California Bayous

Some years back, a few friends and I took a Louisiana bayou tour just outside of New Orleans. It was cheesy, but fun. Shared cheese often is.

Aside from the camaraderie, the best part of the cruise wasn't actually the scenery and wildlife - it was the storytelling, deep voice, and gravelly accent of the character Cajun man that gave us the tour. For us, he made the cruise.

"Down here on da bayou, ya got yore possum, yore raccoon, yore squirrel, rabbit 'n rat."

"Or, as we call 'em - da weekday dinnars."

Serious local flavor.

Back on December 2nd, Codger and I started a little wetland cam trapping in the Sacramento Valley that reminded me of that day on the bayou. Maybe it was all the mosquitoes.


Tree and shrub shrouded waterways


Deep, dense canopy and understory

In a tangle of pokeweed, blackberries and poison oak, I set a cam on a large fallen tree.


The tangle where my cam trap was set

The eroding, muddy rootball of the downed-tree was about 4 feet off the ground, and - in a dent in the dirt - had a midsize-mammal latrine on it. Seemed the perfect spot.

As you've likely learned from the Codger and Camera U, we didn't know at the time how fortuitous that 4 feet of clearance would be for my cam.

It survived the December deluges, and ran until the batteries died, taking 273 pics.

And, much like the bayou, it got yore possum, yore raccoon, yore squirrel, rabbit 'n rat.











And, since it's a latrine, it got yore possum and raccoon pooping too.





Plus, yore wet possum sniffin' dem scats.



Of these characters, the cottontail is actually a bit odd. What's it doing up on a downed tree? Even the Codge was perplexed by the behavior.

Wild turkey, spotted towhee and hermit thrush also dropped in - 3 birds you might too see in the backwoods of Louisiana.

Last - this cam also caught me an elusive wishlister that we had heard was around, and the wise Codger predicted I'd get - yet I still almost didn't believe when I saw it.

One that definitely ain't found down on da bayou...

:)

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References:

• Camera Trap Codger - Camera U's final gift

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