Grand Isle Migratory Bird Festival

Great weekend!

It took me about 2 hours, 45 minutes to get to Grand Isle – stopping to check tires, at the tourist center to get a map, and lunch.

The first thing that struck me as I approached Grand Isle was that the houses are WAY HIGH UP. The pilings are – golly, I don’t know – maybe 14 feet and the houses are that high up.

And as I approached Grand Isle, I saw many signs welcoming birders – even into people’s backyards.

I checked into my hotel room and learned there was no water in the town because of fixing pipes (it was later remedied and fine). The manager said it’s a regular problem, because the salt water corrodes everything so badly.

Then I drove around the town a little and went to the school where the Migratory Bird Festival was out of. Even the school was high up on pilings!

I met some folks and then we headed out to the bird trail. Within the first 10 minutes or so, I’d seen enough amazing birds to make the trip worthwhile – scarlet tanagers, summer tanagers, orchard orioles, indigo buntings, American red start, and many more. Gazillions hummingbirds. Fantastic.

Here’s one pic of a scarlet tanager – it’s slightly to the right, in the middle. They’re an amazing beautiful red. (Don’t confuse the hummingbird feeders!) (I was going to crop the pic, but I thought this would be good evidence that I tell the truth – I cannot photograph birds.)

And here are some wild irises – my very favorite flowers. How fitting that they would be Louisiana’s state flower! The Nature Conservancy and some other organizations have about 100 acres of wildlife reserve there, of the native oak-hackberry habitat.
I met some fun people, including a couple from Juneau of all places! They’ve been traveling around the lower 48 for the past 3 years, living out of their van with a pop-up top (for the bed). It’s a totally sweet van – I’d live in it!

After the bird trail, I headed out to the beach. Yes, Kate Chopin’s beach. I had a great walk from the state park clear to the end, wrapping around to the bay. It’s so invigorating and satisfying to walk along the beach. Once I left the park area, there was nobody around and it was awesome. In the first pic below, you see the bayou to the left and the Gulf of Mexico to the right. And I just thought this was a way cool sand layering pattern.
And here, some funky critter-holes. This made me glad that Selma wasn't along. Anything dead and rotting she thinks is some way-wonderful perfume, and usually before I can grab her she's rolled it, writhing in ecstasy. BLECH! Bathtime! I saw about 6 dead pelicans, which seemed a lot. And here's the ubiquitous oil industry. Sigh.
Once the beach tent camping is reopened there, I’m definitely heading back!

Then I had dinner and headed back to the hotel, where I saw the sunset on the pier as people fished all around me. I got a little homework done while half-watching Stargate.

I didn’t sleep great, but it was ok. After my hotel room breakfast (that was a great idea, that I did that), I headed out to the marina for the boat tour. And waited. And waited. Some other people joined me later and they waited, too. I chatted up a couple, originally from New Orleans, and they were awesome – quirky and NOT RACIST and fun-loving positive retirees.

Once we decided that the boat wasn’t coming, we headed back to the school. Found out that the weather was too inclement for the boat captain (barely a drizzle and not much wind, so I don’t know – think he’s a wienie – the real “weather” didn’t start until hours later), so we signed up for the Island History Tour with a local, Vera Chighizola, direct descendant of “Nez Coupé” – Louis Chighizola, one of Pirate Jean Lafitte’s right-hand men. How cool is that – her great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was a pirate so mean he lost his nose in a brawl? Here's Vera, who is my height, showing how high the water got in Katrina - almost to her house but not quite. Once the power was turned on October 8, 2005, she was fine - just needed some minor roof repair, but Mennonite volunteers did that for her - she just provided the supplies. (Don't get me started on the Mennonites - THEY ROCK.)

We saw lots of fun things – like this house, where women of the town would gather every day at 3 pm after lunch dishes were done and children were home from school and told to go out and play. They would gather to catch up and spend quality time – and I sure wish I’d written down the Cajun word for it - make (faire) something that begins with a V.

