2-24-19 - 3-2-19 (Week 52)

Sunday
We spent the morning around camp getting ready for our Anniversary Eve trip to Island View tomorrow.  My sweet sister, Anita, got us a room for tomorrow night.  She is staying tonight, so we met her there this afternoon and had a great visit.  We had a gorgeous sunset when we left the casino tonight.

Monday
We had 8 tourist and 6 people on the waiting list for the Crane Tour this morning.  We saw 8 Sandhill Cranes, an American Kestrel, several Great Egrets, Red-tailed Hawks, Geese, and a Great Blue Heron   A great time was had by all.

We went to Island View after the tour.  We walked the beach on this cloudy, cool day, had drinks at Prime Cut, walked to Chandelier Brewing Company and had a sampler platter of beer, then went to Carter Green Steakhouse for prime rib.  It was an awesome Anniversary Eve Celebration.

Tuesday
We had a Happy 37 Year Anniversary.  We shore bird watched along Highway 90 then went to McLeod to visit George and Lisa and checked out the nature in the area.  I would have never dreamed 37 years ago that we would have spent our anniversary checking out nature.

We had a nice campfire this afternoon at Camp Refuge with the volunteers, celebrating Charlie's birthday and our anniversary.

Wednesday
The rain last night cancelled the school outing that was planned for today at the VC.  Too bad, it was a gorgeous day.  We visited Oak Grove Trail to continue our work on the trail brochure.  

We had an impromptu afternoon tour of 3 people and saw 11 Sandhill Cranes, a Bobcat, the Eagle twin nestlings, several Great Egrets, an American Kestrel, several Deer, a Belted Kingfisher, several Red-tailed Hawks, Geese, and an Southern Black Racer.  The critters were on the move this afternoon.

Thursday
We worked the VC today with the Loew's and Pat. We went to Tiki for the Hall's farewell luncheon.  

We watched a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers, making a hole in a dead tree. We suspect they may be building a nest.  

We found our first blooms for the Pale Pitcher Plants, Zig Zag Bladderworts, and the Yellow Butterworts on the CL Dees Trail today.  Let the blooming begin!!

   
Friday
We walked the CL Dees Trail and the Fountainebleu Trail today.  The bridge replacement at Fountainebleu is long overdue and looks fabulous.  Every time we go, they have done more habitat restoration.  The trail is looking better and better.

We were told that there are a couple of Sandhill Cranes hanging out at Sunplex around 11 am every day.  As we were passing by the area on the way to Fountainebleu, I had just got out of my mouth that I thought someone was lying about seeing cranes here.  We saw 2.  They did a fly by when we stopped to admire.  After further research, we found out this is the same male from last years pair that hung out here.  He has found another, after his other half died of Liver Cancer last summer.

Later this afternoon, we saw 2 Sandhill Cranes visiting outside the temporary pen.  The 5 Sandhill Cranes were very energetic and dancing.  A great view from the back yard of the HQ savanna.

Saturday

Happy One Year Anniversary At The Refuge!!!! 

It has been a year today that we parked the camper at Camp Refuge.  We never dreamed we would still be here and having fun.  What a year!

We covered for Pat at the VC today and worked with Jeff.  Around 1 pm, we went to the South Gautier Unit just to check on the Eagle nestlings and to take pictures of the progress of the vegetation after the burn one month ago.       

By the time we got past the pond on Firetower Road, we saw 2 Great Egrets, 2 Sandhill Cranes, a Great Blue Heron, and an Alligator.   On this 3 hour tour, we saw 9 Sandhill Cranes, Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Bald Eagles, a Cooper Hawk, a Red-tailed Hawk,  and an Alligator. The critters were moving.

The twin Eagle nestlings were sitting up in the nest with their parents nearby in the tree limbs.

The Beasley Baby was standing in the nest with one of his parents nearby.  BB was standing behind a limb obstructing our pictures, but his parent was standing magnificent with the wings spread making a perfect pose for the camera. 

We saw a lot of new Pale Pitcher Plants, Tracey's Sundews, Pineland Daisies, Pipeworts, and Butterworts emerging in the recently burned savannas..           

