Dear Noah,

This adorable little guy is a Winter Wren.  He only visits Louisiana in the winter because he really likes cold weather.  He nests waaaaay up north like in New York and Canada.  He is so tiny you could put him in your pocket.  Isn't he cute?

love,
Nanny

Butt trees

Dear Noah, They call these two trees the Butt Trees. Can you see why? Big Butt and Bigger Butt.

Hahaha!



One day when I was paddling with my friends we saw this spider on the Big Butt tree.  It was bigger than two of your hands!  Yikes!  It's carrying its green egg sac.

 Love you! 

--Nanny 

Dear Noah, now that you can read, I am going to try to update this blog for you more often.

Next time you come we will paddle here. I like this old rusty boat. It has a mystery.

Can't wait to see you!

Dear Noah,

It's only 17 days until I see you!  I can't wait.  I was thinking about how much fun we had at Ft. Bragg last year.  Do you remember?  We hunted for sea glass

and I'm pretty sure you found the biggest, prettiest piece!

And we went walking in the redwood forest and Eva kissed a slug!

Here are my pictures from last year.  I can't wait to do it again!

love, 

Nanny

Hungry babies!

Dear Noah,

I found this nest of hungry Barn Swallow babies under a bridge.  Don't they look mad?  And then so hungry when Mom is feeding them!  She flies in and out constantly and stuffs food in their mouths.  I wonder how she figures out which kid to feed!?

Puffins!

Dear Noah,

Thought you might like to see this video of Puffins.  There are adults and babies; can you tell them apart?  At the very end is the sound I was telling you about.  That is the sound they make when they are in their little caves talking to each other!

Puffins

Blue bird!

Dear Noah,
I saw this bird today that I knew your mom would love so this is one for you to show to your mom.  Cause it's blue, and awesome besides.  It's called an Indigo Bunting.  I tried to get a picture of a green bird for you, but it would not cooperate.  I'll keep trying!

The frog that dropped from the sky

Dear Noah,

Remember today I told you about the frog that dropped from the tree?  I was walking along and looking up at a bird and suddenly there was this frantic squeaking and something PLOPPED down on the ground a  few feet from me.  I saw a bird fly away but couldn't tell what kind it was.  I walked over to see what fell and it was this frog.

 He was very still and all puffed up.  He must have been very scared.  He didn't move a muscle when I took his picture.

Then slowly, slowly, slowly, he let his breath out and relaxed.  I guess he figured out he wasn't going to get eaten today!  Even his color changed from light green to gray green.  He looks like a whole different frog here!

Little gator buddy

I was kayaking the other day and came across this little guy. He was sound asleep on the log with his legs just hanging down. He was so close I could have touched him with my paddle. Then he woke up and saw me and 

SPLOOSH!  Into the water. 

People always ask if I'm afraid to go kayaking where there are alligators but they always go under or go away. I guess I'm pretty scary :)

Pink birds!

When you come visit I want to take you to the swamp and maybe we can see some of these great pink birds. My fav :)

Doesn't it look like something from a Dr Seuss book?  Can you draw a picture of a Spoonbill?

Weird and wonderful

Dear Noah,

Summertime in Louisiana is full of bugs and some of the biggest and noisiest are the cicadas.  They start buzzing in late morning and don't turn it off until the sun goes down.  Sometimes they're so noisy you can hardly hear yourself talk!  They're pretty interesting insects.  The adults lay the egg in the ground and the eggs hatch and larvae grow underground.  When it's time, they make their way to the surface and climb up on something...like a tree or a bush or even a house.  Then the cicada sheds it
s larva shell by splitting it down the back and emerging.  Its wings have to dry before it can fly.  This is a big bug -- bigger than your dad's thumb!  We only occasionally see them here -- they mostly stay high in the trees.  But today I saw a dead one and then I found the shell and that made me think of the time I put the shell on your shirt.  So I thought I'd show you some pictures of this weird and wonderful bug.

Kind of creepy and cool, huh?

love, 

Nanny

A trip out to sea

Dear Noah,

I went out on a boat yesterday into the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico.  I was with some birding friends and we were looking for special birds...birds that don't like to come to land but only live in the ocean.  We didn't find too many.  But we saw some other cool stuff!

This is the view from the boat as we headed out as the sun was coming up

We saw a bunch of dolphins!

Some of them came right up to the boat and swam with us!
They were such fast swimmers!
Click below to see a video of them swimming
Dolphins running with the boat!

AND we saw sharks!  There were dead fish in the water from the shrimp boats and the birds and sharks were eating the fish.

This is what some of the dead fish looked like

This is a Magnificent Frigatebird.  It looks a lot like a Pteradactyl!

The shrimp boat had a lot of Frigatebirds hanging around, waiting for an easy meal!

These guys were hanging around looking for fish, too.  Do you know what kind of birds they are?

A beautiful sunset to end the day!





Love, Nanny

Our Zoo Visit

Dear Noah,

I was going through some pictures yesterday and I came across some from the time we went to the zoo the last time I visited you in California.

Riding the Merry Go Round on the back of an Eagle!

The baby goats didn't want to be brushed!

In the little door!

You had a hard time flying the plane the first time, but you got it the second time around!

Hi, Funny Bunny!

We road the Sky Ride!  Everything looked so tiny!

Gang of griaffes

Sad giraffe didn't get invited to the giraffe party

Stepping Stones!

Cool tasty treat!

Pop tart break

I need a little help here, Nanny!

Got it!

Love you!