This last weekend of January has offered sunny days with temps in the mid to high 60s. That meant a great day to get out and paddle around in our newly acquired canoe/kayak hybrid. Our trip took us out to the eastern half of Deer Island, just a miles paddle from the point of Biloxi. As you can see Sarah was very excited. This was our second trip out to the island. Last weekend we went to the western portion where there are groves of live oaks, complete with a rope swing. The eastern end is mostly pines with an understory of saw palmettos. As we walked along the beach, over exposed pine tree roots and through some marsh grasses we came across a few ponds that are home to a number of birds, (we saw five Blue Herons and a whole assortment of smaller birds as well as an eagle nesting. I need to get a better camera than the one on the iPhone to capture some of this) and there were obvious signs of nutria. From what I hear there are wild pigs that live on the island as well. I suppose they just spend there days foraging mostly for palmetto root. I guess with all that saw palmetto none of those male pigs will be getting prostate cancer. Good for them. Each time we go for a walk on the beach down the street from my house or out to the island, whatever the excursion is, we find ourselves collecting things we find interesting - shells, sea glass, wood, stones and pebbles or something random covered in barnacles. This little excursion was good for finding some interesting pieces of worm eaten wood. I'll do my next posting on beach finds.
