Grand Isle Spring 2017

It’s always a blessing to come down to Grand Isle. Grand Isle always fills our time with birds and beaches, fishing and blackberries, and most importantly time with my sister and her husband, Connie and Gary.

The usual birds are all here, cattle egrets walking the grassy meadows, snowy egrets and great egrets feeding on the fish, and of course rosettes wading in all their brilliant breeding pink plumage. Black necked stilts are on their nests hoping the mowers will leave them alone.

The weather here has not been conducive to a fallout. A steady wind has blown from the southeast helping the birds as they crossed the Gulf. Added to that the black berry crop has not filled out due to a lack of rain, and so we haven’t see the flocks of indigo buntings, painted buntings, or summer tanagers, but we hope to see some today as it’s the start of the annual birding festival.

The fishing has also been lackluster. Several factors are at play here the first of which is the strong onshore waves. They have muddied the water and created numerous rip tides and combined with the closure of Elmer’s Island have limited many of my favorite fishing spots.

Gary took me out in his boat and we fished quite a few places. We didn’t see dolphins in their usual haunts and that tells you that their food and the bait has moved. Still it was a good day fishing with Gary, (you may remember the blog I wrote of one of the best days fishing I have ever had). On that day the red fish had schooled and we caught big reds on every cast…..

The best thing about Grand Isle is spending time with Connie and Gary. Every time we come down here I hear more old and new family stories. I was the youngest and so I rely on my sister and brother for stories of the early times. It’s not just the stories as I also appreciate their thoughts and advice about retirement. Renita and I have both learned so much from them.

Dawn is approaching and so I need to keep this short. I must get the binoculars out and ready the cameras. Who knows what we will see as we walk through the woods. The mulberry trees do have fruit and so they have to be a draw for the hungry birds? Clear skies