Beauty of Natural Design

I'll have to add words and music later

Hair Ball

Nature's 'path  of  least resistance' !

Watch the Spanish Moss move in the breeze

OK, I give, the price was right. Food.

Those times you pack out the ole GMC for a trip East to the Swamp, there is always the expectation
of days and nights working on images of wildlife and recording the sounds from the unseen.  Yep, I drive six hours from a sunny cool weather pattern to a place to hang my camera, only to be greeted with a drizzle, really gray sky, and humidity that would change the whine of a mosquito to a buzz. The temperature is 30 degrees lower than it was at the corral. Grey washed out skies, and everything  wet doesn't work for a lot of wildlife action shots. The old lens and cameras was slow to a fault. I left the big guns in the jimmy, grabbed the ol' Olympus C-70 and went for a walk. The scene was mostly just shades of gray. Then there was a glimmer of red under some briers....hmmm fungi maxamus.
Zip lock bags have their limits when it comes to keeping moisture out, but in this case it kept the oly' from soakin up too much moisture. There was another trip back to the jimmy for a tarp.  We figured we couldn't  do much with fungus shots from above. At the end of the day, cold and wet, we had some unusual pictures. Did you ever wonder what went on underneath the mushrooms.

 

Notic the creature crawling up the stem and the ornate seed in the lower left corner that looks like a minature  easter egg

Here is your   'bad moon risin'  over Iatt

One of my favorite places to watch fog.

Had to go back to th Jon-boat cause of alligator size at roundup was longer than my canoe.

Almost too old to eat

A family of Neutra live  inside of this cypress

I think this is a Golden Silk Spider. She was as large as my palm. The web was two part and at least six foot long.

Friendly walking stick.. Rode on the 4-wheeler with me from the by.

This is where the swamp magic is kept

This was 1st rendering that started paying for my passion in th  swamp.

Out at the road

We have a Post...

We think this is where the alligators den up in the Winter time

Now you know why it takes me all day to do two or three miles .

There are some serious fish in here

No way to take a 4-wheeler through here.

One of those places

While I was in the Swamp looking for subjects to photo (i.e.: wildcats or black bear) it became painfully clear that in the open, in this forest I may never see another Bobcat out and about. I spent a week searching 1400 acres for tracks of bobcat, bear, deer, pig or anything. There were a couple of fair sized hoof prints from a deer. Keep in mind the canopy of trees was so thick, the older GPS had a hard time tracking. Three times, I walked the two miles of shoreline to the swamp along side of the forest. If any of you have tried to traverse an area this size and of indigenous plant on foot, you know the dilemma. A four-wheeler just will not cut it. You almost need a crew to clear the path just to walk. Yea, it was cold, too, the day after Thanksgiving.  One of the locals stated that I would have better luck trying to photo any animal after 10 A.M. Of course, he was speaking for the swamp animals in Central Louisiana . He said the fish was like that too. No wonder I could never catch fish in Black Lake . I was always too early.

Therefore, I chocked this trip up to Murphy. More research or different strategy; something has to give.  Know who Murphy is?

Although the population of humans is not that evident in the swamps that I visit, their presence has evidently made a negative impression and created pressures on the animals to move away. There is a multitude of duck blinds on the lake. However, the ‘duck’ here is the winner. The cover is thick and unforgiving. 

I found a 10 -12 foot in diameter circle of cypress stumps that was partially submerged. I could not tell if someone had pushed them into the lake floor or they had been planted that way and when grown, cut at all the same height.  The size and symmetry of the eight stumps and circle was neat.  I have pictures from earlier visits when the water just covered the tops of the stumps. I am hoping for a Spring visit will allow more time for investigation of the phenomena.

Fall Colors

The other mode of transportation.

John MIchael

Baby

John Michael in flight

  

Murphy

DJ

Natures toliet paper

Fungus all around.