11-4-18 - 11-10-18 (Week 36)

Sunday
The critters were out today.  We saw a Cooper's Hawk perched in a tree while drinking our coffee and a ribbon snake on the back patio of the VC.

We took a nice, leisurely stroll around the CL Dees trail this morning, then headed out for a late lunch.  We walked in McElroy's to eat and Lauren realized he had forgot his wallet.  Luckily, Anita gave us some coupons for free frosties at Wendy's.  They settled our hunger until we could get our dinner cooked.  Grilling and eating by the campfire was a pretty good atmosphere this afternoon.

Monday
We did some finishing touches at the Crane Pen area today.  We have the blind set up and the net flagged.

The temporary pen looks like a circus tent with all the red flags tied on to the top of the net.

When we opened the observation blind, we caught about 10 frogs inside and relocated them.  If those frogs know what is good for them, they will stay hid from the cranes.

We are ready for the Cranes and can't wait to see the Cranes put on a show in the savanna circus tent.

We got a shower and headed to Gollott's to meet Judy and Terry for a late lunch/early dinner.  It is always great when we get together for a visit.  We had the outside dining area, (and the rest of the restaurant), all  to ourselves.

Tuesday
We lounged around on this rainy day.  Late afternoon, Scott and Angie showed us how to put bands on the cranes.  The plastic one are easy compared to the aluminum ones.  We will get more instruction on the bird release tomorrow.

Wednesday
We got the rest of our prep for the crane release this morning.  Audubon arrived with 2 of the cranes around 1:30 pm.  One was a male named Private Guava and the other was a female named Airman Avocado.  Guava was a bad ass when he came out of the crate.

We hooded the birds, banded them, weighed and measured them, recorded eye color and wing color, placed a tracker on them then let them go in the pen.  By the time we finished with the Audubon birds, White Oak arrived with 4 more that were all females.  Lauren thinks Guava is one lucky guy.

As soon as we released the birds, they walked as far away as they could from humans.  Shaking their new bling bling on their legs and ruffling their feathers.  All 6 of them huddled in the corner together after being released.  It was raining and almost dark by the time we finished up.

We have another claim of fame, touching one of the rarest birds in North America!

A quick shower and we were off to spend the night with Anita at Island View.  We sat in the room singing old songs and got takeout for supper to eat in the room.  We didn't gamble a penny.

Thursday
We sat around and enjoyed our coffee overlooking the beach this morning.  On our way back to the refuge, we made a stop at Sam's.

The rest of the day was spent leisurely walking around the refuge and watching birds.

We had a curious 6 point buck check us out on the CL Dees Trail.

The fall colors are beginning and the flower blooms are dwindling down.  We saw our first Robin today.  It looks like we will be more focused on birding than plants for the next few months.

Friday
We watched the Cranes flying and walking in the pen from the back door of the VC on this slow day of visitation.  We didn't mind the slow pace, it gave us time to relax.

Saturday
We had 4 people on the Crane Tour this morning.

We had 7 Crane sightings, 3 flew into Bright's pasture on Briarcrest Lane. 2 more Cranes were seen in Bright's Pasture on Highway 57, these did a little dancing, and 2 flew toward us from the pen area at Ben Williams.  We also saw plenty of deer and a few birds.

We had another slow day in the VC.  People were excited about watching the cranes in the pen from the VC.  Afterwards, we had a nice bonfire with Angie, Shannon, Rose, Matt (Rose's boyfriend), Pat, Jeff, and Dorie.

Week of pics, click here:

Cranes Arrive

10-28-18 - 11-3-18 - (Week 35)

Sunday
We spent this beautiful morning taking a long walk on the CL Dees Trail enjoying our morning off.

We opened the VC at 1:30 pm for a scheduled group that never showed up.  Not a problem, the 14 people that were there for the hour and a half we were opened took advantage of the VC being opened.

We decided after closing to revisit the crane less observation blind on Ben Williams that we sat in for the crane count a couple of days ago.  It was a lot more exciting and well worth the revisit.

