A peek at spring

I took a break from the uber cold wintry north and headed to Louisiana to visit Cokane. I was initially greeted by a cold rain and a couple crazed barking dogs. That quickly turned to sunshine, warmth, and breakdancing and bouncing dogs. I also got to enjoy a whole bunch of critters that would considered rare in New Jersey. Nevermind that short sleeve t-shirts were broken out in mid-January.

On the first night, a barred owl was spotted in a tree in a backyard in Baton Rouge. This was shocking to me considering I've always known them as a species that hangs out in big swamps or vast forest. But it seems it's not too surprising. I found this interesting article here.

Cokane and I headed out to the Cypress Island Preserve surrounding Lake Martin. We were determined to see some gators and I was just excited to see some bald cypress swamps and any other critters and plants. No gators were spotted. I suppose they are still hibernating. A couple turtles were spotted basking in this ideal day. Red-shouldered hawks were calling like crazy from all around.

On our various driving ventures, more NJ rare wildlife was spotted. An osprey or two always seemed to be hanging out. We passed a bald eagle's nest on the long and painfully straight drive to New Orleans.

Good things come in threes

We were back out doing the grassland bird study. I'm not sure if birdman is starting to trust me as a birder or just getting lazy. But he let us split up to tackle some fields. I got the fields recently mowed, which were not likely to have anything of interest. That was much better than the fields with the grass up to my nose. I did see three rare birds and was confident with the identification. But that was not what I was fixated on. I saw this dog like critter way in the distance. It was short, half hidden in the grass, and I thought perhaps a fox. Just looking at it's profile, it reminded me of a small hyena or something like that. It had some red on its head and it's body was mostly gray. But the tail was not fluffy and big like a fox. It was too small to be a full grown coyote and I didn't think the pups would be out by themselves hunting for mice in the grass. I called birdman but of course he didn't bring his cellphone. Then the critter spotted me and I lost it. Birdman and I met up and I told him about my discovery. We crossed the street and then I see birdman looking in his binoculars back across the street. I hear him say "Is that a coyote pup?" The spotting scope is busted enough and sure enough it was a coyote pup and it had a sibling...and wait another sibling. Three cutie coyote pups all by themselves. I hope mom is ok and is just hunting. We did see a coyote in that area a few weeks ago. They seemed awfully young to be out by themselves. (BTW that is not my pic. We never got that close to them.) They sat down on the ground and started nuzzling and rough housing. I so wanted to snorgle those pups and take them home with me. I would love to teach the scoundrel squirrels that raid my bird feeder and dig up my tomatoes a lesson.
We also saw a bald eagle. Cool but nearly as exciting and cute as puppies. Birdman found a nest in the grass. These guys are meadowlarks and their song is "spring of the earth". In a sad note, we found the remains of two fawns. I guess that's what happens when you have coyotes running around.