Speaking of Cajun v words, this is a cattle guard – something like villveau, which means “cattle-turn-around.” Grand Isle used to have tons of cows wandering all around, so people would put these in their backyards instead of gates so the cows couldn’t get in.

There’s also this house, which is two houses connected. Long ago, the small house on the right, the mother’s, was located here, and the son’s, the larger part, was down a street away. During a big storm (Betsy?), the son’s house got moved there, so instead of moving it back they just attached ‘em. Cajun ingenuity, although Grand Isle is NOT Cajun – it’s mostly descendants of Lafitte’s “privateers” (pirates), so lots of different kinds of people (Chighizola was Italian, and others English and all sorts of things), though Cajun French was the lingua franca back in the day.

As you see here, even the Town Hall is elevated – as were the post office, community center, etc. Vera’s cousin evacuated here during Betsy, and the altimeter broke at 175 mph. Sheesh!

After the Island History Tour, I headed over to the Butterfly Dome – really nicely done. Not too many butterflies – but I think that’s because visitors don’t know better and they let them out – I saw the people that came in behind me held the door open a long time, and I saw some butterflies get out.

Then I went back to the school and waited for lunch, chatting up some folks, and hiding from the hard rain in the van of the camping Alaskans.

The jambalaya and white beans were EXCELLENT – far better than I get in any restaurant. It was a fundraiser for a cancer patient, and during lunch we chatted up the locals organizing it.

What a great place! One of the women, she lives in LaRose (45 minutes away) and had a camp in Grand Isle, but can’t afford to rebuild after Katrina. So she comes every weekend and stays with different friends. THAT is the kind of place Grand Isle is. The tight-knit sense of community is fantastic.

I SO want to buy a camp there now and have all my friends come visit me!

I left after post-lunch chat, and I made it back in two hours. I had planned to stay until later this afternoon, but it was raining really hard and my homework started to way on my mind.

Now I blog and post pics, reflecting on my really great mini-vacation, listening to Jack Johnson, getting ready to buckle down for the next 3.5 weeks of intensive studying.

And I’ll be going back to Grand Isle! Who wants to join me??

rituals

Before any trip, particularly one involving outdoorsy pursuits, I call Susan and we check over my packing list. Rarely have I forgotten something, but it pretty much satisfies my OCD. And, she's a good sport about it, which is probably why we've been close friends for so long. I really, really miss her mom - I think about her all the time, especially anything like gardening. She died when I was in Elim, so I think in 2000, but we all still really miss her.

Susan has no voice right now - just like her dog. Otter lost her voice, gosh, years ago now I guess. I keep forgetting it - every time I hear a dog barking in the background I say, "Oh, is that Otter?" Nope, it's always the little bossy one. So now Susan and Otter really match, though I hope Sue gets over the laryngitis soon.

Toni Morrison was great. My classmate Jeff went and we sat together, and that was actually more fun than being there alone - we have shared symbolism now. I went back to school grab some books and ran into his roommate, who had never heard of Toni Morrison. Sigh. I bet you big money that he knows all the MALE Nobel Laureates.

Best line of the night, when asked if she thought Kurt Vonnegut should win the Nobel Prize for Literature (after she talked about what a great person he was): Sure, why not? Nobel prizes, they're for everyone.

So, I think I have pretty much everything packed, including books to study from (I'm outlining all my classes) and a French Press to make my own damn coffee. That watery stuff they serve places, it always sucks. I know Tiff has that fondness for gas station coffee, but I'm thinking that's more about QT with the bearded musher. And to accompany it, I'm taking oatmeal - it won't be the excellent star quality I've perfected, but it'll do. Lunch Saturday is a Cajun thing - I think they said jambalaya and white beans, my very favorite things - so I have to keep my appetite for that. I plan to eat out Friday evening, but I'm taking camp food just in case I don't feel like it. It's like I'm trying to camp while staying in the motel room - and yeah, you're right, that whole coffee thing - it's about wanting to use my Jetboil. Love it. And I'm taking extra clothes because it's supposed to rain on Saturday. And I hate staying wet.

