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Here's what lives out there, and how good your chances are of seeing it on a tour this fall. Print
it out and check them off. The Cajun names are in parentheses, and you'll find more of those on the
Cajun French page. I can't promise you any one animal. It's a swamp, not a
zoo. But I've never brought a boat back that didn't see something.
Every trip = I'd bet my boat on it. Often = most trips.
Sometimes = maybe one trip in three. Lucky = tell your friends.
| BIRDS |
| Bird | How to know it | This fall |
| Great egret | Big and white, yellow bill, black legs. Stands still as a fence post. | Every trip |
| Snowy egret | Smaller and white, black bill, black legs with yellow feet. | Often |
| Great blue heron | Tall and gray-blue, four feet high. Croaks at you when he flies off. | Every trip |
| Little blue heron | Dark slate blue. The young ones are white, just to confuse you. | Often |
| Night heron (gros-bec) | Stocky, hunched up on a branch all day, out hunting at night. | Often |
| White ibis (bec-croche) | White with a long, down-curved orange-red bill. Travels in a crowd. | Often |
| Anhinga | Swims with just the snaky neck out of the water, then sits with wings spread to dry. Some call it the water turkey. | Often |
| Wood duck | You'll hear the hen squeal before you see her. The drake is the prettiest duck there is. | Sometimes |
| Blue-winged teal | Small, fast ducks in tight flocks. The first ducks south every fall. | Sometimes, now |
| Belted kingfisher | Blue-gray with a big head, rattles at you as he flies down the bayou. | Often |
| Red-shouldered hawk | Loud. Screams from the treetops like somebody stepped on its tail. | Often |
| Osprey | Brown and white fish hawk. Hits the water feet first. | Sometimes |
| Barred owl | You'll hear it hooting in the afternoon more than you'll see it. Big dark eyes. | Sometimes |
| Pileated woodpecker | Crow-sized, with a red crest. Knocks like a hammer. | Sometimes |
| Roseate spoonbill | Pink, with a bill shaped like a spoon. Wanders in from the coast now and then. | Lucky |
| Bald eagle | They come back to nest in the Basin for the winter. Look up in the tallest cypress. | Lucky, later in the fall |
| Prothonotary warbler | The swamp canary, bright yellow, nests in holes in the cypress. | Gone south till spring |
| REPTILES AND FROGS |
| Animal | How to know it | This fall |
| American alligator (cocodrie) | You know what a gator looks like. Most active in the warm months. This time of year they sun on the banks in the afternoon. By November they slow way down, and in a cold snap they hardly move at all. | Every trip through October |
| Red-eared slider | The turtles stacked up on every log, with a red streak behind the eye. They slide off when we get close. That's the name. | Every trip |
| Snapping turtles | The common snapper, and the alligator snapper, which gets as big as a washtub. They mostly stay on the bottom. | Lucky |
| Water snakes | Brown and banded, sunning on the branches. Not poisonous, and they get blamed for everything. | Often |
| Cottonmouth | Thick, dark and venomous. Opens its mouth to show you the white inside. We look, and we leave it be. | Sometimes |
| Green anole | The little lizard on the pilings that turns from green to brown. | Often |
| Bullfrog (ouaouaron) | Big, green, and sounds like somebody blowing across a jug. Say the Cajun name out loud and you'll hear it. | Heard often, seen sometimes |
| CRITTERS WITH FUR |
| Animal | How to know it | This fall |
| Nutria | A big brown rodent with orange front teeth and a rat's tail. Came from South America for the fur farms back in the thirties, got loose, and has been eating the marsh down to the mud ever since. | Often |
| Raccoon (chaoui) | Washing his supper at the water's edge. | Sometimes |
| River otter | Sleek and dark, and having more fun than anybody in the swamp. | Lucky |
| White-tailed deer | On the higher ground and the spoil banks, early and late. | Sometimes |
| Swamp rabbit | A big rabbit that will swim if it has to. | Sometimes |
| Louisiana black bear | Yes, there are bears in the Basin. I've seen two from the boat in five years. | Very lucky |
| TREES AND PLANTS |
| Plant | What to look for |
| Bald cypress | The king of the swamp. Wide at the bottom, with knees sticking up out of the water all around it. It's a needle tree that drops its needles: they go rusty orange in November and fall off for the winter. The giant stumps you'll see are from the cypress logging around the turn of the century. |
| Water tupelo | Grows right alongside the cypress, with a swollen trunk at the waterline. The bees make honey from its flowers in the spring. |
| Spanish moss | Not a moss at all, and not Spanish either. It's kin to the pineapple, an air plant that takes what it needs from the air and the rain and doesn't hurt the tree. People used to cure it and stuff mattresses and car seats with it. |
| Black willow | On the edges of the open water. The egrets roost in them at night. |
| Swamp red maple | The first tree to turn red in the fall, and the first to bloom red at the end of winter. |
| Buttonbush | A shrub at the water's edge with round, ball-shaped flower heads in summer. |
| Palmetto | Low fan-shaped leaves on the higher ground. |
| Resurrection fern | Grows along the big limbs. In a dry spell it curls up brown and looks dead, and after a rain it's green again the next morning. |
| American lotus | Big round leaves standing up out of the water, yellow flowers in summer, and now the seed pods that look like shower heads. |
| Water hyacinth | Pretty purple flowers, and a pest. It came from South America and chokes up whole bayous if you let it. |
| Duckweed | The bright green carpet on the still water. Tiny plants, millions of them. The ducks do eat it. |
Saw something that's not on the list? Tell me at the landing, or write me at
[email protected], and if I believe you, it goes on
the page.
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