BAYOU (Day 3 - part 4)

Osprey feed on fish near the water's surface. Their nests are built from large sticks and grasses and can weigh up to 1/2 ton. The female lays two to four eggs per clutch from January through April. Both parents incubate the eggs.

Another great blue heron

The Great Egret is also protected. ... A red-bellied woodpecker

Another alligator moves in for some marshmallows.

And another one beelines it for us as we drive by.

We then turned down a very narrow waterway. It was currently only about 4 feet deep. Many like these were cut in order to drag trees out.

Thick, murky brown water

Our guide told stories of how he and his friends used to camp out here as kids. They would hunt and eat nutrias. Originally the large rodents were raised for their fur. When this went out of fashion, the animals were released and unfortunately thrived here. Hogs, coyotes and bobcats have also moved in.

Unfortunately the water was too low to go much farther. He had to push the boat back out of the trees since it doesn't have a reverse gear.

We began heading back to the dock.

Male alligators are usually bitten up and have more scars. Because the females can stop growing at 6.5 - 9 feet while the male can continue to grows until day it dies, a 7 - 10 year-old-male and a 40-year-old female can be the same size.

In the wider section of the bayou, we put on some headphones in preparation for some high-speed driving. The entire front of the boat lifted up!

Speeding along .... passing another flat-bottomed boat

Lightning hit this tree about 4 months ago.

The commerant was still there... Passing through the floodgate

The shrimp boats

We caught one of the shuttles back to our hotel.

A full view of the Crescent City Connection bridge over the Mississippi.

We grabbed a quick snack at Cafe Beignet.

A refreshing lemonade ... with BBQ shrimp and grits

My delicious rye bread veggie burger

The evening rush hour traffic was in full force on our way back to the hotel. We recovered from the heat for a while, enjoying the river traffic, then went to the restaurant downstairs for a light dinner.

Mr. Ed's

There weren't many vegetarian options so I got a wedge of iceburg lettuce with blue cheese. Sean enjoyed a gumbo.

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