We saw 7 Mississippi Sandhill cranes on the way to the blind.  Then as a added bonus, we had a group of 10 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes fly into the pen around 5:15 pm and 5 deer grazing in the crop field.

We heard the elusive call of the cranes long before we saw them. It was breathtaking watching the cranes graceful landing.  After they landed, most of them stayed in the shallow pond.  One couple and their fledgling walked around and ate corn from the feeder.  As they ate from the feeder, two would be on watch and one would eat.

Then we realized the cranes were there to roost for the night which required us to wait until after dark to leave so we would not disturb them.  It was a good thing we hadn't taken our flashlight out of our backpack from the crane count.

Monday
 We assisted the Master Gardeners plant native plants in the flower garden at the VC.  It looks much better.
  Late afternoon, we saw Angie and Rose hauling the monster net to the pen area.  We are so relieved we don't have to physically pack that out to the pen area tomorrow.

Tuesday
We worked with Angie, Areal, Scott, and the interns on the Crane Pen on this foggy start of the day.  Most of the day was spent trying to figure out how we were going to get the net to fit over the frame of poles.  We pulled and pushed and wished.  We have the net over the frame and are a little short on one side. We will work on it again tomorrow.

The fire crew has the viewing stand up for public observation of the soon to be released cranes.

Wednesday
We had 6 people on our Halloween Crane tour this morning.  The first couple of cranes we saw were at Rockhill Street about 32 meters from the road.  They were not bothered by us.  They preened themselves and allowed us to view them as long as we wanted.

We saw 6 Cattle Egrets, 5 deer, a Great Blue Heron, and 5 Sandhill cranes on this 2 hour tour.

We spent the afternoon working on the crane pen with Angie, the interns, and Cassie.  We finally have the net in place.  A giant step for the Crane Pen building crew!

There were three deer in the back yard of the Bunk House when we washed clothes late afternoon.  One was a button buck.

As usual, Ferny Kat came out this afternoon and guarded the bird feeder, she loves to torment the birds.

We had some pretty good sightings at the VC this month.

Thursday
It was a rainy day today.  We did a little shopping and rested up.

Friday
Happy 7 Month Anniversary of our Volunteer Gig to Us!!

We had 6 people from the Gulf Coast Audubon group on the Crane Tour today.  It was a windy and cool day.  We thought we weren't going to see a crane today.  Our patience finally paid off when we saw 5 cranes and a Bald Eagle on the South Gautier Unit.  The eagle was perched in a tree and was very photogenic.

We also saw Cattle Egrets, Deer and several American Kestrels on the tour.

After the crane tour, we helped with the crane pen.  We got the electric fence up, the tarps up for  shade, and the net mended where needed.  We finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.  If you notice in the picture below, I was almost skipping with joy when we wrapped up for the day!!

Saturday
We had 7 people from the Gulf Coast Audubon group on the Crane Tour today.  Janet Wright, curator from iNaturalist was in the group.  She organized the tour for the Gulf Coast Audubon.  Her enthusiasm of nature has been a great inspiration and help to Lauren and I.

We had 14 Sandhill Crane sightings today.  There were a total of 21 bird species sightings.  We spent 3 hours on the North Gautier Unit and surrounding areas and never made it to the South Gautier Unit.

We worked on the flower bed and talked with visitors at the VC for the rest of the day.  Then joined Jeff for a late afternoon campfire.

Rest of the pictures:

10-21-18 -10-27-18 (Week 34)

Sunday
Anita and Lucy hung around a little while this morning.  Lauren finished mowing the yard.  We went to David's promotion/deployment party this afternoon.  He throws himself a good party.

Monday
We returned to Camp Refuge.  We finally had a campfire and smores with the Loews, something we have talked about for months.  We enjoyed hearing the Hall's and Loew's volunteer gig stories.

Tuesday
We were sitting around on this rainy day with no plans.  Carol texted and asked if we wanted to take a couple of biologists on a Crane Tour.  We were sitting on ready.