Ole Hawk eye, AKA Lauren, made a good find today in one of the burned savannas.  A Pringle Turpentine Cup that was used to collect resin from the Long Leaf Pines back in the day.  It was in really good shape and surprisingly, no cracks

Weeks worth of pictures:














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2-17-19 - 2-23-19 (Week 51)

Sunday
We got back to Camp Refuge around lunch time.  We walked the CL Dees Trail and put out plant markers for the newly budding and blooming plants.  Thank goodness spring is near.

We heard the elusive sound of adult Sandhill Cranes in the HQ savanna.  4 Sandhill Cranes had gathered outside the pen near Banana, Coconut, and Crab Apple  One of the 4 outside the pen was Plantain.  She is from the first batch of Cranes released from this pen.  It is great she brings her friends over for a visit.

We noticed that Crab Apple no longer has a leg band transmitter, wonder what happened to it.

We took a ride to check on the Eagles.  Right before we got to the BW nest, 4 sandhill cranes did a fly over.

The twins on Ben Williams nest and the nestling on Beasley were alert and watching us. No parents were in sight.  We also saw a sub adult Eagle and a Coopers Hawk.

The recently burn is beginning to green up.  Hopefully, we will see colorful blooms before too long.

Monday
We got caught up on crane reports for yesterday and the 2 tours from last Wednesday.  We made a quick stop at Island View to play our free play then went to help Charlie change tires on their camper.  We will move it to Camp Refuge tomorrow.

Tuesday
We left Camp Refuge, went to Saucier, got the Loew's camper, and was back and had it set up in 2 hours.  The rest of the day was a rainy day.  Got our Walmart run in, propane tanks filled, and haircuts.

Wednesday
We took a ride with the Loew's and Sally to check on the Eagle nestlings.  We only saw one of the nestlings at Ben Williams and one of the parents, until the other parent showed up with lunch followed by a sub adult.  The sub adult didn't stay around very long.

BB, aka Beasley beast, was hunkered down in the nest.  One of the parents was nearby in the top of a dead tree.

A walk on the CL Dees Trail and Crane Lane was welcomed considering it was suppose to be a wash out today.

We sat under the awning and watched 100's of Robins, plenty of Red Wing Black Birds, Cardinals, and Doves.  It looked and sounded like a movie clip of The Birds at Camp Refuge.

Thursday
We had a full tour of 8 tourist on our 1 pm Crane Tour.  We had 29 Sandhill Crane sightings.  The first 3 cranes we saw were just a few yards off the road, and posed for our pictures.  It is very unusual for them to stay around that long.

You know it's been a good tour when one of the tourist believes he saw so many Cranes today that they need to be taken off the endangered species list.

The Eaglets were not cooperative today.  Goober and Georgia were huddled in the nest, teasing us with movement of their wings, but no heads popping up.  We could barely see BB's head, (Beasley Beast) on the other nest.  One of the parents was nearby, and allowed us to adore her majestic beautify for a bit.

Friday
We had another full tour of 8 tourist on our 1 pm Crane Tour.  One of the couples had been here 6 times.  They had never been able to catch a tour, had tried driving around to see the cranes, but had never seen a Mississippi Sandhill Crane.  No pressure, they were able to view the 3 in the temporary pen at HQ through a spotting scoped before our departure.

We had 11 Sandhill Crane sightings on this cloudy, misty day. They were all way far away in the savanna.  Lauren has been given a new nickname of Hawk-Eye.  The husband of the couple that had never seen cranes until today, called him this for his ability to spot cranes.

In addition to the cranes, we also saw Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, a Red-Tailed Hawk, and a Belted Kingfisher.

Saturday
It was a great turn out for the Double Feature at the refuge today.  We had a Birds and Botany trail walk with Mark LaSalle at Fountainebleu Trail and an Open House at the VC.

Mark LaSalle did a fantastic job leading the trail walk.  And as always, Mark and Lauren acted like a child in a candy store, oohing and aahing over the different species of plants.

The visitor's enjoyed viewing the Mississippi Sandhill Cranes through spotting scopes, looking at the Dusky Gopher Frog Tadpoles in the aquarium, the crane booth, the pelt station, and the refreshments.

We sat outside at Camp Refuge this afternoon with the Hall's and Jeff and had our own refreshments.


