On The Trail

We were out in Wattensaw once again last sunday. The water level has dropped a fair amount since the first time we were out here, but we can still easily move through the bayou in our kayak.

On this trip we decided to move farther down the bayou than we had before, and we did, but not without distractions along the way. Our distraction for the trip down the bayou came about when we turned a corner in our kayak near a very recently dead Nuttall Oak. My dad started yelling and pointing to the tree tops. He had seen a bird, but I didn't. I told him to throw me the camera and we pulled to the side of the bayou and gave chase, but of course we didn't see it. (How did John Dennis find it?) We stopped in a clearing and I questioned my dad on what he saw. He said it was black, he was not sure about white. He was sure it was bigger than a Pileated, and that it had fairly rapid wingbeats. Not the best sighting on earth, but we planted a camera trap on a tripod in the area anyway.

We then headed farther down the bayou, arriving at the spot where we heard the best double-knock we had ever heard. We had a camera trap aimed a one Cypress tree in particular, but we decided to pick it up on our way out.

We then passed the farthest point we had been, and not long after we heard something. KENT! "What was that?" "I don't know, but I recorded it." Kent, kent kent. Then, I realized it was just a Blue Jay doing its version of the call. That was confirmed by a normal jay call seconds later. We then turned around, we had a camera to get.

We arrived back at the spot where we heard the double-knock, where we replaced the camera trap with a fresh one. We are going to keep a camera in that one spot for a while, eventually something will surely land on it! We have some pretty good pictures, which I posted below. I have a good feeling about next week.