I have the rest of the semester mapped out with "to-do" lists, and I don't have a single free evening all next week - all sorts of meetings and the like. WTF is up with that? Finals start in about two weeks, and they have meetings NOW?

I just learned about getting on journals - there are summer "write-ons" which means you get a writing assignment you have to work on for the first month of summer break. Don't know how that fits into my plans, but it's not really optional. Getting law jobs is so rigid - they look only for certain things, so if those lack, it doesn't matter about all my other incredible experiences. Sigh. Oh well. Two more years. And it doesn't suck all the time.

OK, and for all that reading that I didn't do while I was listening to Toni Morrison (time well spent), I have to get up at the crack of dawn to take care of tomorrow before class. And then I have to slip out of Con Law without running into the Property professor (whose office is next door to the classroom where I'm in Con Law) and my weekend adventures BEGIN! Woo hoo! I don't really understand my enthusiasm for this little jaunt. I fear a little that because I have such high expectations I'll only be let down. And Michael and Miriam, who were there a couple weeks ago, did say it sucks. But I don't think I'll be disappointed - I think that I will learn new things and see new things and it will be wonderful even if not somehow perfect.

this weekend

I have no idea why I'm so excited about this weekend, but I am. Thrilled.

I'm going to Grand Isle, the only inhabited island in Louisiana (yeah, I have to cross a bloody bridge to get there), about as far south as civilization in Louisiana goes. It's right between the Gulf of Mexico (salt water) and Barataria Bay (fresh water), so the nature there is supposed to be incredible because of the estuary. It's apparently a huge fisherperson's paradise - and I'm not a big fishing fan, but when I saw some of the fish caught I was impressed. They have a a gazillion fish camps there that people rent out for a season or a week, and every lodging place has fish cleaning stations and outdoor cooking spaces.

But it's also a paradise for birders, so I'm going to the Migratory Bird Festival. I'll go on two birding excursions by foot and another by boat. And, there will be a mini-expo there and maybe I'll actually get some better binoculars. The ones I have now work ok, and they're nice and little, but they're limited.

I made a hotel reservation, after being told the campground there is just a big parking lot full of RVs. Yuck. So, in a hotel room I shall stay. That's easier ... plus this way I can actually do some work Friday evening. Ugh. And then I'll come back Saturday night, so I'll have all day Sunday to be productive.

Anyway, I'm way psyched about it and hope it meets my expectations. I haven't had an adventure since December. Mini-adventure visiting Kim in March, but that was Mobile suburbs so doesn't really count.

But until then ... guess I better hit the books. Sigh.

frying plantains on a jetboil

So, I missed the chance for a cheap hotel room in Grand Isle this weekend because I didn't make reservations. The only ones I get info about now are over $100/night. And maybe I could somehow find that money - but I'm damn cheap.

There is, of course, the campground. I like to camp, I have all the gear I need. I even just did the little happy clap at the thought of using my jet boil to make coffee and breakfast.

Only worries: if I get forced to camp next to RVs. It'll be hot and they'll be running their A/Cs and it's SO obnoxious to be near that. Hot is another worry, and bugs - I hear the mosquitos there are HORRIBLE. Honestly, I don't know what I'm getting into - everything has been destroyed there so many times, most recently from Katrina. What if - what if there's no *gasp* shower?

Yeah, yeah, I'm such a baby. But I like to be clean when I spend a day out with people I don't know. It perks me up, gets me going. Without a shower I feel grungy all damn day.

OK, I'm thinking jet boil wins. And I still have plenty of camp food so I wouldn't even have to go out to eat. But I will. Because it's Louisiana.

I'm so damn excited about this weekend. Best part of camping? I can't really take my books and computer. Where would I study? That's rhetorical - I know Michele has electricity in her truck, but I don't and I'm keeping it that way. Yeah, it's just car camping, but it's still camping. We had SUCH a great time camping in the national forest last month, far away from the RVs and I just had wild land to look at and hear.

OH, that's my only real hold-up. The clean-up. I just finally got all my gear clean again, and now I want to camp on a freakin BEACH?! Sand and critters and all sorts of stuff that I won't want to store.

Sigh.

I'm doing it for the sunrise. And a break from law school, which I don't take nearly as seriously as plantains and frijoles. I can see me at job interviews, trying to explain why eating great Honduran food and chasing migratory birds (I won't really chase them - they're EXHAUSTED and need to be left alone) was more important that studying. Shrug. Who cares about those future career nay-sayers. I have a jet boil that NEEDS to be used. It cries out to me, pathetically beseeching attention. Who am I to refuse my darling jetboil?

Yup, I'm a gear puta.

bayou images

For those of you who've never been on the bayou, here are some pics to help imagine it. I didn't take any myself because I feel I can't really capture it - but here's a reasonable attempt.

And one of my favorite sightings today, which I almost forgot to mention - green anoles! I do love the herptiles - they make my day.

parula paradise

Birding this morning was awesome - outside the City of Jean Lafitte (complete with a tourism center which is all automatic puppets of the Pirate Lafitte's alleged deeds) at a boardwalk on a bayou between an elementary school and a dump station (for those of you who've never hauled your own trash - that's where you take it when you don't have those big trucks coming for it every week). Everybody else out there was local, doing their exercise three times around the boardwalk - it's a GREAT place out there on the bayou, with all the cypress knees and general swampiness.

I very proudly saw and identified a cardinal (yeah, those are tough), and confirmed a Phoebe sighting (I'm used to the Black Phoebes, one of my favorite birds, but these Eastern Phoebes were similar in shape and song). (Not that I am good with birdsongs AT ALL. But I wish I were.)

But almost everything else was new to me - some I've never heard of before. Parula? Never seen one of those on the tundra. And every time I'd look it up in the guidebook - yup, sure enough, no habitat where I've lived before.

Among my favorite sightings were two alligators in the bayou and three large turtles on an opposite bank who were sunning themselves in a military-style row.

Other birds seen (that I remember): anhinga, bluebirds, tufted titmouse, female red-winged blackbirds, red-shouldered hawk, white ibis, chickadee, swamp sparrows, starlings (boo-hiss!), mockingbirds (in the parking lot), turkey and black vultures, golden-crowned and ruby-crowned kinglets (they're so cute and nervous - they flutter almost like hummingbirds), blue-headed vireo, yellow-rumped and yellow-throated and prothonotary warblers.

The group I was with was really knowledgeable, and they were willing to help out a novice like me. Thanks Crescent Bird Club!

Unfortunately I feel like hell so won't make the parade today (little sleep last night, headache, backache, vomiting this morning, nasty cough and general malaise). I'll try to rest up today so that I can still go to Alabama tomorrow - and if I don't get better, well, Kim's a nurse so it's probably about the best place I could be! :)

Welcome to Melder

It was a very nice weekend at 4B Ranch. We got there late afternoon, got set up and oriented. They had a BYOB saloon! And there were full bathrooms and fire pit, BBQ, and even a full open-air kitchen for use - but it was far enough away from where we camped that it was like roughing it without being rough. Our group headed out for a walk, and I lasted about 10 minutes before I announced I was heading off on my own.

Over the weekend, I saw a number of great birds, including Eastern bluebird, cardinal (male and female), red-headed woodpecker and another woodpecker species, and a flycatcher of some sort.

After my solo birding we had dinner - our guides were of the primitive camping mindset. Over an open fire we made little foil packets of raw hamburger, frozen vegetables, and chopped potatoes with a bunch of Tony Chachere's, followed immediately with smores.

And then it started to get COLD. We huddled around the fire, trying to stay up long enough to not be up all night. Got to hang out with other visitors to the ranch and had a good time, and I even got to practice my German. It got down to about 30 degrees - yes, below freezing. And I was of course fine, because I am an REI whore. But I slept with two layers in my -20 Sierra bag on a thermarest, wearing a hat and socks. Some of my miserable compatriots were less well-prepared and suffered miserably. I only woke up because my bag is a mummy and every time I try to toss and turn there's a problem, and I wake up and then go right back to sleep.