The week of pictures:

2-10-19 - 2-16-19 (Week 50)

Sunday
We did a special request tour of the refuge today with an avid birder and her son.  It was a cloudy, misty, dreary day for birding, which was not a very productive sighting day, except for the Bald Eagles.  We had a family feud on the Beasley nest and a great family portrait on the Ben Williams nest. The pictures do not do it justice.

After spending hours in the limited access Mississippi Sandhill Crane Wildlife Refuge behind the locked gates, we finally found some Mississippi Sandhill Cranes at the Coca Cola plant.  Then a few more mixed in with the Greater Sandhill Cranes at Bright's Pasture.

Monday
We had a program for 4 students and their instructor from Seminary High School,  As an added bonus, we had the 3 captive raised cranes to release in the temporary pen.

We showed the students the movie, Angie and the interns talked with them, and then we took them on a Refuge Tour.  It was a misty, rainy day.  After we returned, the group got to watch us with the release of the cranes.

We did all the banding and data recording inside HQ, because of rain, then walked them out to the temporary pen.

We got Cucumber back.  She is the one that had to go to Audubon for a leg injury.  The other two are Banana and Crab Apple.  Crab Apple is the only male.

Cucumber was the first out of the box.  She only needed a leg tracker and weight recorded.  She was pretty agile from being handled so much.

Banana was chosen as the next Crane to band, because she was less aggressive than Crab Apple.  She was pretty feisty and not as cooperative as Coconut.

Crab Apple was saved for last and was not as bad as I expected but did require injections prior to release to help him de stress.  It is so cool to look out the back door of HQ and observe Cranes in the pen.

We are having issues with the bird feed being poured out on the ground and something stealing the suet bars.  We found out what the varmints were tonight.  2 Raccoons are the culprits.  Between the birds, the squirrels, and the coons, the bird feed does not last long.

Tuesday
We worked the VC on this dreary, rainy day.  We had a few visitors.  The slow day enabled us to get a lot of paperwork caught up, (such as crane reports, plant markers made for trail, Oak Grove Trail brochure rough draft, etc.).

Wednesday
Our 8 am tour had 6 people with 6 Crane sightings.  They also enjoyed looking at the Bald Eagles and nestlings.

We were supposed to go out to lunch with Angie and Brian, that didn't happen.  Angie had a unexpected job project and we had an impromptu Crane tour, so we decided to go eat afterwards.  The crane tour was a success with 20 sandhill crane sightings and of course the majestic Bald Eagles.

We finally made it to Country Gentleman and had enjoyable linner at 5 pm.

Thursday
We helped Scott and the interns catch Crab Apple and Coconut to replace their trackers.  It appears there is a design flaw on the new trackers. Crab Apple began limping yesterday.

It went really smooth, we caught both of them, changed out the trackers, and released them in 14 minutes. Crab Apple is walking much better.

We made it to Crossroads about 3 pm today.  We have no doubt that Ferny Kat was ready for her road trip.  She really enjoyed staying outside all evening and wallowing in the pretty green grass in the driveway.

Lauren cranked up the tractor and bush hogged the field for a little bit.  It is way to wet to do any more.

Friday
We had a rather moist day today.  All for getting any more bush hogging done at Crossroads.  We made a lunch stop for a Zesto hot dog on our way to pick up Anita then went to Big Branch Marsh Wildlife Refuge.

The rain stopped long enough for a nice walk on the Boy Scouts board walk.  There were not nearly the waterfowl in this area as we saw the last time we were here.  It looks like that pesky invasive plant is taking over here.

We had a great visit with Carole and Roger then went back to Anita's to spend the night.   We had fried shrimp for supper, smores for desert, and a nice campfire when we got back.  Another great day!

Saturday
We lounged around at Anita's drinking our coffee and bird watching before heading back to Crossroads.  Ferny Kat wasn't really that upset with us for leaving her alone overnight.  Although, she did let me pick her up and pet her for a minute or two.

We washed the truck to get off the mildew then met Anita in the McDonald's parking lot headed to visit Janice and Bill.  Bella, their spoiled dog, was the center of attention.  After a nice visit, we headed back.  Anita realized she didn't have her phone right after we left Janice and Bill's.

A search of her vehicle was unproductive.  After she investigated further, she realized that her phone was at a house a few blocks away.  She notified the police, they went to the house, and they were unsuccessful at the recovery of her brand new I Phone 10.  Dang it!!

Weeks worth of pictures: