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DEAR ABBY: I am a woman who has been through a lot. I grew up thinking my grandmother was my mother, my mother was my sister, my uncle was my brother, and my own siblings my nieces and nephews. A “family issue” brought it all out in the open, and now I am estranged from my family.
My grandmother who adopted me passed away a few years ago. The issue was lies and the fact that I was molested, which is why my grandmother stepped in. How do I explain to my children, 6 and 9, that we don’t have family on my side? They have been asking because my husband is very close with his own family.
ESTRANGED IN NEW MEXICO

DEAR ESTRANGED: Your family situation is complicated, and I don’t think it would be appropriate for you to reveal the details until your children are quite a bit more mature. Lies, cover-ups and child molestation are valid reasons to have distanced yourself.
In the meantime, tell them you will explain when they are older. At some point they may need the information in case any of your relatives try to contact them in the future.

DEAR ABBY: I broke things off with my ex-husband back in 2011. His dad passed away in 2013, and I have just learned that his mother died two months ago.
I heard through the wife of his friend that he didn’t take it well, so I sent him a sympathy card with my phone number in case he wanted to talk.
Today I found out that he eats only one meal a day or just has one of those shakes. He insisted he’s fine, but I don’t think so. It sounds like he’s still not handling it well. I’m worried that he’s going to waste away.
We live in the same state but in two different cities. I still love him, and I’m trying to help him. How can I do that?
WORRIED EX IN OHIO

DEAR EX: Does your ex have relatives who live closer to him than you do? If so, contact them and express your concerns so perhaps they can check on him. However, if he doesn’t, consider looking in on him yourself. If you do, it may not only ease your mind but also resuscitate your relationship, if he is open to a reconciliation.

DEAR ABBY: I am a 64-year-old woman. For once in my life, my hair is long, about elbow length. My son visits me about once every three months because he lives an hour’s drive away.
Today when he arrived, the first words out of his mouth were, “You look like a witch!” It made me feel very sad. He then proceeded to tell me no one over the age of 40 should wear long hair. What do you think? I’ve always been neat and clean.
SAD MOM IN COLORADO

DEAR SAD MOM: I think that at age 64, you can wear your hair any way you like it. Many women (and men) have allowed their hair to grow since the pandemic began, regardless of age. (I happen to know an 85-year-old woman whose lush, shiny hair is down to the middle of her back, and she looks great.) If you like your hair long, keep it that way. Do not allow your tactless son to be your fashion arbiter. Go, Rapunzel!
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For an excellent guide to becoming a better conversationalist and a more sociable person, order “How to Be Popular.” Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 to: Dear Abby, Popularity Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447.

Funerals over the next few days will honor the memories of two people with long ties to education in St. Mary Parish.

A Mass of Christian Burial is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Saturday for Margaret Lynn "Maggie" Melancon Bergeron at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Morgan City.

A memorial at 10 a.m. Monday at Ibert's Mortuary in Patterson will honor William Lee "Bill" Harris, followed by a noon funeral.

Bergeron, 86, died Wednesday at Ochsner St. Mary.

Bergeron's connection with Catholic education dates back to her graduation from the Sacred Heart Academy in 1953.

She served as librarian and choral director at Holy Cross Elementary.

Bergeron served as secretary of the Central Catholic Booster Club in 1980, and as founding secretary in forming the CCHS Alumni Association. She was co-director of that organization from 1988 until 2018.

Bergeron was inducted into the CCHS Hall of Fame.

Harris died Tuesday at age 70.

An Ohio native, he came to Louisiana to take a football coaching job at what was then the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He went on to become head coach at Patterson High 1983-86 before leaving to coach in Tennessee and Georgia.

He returned to Louisiana in 2007, again to work as a coach and teacher at Patterson High. He joined the faculty at Central Catholic in 2012 and remained there until he retired in 2015.

Full obituaries for Bergeron and Harris appear in the Obituaries section of this website.

The rainy weather has forced the cancellation of the Cajun Coast birding event scheduled for Saturday in Patterson.

But Morgan City's Porchefest is still on for Saturday.

However, the event will be moved from Lawrence Park to under the U.S. 90 bridge in the event of bad weather.

That decision will be made Saturday morning.

Saturday’s performances are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. and continue throughout the day, concluding at 7:45 p.m.

In the twilight of a new day’s dawn this past Sunday, a large group of volunteers quietly gathered together in a wood-line along the edge of a large rice field pond several miles north of Krotz Springs. The only sounds heard were the droning calls of bull frogs trying to entice their potential mates and the soft low whispers of a few conversations going on among group members.
Suddenly, a “boom” similar to a large firework report filled the air and interrupted what was otherwise a tranquil morning.
The explosion was actually a rocket net launched by Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ North American Waterfowl Management Plan Coordinator, Paul Link, that settled over some 500 blue-winged teal and was the signal for volunteers to spring into action.
For the next 20 minutes the scene was a controlled chaos, as large orange holding crates were deployed into the water and filled by those enlisted to help as they meticulously cleared the 40-by-60-foot net of birds.
One by one the floating cages were gently lifted onto the rice field levee where systematically the teal were segregated into groups of males and females for banding purposes.
Among the group members was Brett Leach, a graduate student from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Leach’s involvement in the banding effort Sunday happens to be part of his degree program as he works toward his Masters in Natural Resources with a wildlife emphasis.
While bands were being placed on teal, Leach was fitting 10 female birds with telemetry units as part of a study he is working on titled, “Quantifying Blue Winged Teal Migration and Habitat Selection Using GPS/GSM Transmitters.”
Though the United States and Canada partner each year in the most sophisticated large scale population study known to man called the Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey and state agencies conduct Mid-winter Waterfowl Inventory aerial surveys, Leach says actually little is known about blue-winged teal winter distribution, harvest and habitat use, particularly south of the border.
There are few band recoveries from countries like Mexico, where commercial hunting and subsistence living often takes place. Reporting of bands is virtually nonexistent due in large part to language and education barriers.
Unknowns that biologists are hoping to learn more about by using telemetry units include quantifying Blue Winged Teal spring and fall migrations, particularly their migration speed, use of stopovers, and timing of arrival to their breeding grounds.
With technological advances, transmitters are continuously becoming smaller and more precise, according to Leach. The GPS/GSM transmitters currently being used on blue-winged teal weigh approximately 10 grams and are generally set to record a location once per hour.
Other information they record includes date, time, altitude, speed, temperature, and accelerometer (forces caused by vibration or change in motion) data. The accelerometer data is particularly important as it allows biologists the ability to know when teal start to incubate eggs.
Leach, a Wisconsin native, said, “With this technology we’re finally able to get enough locations where we can actually quantify to the day how long the migration is taking. And part of the project will also involve looking at nesting success.
“We want to learn more about the habitats these birds are using in the winter and during the spring migration,” Leach continued. “We want to find out what all that means to nesting — are they going to be more or less successful?”
The ability to utilize lightweight transmitters also helps with ongoing disease surveillance work being conducted by the University of Georgia/Southwest Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study Program, according to Link.
Blue-winged teal are long-distance migrants that regularly cross international boundaries on two continents. Besides the United States, their wintering habitats also include Mexico, Central and South America. As such, there is a potential for teal to be exposed to diseases like Influenza A Viruses (IAV).
For the past nine years, the UGA/SCWDS study has participated in Link’s spring banding efforts. Due to the COVID pandemic, the past two years (2020, 2021) technicians were unable to collect data from captured ducks.
Before transmitters, all biologists had to go on for disease surveillance was two data points. The point of capture and the point of recovery (harvest/reencounter). The problem with that is, when a blue-winged teal has been tested for diseases whether by swabbing of the trachea (throat) or cloaca (posterior opening), or by taking a blood sample and it turns up positive or having antibodies, there’s no way to know where the bird was infected.
With banded and telemetry marked birds, reasonable assumptions can be made where they can be tracked to exactly, where that disease possibly came from.
Link also meticulously maintains field banding sheets recording every piece of information from a morning capture that not only includes general things like weather conditions, numbers of captures, and recaptures, but also GoPro footage of the entire event.
He is optimistic that one day there will be Artificial Intelligence software, where data can be dumped into a program creating life history models.
This spring, close to 50 transmitters have already been deployed with 130 being the study’s eventual goal. However, it’s important to note advances in technology often come with a high price tag. GPS/GSM transmitters of the size, make and model used on blue-winged teal cost approximately $1,500 per unit. As such, studies like this rely heavily on charitable donations from various companies, education, individuals and other partners along the way to fund this important science.
Those interested in supporting efforts like this telemetry project can go to the Louisiana Wildlife & Fisheries Foundation web site at www.lawff.org/waterfowl-supporters.
Link said, “Lots of people think we’re out there just slinging bands, but that’s not the case. We’re trying to learn more about these things and, where banding is concerned, more is always better. We’ve built a huge recapture data base. For everyone that gets shot and reported, I’m recapturing another one. We normally don’t have that for a species as poorly monitored as a teal. Adding this technology will help us to fill some of the gaps on blue-winged teal populations for both conservation and human safety.”