Pascagoula River boat tour

All the volunteers and interns were off this morning on a Pascagoula River boat tour; compliments of the refuge.  We all piled into the van and headed off on our adventure.

We got in the boat docked at the local Audubon Society center, and headed down the bayou.  It was kind of foggy and overcast, but the weatherman had promised that skies would clear.
The Pascagoula is one of the last rivers in the lower 48 states that hasn’t been dammed or diverted.
After passing through the marsh, we headed down a tributary to the swamp.  There are lots of bald cypress in this swamp.  They have rather shallow root systems, so if a big wind, like Katrina, comes along, many of them topple.

Along the way, we saw an old osprey nest that was being used by a pair of great horned owls to raise this year’s young.  You can barely see the “horns” of one of these owls on the nest.  When the owls fledge, a pair of ospreys will move back in and use this nest.

You’ll have to excuse my anthropomorphism in my following batch of osprey pictures, but I just couldn’t resist. 
                    “Where is that man?  He knows I want to remodel today!”
                              “It’s about time!  Put the supplies in the nest.”
“Egad!  You call that a stick?  You know that’s not what I wanted!  Go find what I told you to.”

                                                                             “ Yes, dear…”

                                                                              “Is this better?”

After a two hour ride, we did find one four foot alligator on our return trip back to the dock.  It really hasn’t been warm enough for a long enough time to see many ‘gators’ yet.  When we returned to the Audubon center, Doug was waiting there with four huge pizzas for our lunch.  It was an enjoyable trip, but I’m thinking I’d like to do it again in about six weeks when things have turned green, and the neo-tropical bird migrants have begun to arrive.  What a trip that could be!

Thanks for stopping by…. talk to you later,  Judy