to one of our grandkids never crossed my mind.  I have a good relationship with my daughter and daughters-in-law and want to keep it that way.  We left all the critters behind us.

The Trails of Lake Fausse Pointe State Park

We had never been to Lake Fausse Point SP but after an interesting journey getting there, Penny and I enjoyed getting out on their many trails. 

Most are very bikeable if you are comfortable with roots and long rather narrow bridges over swamps.  You see lots of neat things like this gnarly tree:

And this sign:

And this cottonmouth

From time to time, while I am checking something out, Penny relaxes along the trail

One outing, we came back to the interpretive center and in talking with the naturalist, I asked, “Any alligators out this time of year?”  She said, “There are eight out back.”  Sure enough, in the small pond behind the center, a bunch of small ‘gators were lying around, quite dormant in the cool temperatures.  There are two or three in the picture below -- but I would never have thought to look for them if she had not told me about them.

We endured a line of storms with a tornado watch while we were there.  Most of us gathered at the conference center because of the concern of high winds but all passed without damage, aside from a deluge of rain throughout the night.

One ranger told me:  “This is Cajun country and you have to want to get to this campground to do so.  It’s off the beaten path.  We like it that way.”   

Aside from the rain and mosquitos, so did we.

Check out my birding blog at Vermont Birder

Why Penny Stays on Leash

In Texas, we dealt with feral pigs and javelinas, so it was very unusual to let Penny off-leash. Armadillos were something to chase but not to fear.

Here in Louisiana, there are signs posted warning of alligators and since it is March, I was a little skeptical. Until today. We did some great birding (see birding post) at Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge and I saw a pair of eyeballs looking at us while we drove a birding trail loop. A refuge volunteer, in response to Mary's question about problems with 'gators, told her in a great Louisiana accent that "we lose a couple of dogs now and then..."
At the Sabine NWR, as I stepped on the observation platform and raised my binoculars to look up the channel for birds, this guy, almost at my feet, nearly stopped my heart. He just laid there on the bank -- but he was big -- and likely pretty quick. Penny was in the truck and will be on leash until we get back into less hostile territory.

Mosquitoes, 75 degree temperatures, and a stiff breeze off the Gulf made it feel like July in Vermont. Trees have leafed out, flowering trees are doing their thing, and this weekend, everyone seemed to be starting their yardwork and early gardening. Another day here and we start slowly north to Natchez.