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Holy smokes that is a large reptile..........

Can I share those photos with a buddy?

Sure, feel free. While not a good shot, I held onto my first attempt at photographing him for it's "holy crap" value:


Big and awkward as he appeared, he was surprisingly quick - and quick to hit the water at the first hint of trouble, whether visual or scent.

Nutria control......It'd be a shame to see the old man go. He's seen a lot happen there, I'd bet.

Got a look at how they eventually go if not shot last Fall, and much as I dislike alligators, seeing one starve was heartbreaking:

I remember that photo. Was it attached to a line?

Nope, it had apparently quit eating before the September gator season, when friends with the permit couldn't get it to bite, and was barely mobile in a road ditch by November.

it is a sad deal........we had a 14 footer the wieghed less than 750 pounds........That's a size 12 in his mouth

Little doubt did him a service.

Still plugging along with young Marsh, aka: the bug's, education. Some days he's still the worst marking Chesapeake ever whelped, other days he looks like he might just make a dog by Fall. Been something of a pain to both work with the young gun and give the old, deaf coyote, Peake, his due in the field, so progress has no doubt been slower than if the coyote were ready for the couch. The old man pretty much exercises himself, but I still have to keep half an eye out to steer him from trouble:


Pup and I slipped off without him this morning and got in some big dog marks in some flooded pasture gone to marsh on my favorite piece of Louisiana. And I was staying in the shallows on the way back to the truck, trying to get a little more exercise from the hike, and lost in thought about what a fine job the bug had done, how much I loved the spot and if I ever hit the PowerBall...

When I realized I'd very nearly stumbled into this little peckerwood floating in my path all cocked back and showing off his namesake:


He was right at a half mile from the nearest house, which normally would have gotten him a pass, but startled me so that nunchucked him with a retrieving bumper about as quick as I could have said "Scat."

And while I'm in the reptile/amphibian photobucket, here's one that had me fooled for a while. Was puzzling over a pair of some sort of fish that were tailing or some-such in unison away from a crawfish pond bank the other morning, when this dude, Frogzilla, popped up to solve that mystery:




He surfaced too far out for my little camera's lens to do justice, and there was nothing near him to provide size reference, but what I thought tailing choupique or other fish were the feet of a frog too big to swim below the crawfish pond's surface. Don't see that every day.

that's a horse there for sure! Has my thinkin about Jenny Rose frog legs a couple years back......

That one's in the first set of crawfish ponds on the right as you come down off the big bridge. Good friend (Garrett, who you know from the observatory) owns it, but you can bet his hands will all but seine the place when frogs open again.

That big fat thing probably gorged itself on crawfish. I was out near the Bayou Benoit area this weekend and I don't remember ever hearing so many frogs at one time...all morning long. It was crazy.


That photo with the gator makes me uneasy. What did you do to to steer him out of there? Did the gator submerge?

That little 4-5' has been in one of the crawfish ponds all Spring, and he and the coyote had a little dust up early on, with the gator appearing to come out the winner. Since that time, though, it's been he who makes way for the coyote, and he makes a handy, relatively safe gator for me to "no, leave it" Marsh away from. Knock wood.

I never realized just how badass those big bull frogs are until I saw a mouse in the stomach contents of one we killed last summer

Know they eat rice rats but would imagine cats and elephants, too, if they could catch 'em.

I've not seen him again, but have been thinking that he probably wouldn't be that tough to grab in daylight, because he'd play hob hiding under water that's too shallow to much more than cover him.

'Course one of Garrett's hands might have grabbed him the first open night...

Did see this mottled duck egg in the shallows out there this morning:


Was in a spot the dogs routinely pass and well away from anywhere I've seen mottleds flush, so it would be interesting to know what carried it however far it must have been.

Rick wrote:Must have edited the part about anything falling for it:

Those guys shunned me.
You've never heard me talk shit about them and boy I got a ton of little stories about them that I know GD well they would scream bloody murder if they sighted me posting about it. They thought I was a federal game warden for a while until I saved their asses a few times. It was fun until they decorated me in my sleep. Kid stuff but it pissed me off so bad that I made this. They gave me shit because I'd been painting goose pits black, cleaning all their birds, and my hands looked like...a hard working man's hands. Dang pussies.


The only time I have ever shot specks was with them. Got a twofer once and both birds missed Mike Jones by inches. Straight up shot and they both landed in or on the blind. Touche.

Doesn't sound like you've lost much. Onward and upward...

Made an early, and fruitless, survey of possible gator nest sites on DComeaux and Jarren's leases yesterday and found the place as grown up and flooded as expected. What I hadn't expected there was running into a pair of whoopers hunting in the south center cut:


They were nice enough to holler for, or at, me, and I gave them wide birth, just in case they were working on a family. Which seemed all the more possible when one slipped off before I'd the presence of mind to take the above. If that's the case, they've found the least disturbed plot of ground for miles around on which to give it a go.

very cool! Bet that whoop can give you a startle had you not seen them and encountered unexpectedly.

In this case, I'd seen them first but initially thought big-assed herons before getting close enough for better ID and eventually get fussed by them. First time I've seen them in any kind of cover, which they were stretched out and plainly stalking for game until spotting me.

Jarren, I saw that there's still some sort of DIY 4-wheeler buffalo out there. Didn't look hard enough to see if it was something I could readily move for you, but someone else might...

Been Jonesing for the season and rereading my old logs. Ran into this favorite photo taken after Hurricane Ike all but wiped out our 2008 September teal season:

Jarren wrote:

If you see that frog again snatch him up and start heading east I'll pick him up from you and we can split the prize LoL


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We have a place on Blind River........I can assure you, you don't need a frog to have a good time at the BRB...........course you could leave with more frogs than you came with too

Rick wrote:Made an early, and fruitless, survey of possible gator nest sites on DComeaux and Jarren's leases yesterday and found the place as grown up and flooded as expected. What I hadn't expected there was running into a pair of whoopers hunting in the south center cut:


They were nice enough to holler for, or at, me, and I gave them wide birth, just in case they were working on a family. Which seemed all the more possible when one slipped off before I'd the presence of mind to take the above. If that's the case, they've found the least disturbed plot of ground for miles around on which to give it a go.

and ole friend of mine, Danny Womack, used to chase these down for photos every year.......seems early though to see them?? No??