A Dead Giant

We were out in the swamp again last Wednesday. We managed to patch up our popped inflatable kayak, and it held up well. As we entered the Bayou we passed what we thought was a log in the water. My dad said that something was on top of the "log." Then I realized it wasn't a log at all, it was a dead animal. Two massive bloated legs were sticking out of the water, it looked like a dead baby Hippo! As we got nearer to it we saw that it was a huge turtle, a big Spiny Softshell Turtle. It was so huge it might have been older than 80. Some careless fisherman had put out a trot line, and the turtle took the bait, got stuck, and drowned.

Then we headed on to pick up our three camer traps. Two cameras had 1800 pictures, and the other one had 1400. We had aimed one at a large roost hole. Once I got home I looked at all the pictures. The camera facing the roost tree didn't have a Pileated or IBWO picture on it, so we'll place a camera facing the tree again soon. The other two cameras had some great pictures of wildlife, like a big hawk sitting on a scaled tree we faced the camera on. I posted the pictures below.

In a few days my dad and I are heading to Louisiana to search for the bird there. Where we're going is very near the "Project Coyote" search area-which has some very promising evidence that IBWOs are there. Maybe we'll find some evidence ourselves.

Also, be thinking of Frank Wiley, the Project Coyote leader, who has had his foot badly injured. Hope he gets well soon!