Louisiana Swamp Tours in November

Cool mornings and fog hanging over the water at sunrise is what November is all about.

 

 

Here is a few photos from a couple of weeks ago, and giving us a preview of what the swamp looks like at sunrise this time of year as the water cools and we can enjoy natural air conditioning for a change.

 

If you are interested in booking a reservation for a swamp tour,

 

please be advised that my tours are by reservation only, and I can be reached at 337 298 2630

 

Bald Eagles on Louisiana Swamp Tours

The Bald Eagles have arrived to nest at Lake Martin, Louisiana, as they do every year in September. I saw them for the first time this past week, the last week of September. Exactly when they arrived, I am not sure because I haven't done very many tours this past month,

but usually they are here about mid-September, and begin the courtship ritual immediately.

It has been very interesting this past month with great weather, a good breeze, mostly mild temperatures and no one is coming to do swamp tours like we were doing all summer long, before the Hurricane Issac fiasco.

Now I call it that because just like Hurricane Katrina exactly seven years ago, we here in southwest Louisiana were on the good side of the storm and thus were mostly unaffected by the tidal surges and high winds in southeast Louisiana.

Here is a couple enjoying a sail in the mild temps and soft winds on Lake Martin just a few days after the Isaac storm... Although people were being rescued from roof tops less than 100 miles east from us, here in Lafayette, Louisiana, we were actually experiencing the exact opposite of the tidal surge to the east.

The reason it is opposite of the east side is because of the circular nature of a hurricane, as it apporaches land if you are on the west side of the storm(the safe side), you get a north wind, and it blows the water out of the swamp and marshland, and you experience below normal tides as you can see in the photo below where the water is usually about four to six feet deep on the beach here where this guy is standing about 200 miles west of the eye of the storm. Incidentally, this photo was taken on Constance Beach near the Texas state line, during the storm and the next day, the water was back up to normal again.

The bottomline regarding Louisiana swamp tours is: we here on the west side of the state, did not get any high winds, flooding, tidal surge or excessive rains, thus no actual collateral damage from the storm. Except that the tourists who watch the media generated worst case scenarios on the east side of the state, assume that ALL of south Louisiana is flood damaged and they stop coming to the southwest side even though we were mostly unaffected by the wind and high water that ravaged the east side of the state as seen in the photo below in La Place, Louisiana which is about 75 miles east of Lafayette.

So if you are looking to do a Louisiana swamp tour in October, we are open for business in the Lafayette, Breaux Bridge area and the water is normal here at Lake Martin.

I am Marcus de la Houssaye owner and operator of de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours at Lake Martin, Louisiana, and welcome to my wet and wild Louisiana!

Alligator swamp tour video

Louisiana Swamp Tour Video

PRESERVING A WAY OF LIFE IN THE ATCHAFALAYA BASIN

Lake Martin Sunset Time Lapse

2 hour long time lapse of sunset at Lake Martin, near Lafayette, Louisiana. Approximately 2500 photos, one taken every 3 seconds.

lake martin sunset time lapse

from Kristie Cornell on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/38074845

Louisiana Swamp Tour With Alligators

Swamp People television has certainly put a focus on alligators and generated a great deal of enthusiasm among the TV shows fans to experience the Louisiana swamp and alligators up close and in person.



I have done my part to indulge my guests as much as possible.



The momma gator who was guarding her nest last summer cooperated with a display of teeth and hissing.



The photo below is a mound of decomposing plants. In the core of that alligator nest is a couple dozen alligator eggs.



Typically she waits near the nest just below the surface with only her nostrils and eyes up in the air.



Should I approach the nest while she is guarding it(and I do),




she will come out of the water and confront me,



putting herself in between me and her as yet unhatched babies as seen below.

Notice in the photo above, right behind the alligator, is a tree, and right behind the tree is a khaki pants leg. That is me with only a tree between us.



Don't worry, I am a professional alligator wrangler,


I have been doing this on swamp tours for years,




and I make it look easy!




