Dec 22, 2011 Barataria preserve New Orleans, Louisiana

The Barataria Preserve has miles boardwalks over the swamp,marsh and lots of water.  Swamp  has trees  growing out of solid ground under the fresh water. Marsh, has almost no trees ,marsh grasses, more water-a mixture of salt and fresh, and farther out only salt water and floating mats of vegetation-some thick enough to support trees. The floating mats go up and down with tides and absorb floods. There is  a nice visitors center. Also canoe trails we didn’t go on. It was a rainy day. Brought out the colors nicely in the swamp/marsh

trees by the visitors center, cypress trees and their knees and really long Spanish moss blowing gently in the wind. The knees are roots that maybe help oxygen get to the other roots. They loose their needles in the winter. Here they are all over the ground

cypress trees with ferns, a nutria, it is a large rodent from south America similar to beavers which were introduced here for trapping.

swamp grass, palmettos and cypress and Spanish moss, red berries

viney tree, a huge flock of birds, we think red winged black birds, they were all singing at once

non-venomous milk snake, knarled oak tree with ferns and palmettos growing from it.

ferns, Spanish moss and trees, swamp water and palmettos

fanged tree and palmettos, floating fern and cypress knees

The Spanish moss intrigued me, John in his rain cagoul , he said making art? I think he was taking a photo

floating plants, including some kind of yellow sunflower, trees with contrasting plants, lichen, Spanish moss and a vine

trees and some blue sky, the sun is coming out, Spanish moss and palmettos

John stalking an egret, the egret in floating plants and Spanish moss

The egret did not care how close we got. The sun came out as I was photographing him.  His feathers were all plumy and the blew gently in the wind. Really pretty bird

marsh with the sun out, maybe a warbler(?) with red berries

marsh with floating trees, marsh with spanish moss

a squirrel begging for food, the egret on the way back

palmettos back lit by the sun

palmettos and cypress with low angle light and John on the boardwalk

Spanish moss with dead cypress leaves, forked tree