Night of the Crawdad

Today on my lunch break I went by the campus park to check on the population of burrowing crayfish. There were many (about seven or so) active burrows (with clean openings or with fresh mud chimneys). I've been meaning to go check them out at night and see what they do, so tonight I took The Pie and a baggie of nightcrawlers and walked down there. I didn't see any walking around outside the burrows, so I cut a piece of worm, tied it to a string, and dangled that down a hole. Sure enough, a crayfish latched on almost immediately. I was able to drag the crayfish some of the way up the burrow so I could look at its little claws. Then it ripped off a piece of the worm and retreated. VERY EXCITING. So, I repeated at seven more burrows! Only one of them failed to yield a crayfish. At two of them I was able to tease the crayfish just enough so it came all the way to the top of the burrow! I did not try to catch them, though. After all that excitement, I was out of worms, so I headed home. Maybe next time I can take some photos!

Also, on the walk home I made the interesting discovery that those new Toyota SUVs That Look Like They Are Wearing Hats have not two but THREE windshield wipers. Unusual.