Don't Bite More Than You Can Swallow

        I was sittin' on da boat when I noticed a seagull trying to swallow a rather large fish he had plucked out of our wheelwash.  I grabbed my camera and got this picture of him struggling with it.

             I was surprised when an Egret suddenly swooped into the picture and stole the fish from the seagull.

             I watched him struggle with the fish for awhile to get it into swallowing position.  Swallowing it wrong is bad news for a birdie.  The fins open up and scratch their way down.  After some time he finally managed to choke it down.

You can tell by the lump in his throat that it was almost too big for him to swallow.  Wonder who was next in line to try; a pelican maybe? 

Wild Canaries

When I was young, I used to see these little yellow birds all over the western Atchafalaya Basin where I grew up.  My Grandpa and Dad usta call them wild Canaries.  It was a joy to see them flitting through the bushes cheeping at us on early morning fishing trips.  It was only much later in life when I learned that they were finches. Nowdays, I see them often in the morning on the boat, in the early morning, while drinking coffee and waiting on the regular morning radio call from the office.  This little fella happened to hop into range of my zoom lens (thankfully, before the camera fell hard down onto the deck and broke).  These little guys will be, forever in my mind, wild canaries, despite what some learned college professor may say.  I can still hear my grandfather whistling little cheeps at them, and them returning the calls as we fished along.  A truly golden memory.

A Fish "Tail"

It was a long, strange ten-week hitch.  My relief captain got promoted to captain of another boat and that left us short-handed.  My pilot "pulled" 6 weeks and moved into the relief captain's hitch and position.  They didn't have anyone to take the pilot slot so I rode over 'til they found someone.  I wish I had pictures of the several 5 gallon buckets full of catfish we caught, to show yall, but my camera broke and I didn't get their picture.  I wish I had a picture of the monster that got away, but it broke the 80 lb test nylon line we were using, before I could get a picture of his bucket-sized mouth.  I wish I could tell yall what a fight this 20 + lb fish (in the picture with some five gallon buckets) gave us on our jug-line, but I can't on accounta da dock man caught it and gave it to us.  What I can tell ya about this fish, though, is his flesh filled 3 gallon zip lock bags and it took us a couple weeks to eat him.

Here is part of him after being dipped in my spicy mustard, egg wash, rolled in corn flour and deep fried.  Served up River Cajun style with a pot of white beans and rice to keep him company.  We also got a redfish that I filleted out and made a sauce piquant with him.  Sorry no pictures of that one, as we got him after my camera took an unexpected trip to the deck without me.  Well, I'm finally home again and look forwards to playing with Peg for a couple weeks.  Next hitch I'll be heading out with a new and better camera.  Maybe I can keep this camera from jumping off the dash board and bouncing down the stairs outa the wheelhouse. I'm already shuttering in anticipation of the fishy tales I'll be bringin' back home next time.