If you would like to join me for a swamp tour on Lake Martin, just south of Breaux Bridge, you can call me at 337 298 2630.



In the Youtube video below, you can see me engaging the momma alligator on tour last year.

Louisiana Swamp People

If you have been following my blog, you remember the momma alligator from last summer.



Because the weather has been so mild her babies are coming out and getting some warm sunshine this month and I got some photos last week.




It has been a great deer hunting season..



And we have had a lot of fun at Mardi Gras this year also as you can see in the running of the Courier du Mardi Gras on the Cajun Prairie .



Also had great weather for the most part in the urban Mardi Gras parades seen below.



But...it is starting to look like it is time we get back to business with Louisiana Swamp Tours, and continue being the original swamp people that we are.


I am planning to watch the TV show Swamp People for the first time this week because it looks like the producers are finally going over the edge as I predicted and are using some new people who are NOT representative of our culture here in south Louisiana. Mostly I have gotten good feedback from the fans of Swamp People, but reports are coming in that there are some real whack-a-doos in there now, and I have to go see for myself.

If you are wondering why I am not in the show myself...I would not let them own me.

And yes, they have called me and tried to get me under contract, but when I sent the contract to a lawyer to give him a good laugh, he nearly had a heart attack, because he thought I was considering signing it.

No, I will be the captain of my destiny, and no one shall own me.

If you would like to tour a real Louisiana swamp with an original Louisiana swamp man that the TV show was modeled after, you can call me at 337 298 2630 for a reservation.

Also I have a new website with links to a neat blog with stories and pictures at: www.lakemartinswamptours.com

Louisiana Swamp Tours?

Yes, it does get cold in the winter here in south Louisiana, but you wouldn't know it if you got here six weeks ago.




Yes, I am doing them in the wintertime, because the temperatures are so mild it is like spring ever since the holidays!

If you would like to do a swamp tour, please make a reservation by calling my cell phone at 337 298 2630

The Rookery At Lake Martin 2012

A Great Egret male snaps a twig from a nearby tree and flies back to the nest.



She is waiting for him, and he passes the twig to her, and they settle it into the nest. They do the "wild thing" and he flies off to gather another twig.

www.lakemartinswamptours.com




Right on schedule about mid January, the egrets and herons began to stage their nests.





All the trees are bare in January and February, so birdwatching and photography is easy and unobstructed by foliage. The main color of the swamp in winter is grey.



Soon the grass and clover will start to green things up as seen behind this Great Egret who is sporting some breeding blumage.

Although some people are surprised that the herons start nesting in mid-January, the first nesters of the season lay their eggs in the first week of December.

And that would also be the largest of the birds that nests here at Lake Martin,

the Bald Eagle.

Soon after the Bald Eagles begin nesting, they are followed by ospry,


owls and hawks,



and then the Great Egrets,


and Great Blue Herons about mid-January.
Those two of the heron family are the largest and a larger body mass may account for the early nesting. For about two months from mid-January through mid-March the large herons expand in population in the rookery to the tune of several thousand.




By late February or early March the Rosette Spoonbills are in courtship,



and soon after that, by March 15th, a riot of birds competing for nesting space breaks out as thousands of birds arrive every day. Tri-colored, Louisiana Herons, and...


Little Blue Herons,

Little Green Herons,

along with Cattle Egrets, start pouring in by the thousands every day.



Black Crowned Night Herons arrive to nest in April, along with their cousins who sport the Yellow Crowns.

Here is an immature night heron...


By early May, the Black Bellied Whistling Ducks should be warming up some eggs


And last but not least, to start nesting at Lake Martin is the White Ibis,

and sometimes Snowy Egrets who also begin to nest as late as June.




all photos above are copyrighted and courtesy of Claude Nall

I am Marcus de la Houssaye,owner and operator of de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours

photos by Al GuidryIf you would like to contact me for more information about the rookery,

photos by Wolfgang Hasenstien
or to make a reservation for a Breaux Bridge swamp tour ,

I can be contacted by cell phone at 337 298 2630




"I love dis country!"