They were very nice couple who were very enthusiastic about the wet pine savanna.  Our kind of people.  As a bonus, they got to see 13 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes on this two hour tour.

Our first sighting of 3 cranes was very enjoyable watching Dougie and his partner dance in the light peppering rain.

Wednesday
Sally joined us on a birding tour at Dauphin Island.  We had a pretty, cool, day to hike around.  We saw a lot of birds we have never seen before and our first Florida Soft-shell Turtle.

Thursday
My Two Boots was rained out today.  We took the day off and rode to Gulfport.  A quick stop at Island View for an extra $20 and some pecans.  A few stops on the way back for bird pics.  I never realized how beautiful a Great Blue Heron was until today.

Friday
The very much anticipated Annual Crane Count day is here.  We got up at 4:30 am and was in the blind at Firetower at 6:30 am.  Before we could open the windows of the blind we heard them calling.  That sums up our count, a couple calling.

We saw 9 Wood Ducks, a Phoebe, and a bunch of Eastern Blue Birds while being serenaded by goat sounding frogs.  On our way out we saw a Northern Harrier and a bobcat.

And yes, we would do it again next year, if we get the chance.

Saturday
We, along with Melissa, set up a booth at the Mullet Fest in Gautier.  We were away from the main drag in the area with the goats and the pirates.  We enjoyed talking with the few people that made it our way.

Week of pictures:

10-14-18 - 10-20-18 (Week 33)

Sunday
I drove Lauren around today in the refuge to practice for the crane tour.  We saw about as many eagles as we saw cranes.

We went to both Gautier units and to the Ocean Springs unit.  We spent 6 hours enjoying the refuge.  We saw 7 Bald Eagles, (3 were juveniles), 9 Sandhill Cranes, several Red Tailed Hawks, a couple of Northern Flickers, several Palm Warblers, an American Kestrel, a ribbon snake, several Egrets, a couple of deer, and several Great Blue Herons.  Pretty good way to spend 6 hours of the day.

We continued the bird watching at Camp Refuge where we saw our first Yellow-bellied Sapsucker,  that winters here at the refuge. We also saw black-throated green warblers and gray catbirds.  The bird watching is picking up.

Monday
The new blooms on plants are slowing down.  We picked up some signs on the CL Dees trail, took a walk on Crane Lane, and lazed around camp bird watching today.

The plant blooms may be on the decrease but the bird watching is picking up.  The Yellow-bellied sapsucker not only likes the Live Oak here but also is enjoying the bird feeders.  We saw our first Black and White Warbler at camp today.

Tuesday
Just a laze around kind of day at Camp Refuge.  We saw our first Summer Tanager at Camp Refuge today.

Wednesday
We are making progress on the Crane Pen.  We started the morning with 5 of us weed eating inside and the parameters of the pen.  Afterwards, we got the metal post and PVC pipe up.  It goes without saying, we have a conversation piece.  The white poles stick out like a sore thumb on the savanna.

Thursday
Lauren and I took a couple of the Master Gardeners out on the refuge for native plant scouting that will be planted in the VC flower gardens.   Melissa had a program for the Pascagoula River Group.  Tom took the Grand Bay Sr. Citizens on a Crane Tour.  Carol had Colt Capers.  It was a very busy but productive morning at the VC.

Friday
Pat and I worked in the VC while Lauren went to check out the trash at Oak Grove Trail.  He was pleasantly surprised to find the brush had been cut leaving good visibility of the parking area, which resulted in very little trash.  We got up to 20 visitors today.  Things are picking up.

Saturday
We did a Crane Tour this morning with 4 visitors.  We were a little skeptical of seeing cranes because of the heavy fog. We saw 12 Sandhill Cranes, deer, egrets, blue herons.

Our first crane sightings was 3 cranes at Brights Pasture, Dougie did a little dance for us.  Our last sighting was the Bald Eagle at the Ben Williams Pen.  Everyone had a great time.

The week of pictures: