Diario del proyecto Lee Tartt Nature Preserve

Walking in the old slough on the upper east side of LTNP I note the dry dips and hollows. No rain for over 3 weeks. The slough has been filled with rain and backwater from this springs flood. The cypress and tupelos rise from the dry earth with only the dark decay past growing seasons. My trajectory brings me to what was the last pool of water now only a wet spot in the spongy earth. At first I didn't see anything other than what was water just days before. I noticed the different colors in concentric rings - dark wet leaf litter in the middle surrounded by greenish yellow algae then rings of pale dried duckweed then finally the ashy colors of dried earth. then I became acutely aware of a loud humming sound emerging from the former puddle. As I look across the scenario I had just been observing, a totally new scene materialized. It had been there all along I just couldn't see it!
The humming buzz was from hundreds of flies in a magnetized frenzy above a shag rug of tiny dead fish. Thousands of them in mottled layers of decay and slime. Then I saw him - the lucky one! The conquistador of the bottoms, lord of the flies. I certain he was aware of my approach (which was certainly not subtle) but other than a slight glance over his no-shoulders he went on about his focus on the all you can eat buffet. The beautiful brown and orange pattern of his sleek body glowed against the murky colors of death. How did I miss seeing him from the get go? I watched him scoop up and swallow fish after fish, their lumpy forms riding through the long neck into the thick muscle of his body. It's not every day the swamp offers fast food for water moccasins.

The searing red spikes of cardinal flowers rising above a sea of pale green sedges lightly swayed to the wingbeats from the mosquito armada in my wake.