Restoration Update 2018:

The restoration is looking good as a whole, there are problematic areas that always need tending to but all in all I think it's going well.

In a nearly always flooded landscape Cypress seedling seemingly take forever to get above the shrub layer. Every winter I wonder if any have survived, and without leaves they were nearly impossible to find, but in Spring there are always more than I expected and my nervousness lets up. In this 45' plot I can easily identify 15 trees at a good spacing. This is going to be a beautiful spot........ (in 100 years!).  You are welcome kids.

Each season there is more abundance and diversity in the Prairie plots, Indigo and False Indigo are amongst the first to flower and stand out sharply.

Tallow trees all gone, now you can more easily see the transplanted Iris and Cypress that circle the flooded wooded potholes.

Hoo's watching who? I always feel like I'm being watched out here !

2-18-2018, Bald Eagle. Spooked two while walking in.

2-18-2018, Barred Owl

2-18-2018, Gator in the little pond























 

Just when you think you know what you've got..........

Always something new going on at the place and something new to catalog. The Acadiana Master Naturalists came out to the property after a half day of presentations at LDWF in New Iberia and walked a loop around the place learning about all the restoration efforts. Billy F. came along and wanted to net some fish  and minnows for a project he is working on at home.

Billy F. educating A.M.N. students (probably with Cricket Frog in hand).

After the A.M.N. left we went back into the property to find some puddles. We brought a dip net and a bucket with a battery powered air stone to keep the catch alive until Billy could get em home. First puddle we stopped at we drug the net through the 2-4 inch deep water and caught some Sailfin Mollies, Green Sunfish, Golden Top Minnows, Sheepshead Minnows, lots of crawfish .....AND...a minnow that looked different. 

Bayou Killifish (this is an update to my original post where the minnow was identified as a Salt Marsh Topminnow).

Here she is in all her glory! 2-17-2017