Nature Journal – Bayou Walk
I finally made it to the woods. I meant to come out a lot earlier, but by the time I woke up and got moving, it was already as hot as it was going to be for the day. I'm already hot and tired, and the dogs are already hot, and I felt like this was not going to be a fun trip. Less than satisfactory, I guess.
I opted to take a different path because I wanted to stay out of the sun, but the mosquitoes were terrible. I rounded them up and got back in the car, and we drove down the road to the bayou. It's not as sunny, but it's also not super shady, and I was hoping there would be enough bird predation to keep the mosquitoes down.
Right now I'm sitting in the car just enjoying the fact that there's actually a breeze here, which is nice. I already saw a bunch of great blue herons and some great egrets. I saw a goldfinch while we were driving, and I heard a mourning dove.
Walking along the bayou turned out to be a lot better. There's enough air movement to keep the mosquitoes down, and there's almost kind of a little breeze. The trade-off is that I have to watch and make sure the dogs don't jump in the river because Max has no sense. There are patches of shade mixed with the sun, and there's more grass and trees, so overall I think this is a better choice.
As soon as I got out of the car, I realized something smelled dead. It didn't take long to figure out why. There were dead fish everywhere along the shoreline—hundreds of them, with one every few feet. Even the little beach I wanted to go to was contaminated with dead fish.
The whole place has sort of a prehistoric or post-apocalyptic feel to it today.
I also saw a killdeer, a flock of about seven goldfinches, a sandhill crane, a double-crested cormorant, a box turtle, and a small family of what I think were geese, although they were so far away it was hard to tell. I found what looked like the remains of a recently hatched turtle nest in the sandy soil.
I was also thinking the oxygen problem is more likely the issue with those poor dead fish. They're mostly on the end closer to the boat launch. This year they pulled out all the water lilies in that area because they were getting unbearable.
I don't know what they did with all the vegetation. Since this is an area managed by professionals, specifically for fishing and hunting, I would think they would haul it up and throw it away somewhere. It doesn't make sense that they would leave it to rot if this is a predictable outcome.
Unfortunately, because of the heat, my underlying stress today, the dead fish incident, and the rest of it, this was a sadly unrestorative walk.
Wildlife List – Bayou Walk (July 8, 2026)
Birds
Great blue heron (multiple)
Great egret (multiple)
Sandhill crane
Double-crested cormorant
Killdeer
American goldfinch (flock of about seven)
Mourning dove (heard)
House finch (tentative)
Small family of probable geese (species uncertain)
Reptiles
Eastern box turtle
Evidence of a recently hatched turtle nest (species uncertain)
Other wildlife
Frogs (heard)
Notable observations
Large fish kill, concentrated near the boat launch, with hundreds of dead panfish along the shoreline.