Morning was beautiful, and I got to lay there waiting for the edge to get off the chill while listening to a forest of birds. Breakfast, including some coffee because it was so damn cold, and about 10:00, half of us headed out on horseback.

I spent every childhood summer on horseback and I've been thrown at least twice. Maybe I'm just getting old, but when I got up on that horse and looked down CLEAR to the ground, it seemed mighty far. So we took off, and Midnight and I made some things clear such that I really was the boss and I wasn't going to tolerate his mischief (he kept trying to race to be first, or to head after the horses going back home - and when I first refused that he tried to run under low-hanging trees to knock me off - but I was having none of that and then he was the best-behaved horse there).

These were some feisty horses. Usually when I see trailride horses their personalities have been beaten out of them and they look physically miserable and spiritually dead. Not these horses - they seem to have a pretty damn good life with a whole huge pasture to play in and they were very well-fed and cared-for. But I don't think that they were necessarily the best horses for beginners. We had three students from China who just really couldn't control their horses, and the language barrier made it a problem. Their horses kept turning around and heading home, and the guide would chase them down and so forth. I ran out of patience, so when we had to chase one guy all the way back to the ranch to get another guide to help out, I said I'd stay behind. I'm happier closer to the ground anyway.

So, I had some great conversations with some real Cajun folks and I got some great recipes. Then I went out and looked at some more birds and walked around the huge pastures. We had lunch and when the other group went out to ride I chilled with a book and took a nap and chatted it up with the other people some more. Then we hopped in the van and rode along at 90 mph.

A very nice weekend! I liked being in National Forest again - all those logging roads and side trails are like home to me.

Unfortunately though, the Brownies didn't finish my paper for me while I was gone, so that is still here.

backpacking in New Orleans

I thought of Rick today ("Mr. Tiff") when I got an unsympathetic "pack it yourself" look. One time Rick and another teacher killed a caribou and packed it out on their backs. They were the real Eskimos there.

So I asked my classmate who's coming camping tomorrow how he's getting to the pickup spot. "Oh, we'll probably walk. We're not far away." "Neither am I, it's just ..." What I didn't want to say aloud is, I'm taking a couple heavy books with me. I'm going camping to read?

His neighbor suggested where I could park my car and walk over - and his suggestion was actually further than my apartment. "Yeah, I can walk, it's just ..."

"You'll start the backpacking part early." And he used a perfect tone to use with me - nothing annoying or patronizing about it. But still, a little part of me wanted to snap, "You need to shave your neck!"

I know he's right and I'm not sure when exactly I became SUCH a city girl as to think that for a weekend trip I can't carry all my gear. Yeah, that birding book is real heavy, but so what. Of course for a weekend isn't much less gear than for a week - I'm taking tent, sleeping bags, camer,a flashlight, binoculars, etc. And reading material. But I did stop myself from tossing in the laptop to get a bit more work done on my brief.

I added up my credits and time in school again and realized that I have to attend summer school in order to be able to get the Masters without increasing time at school. So, that's first priority though it's about the last thing I really want to do. But, if somebody were to call me up right now and offer me a great paying job for the whole summer, I'd do it and skip the masters. I already have one masters - why would I want another? Because I think I can learn interesting things in the international development program.

Even though the guy interviewing me today said I travel more than the 182nd Airborne Division. He's funny, that one.

Oh, and at this firm that won't hire me this year, the first woman to become a lawyer in Louisiana still works there. She's like 93 years old (maybe he was exaggerating) and still walks up the five flights of stairs to her office every day. That's awesome. "So what I hear you saying," I said, "Is that a career at your firm is a promise of longevity and health. You had me at king cake."

And no, there's no king cake in my pack.

Which, Jenny, I very much appreciate your offer. And I had a brilliant idea as I was walking today - how about a wedding king cake? It seems perfect for me, New Orleans, and the wedding kegger. Does anybody have to even ask what my wedding colors are? Purple green and gold, of course - which would only possibly be rivaled by black and gold if Dayton gets here and the Saints are doing so well again. We could be married in jerseys.

Although, I'm pretty upset that Joe Horn was released. That's a sad loss.