Crane Ranch - 9-24-23 - 9-30-23

We spent our last week as resident volunteers, (at least for this gig), being very productive.  We got several deer buster feeders ready, did some trail patrols, sent orchid pictures to the orchid lady to be used in the Gautier Orchid Festival next February, did a lot of organizing, put up a few new signs, made a bownet video, and wrapped it up on Saturday with a fun day of manning a booth at the National Estuaries Day at NEER.

The HQ Gang have showed out all week with their elusive calls, chasing each other in the back yard, having a pool party, and sort of allowing the last crane caught in the bownet to hang around with them.  They are so territorial.

We managed to get family portraits of the Rock Hill Family, the Millhouse Family, the Jabba Family, and the Mean Momma Family on Friday.

Our nature chasing on the refuge was very rewarding seeing Bald Eagles, bunches of sandhill cranes, the return of the American Kestrels, and a lot of other cool critters.  

One of the cool shots we got this week was of a Lynx Spider preying on a Monarch in the native plant garden.  Sad, but cool.

Our afternoons of arm chair birding at Camp Crane were very enjoyable, watching the squirrels and birds at the feeders. 

 

House Finches and the Summer Tanagers have returned.

Mom and her 2 fawns made an appearance at Camp Crane. So stinking cute! 

 

We got to see our favorites on our last North Gautier Unit tour, Banana and Coconut!!

We will pull out tomorrow morning, Crossroads bound. 

Week of Pics:

Crane Ranch - 9-17-23 - 9-23-23

Lauren walked the trail and Crane Lane Sunday morning.  I lounged around and started working on last week's blog.  We were way too busy last week to blog on a daily basis. 

As he walked out of Camp Crane, he talked to 3 deer that were near the road.

  

He saw a few critters and blooms that caught his attention, but did not see any Crane Critters.  Wonder where the HQ Crew are on this lower humidity day.

We took a tour of the North and Gautier Units.  When we got to Valentine Pond we saw a Red-shouldered Hawk and a Bald Eagle fly away.  We also so numerous water fowl and wading birds that were taking advantage of the low water levels to catch their meal.

We saw a total of 11 Sandhill Cranes while we were out and about.  Three of them were the Milhouse Family.  Three of them were Banana, Coconut, and their unbanded buddy.  The other cranes did not stay around for a photo shot.

Each time we drove near the feeder at the North Gautier Pasture, we saw the Milhouse Family.  We just happened to have extra corn and stopped on our way out and put them a little bit in their feeder.  These cranes know the white trucks bring their corn.

Sunday Pics:

Monday, the drought conditions continue in South Mississippi.  There are a lot of extra fire personal stationed at the Fire Center to respond to fires.  This is the first time we have ever seen a helicopter on the helipad.  It sure needs to rain.

We spent the day blowing off the road, getting packages, cleaning up some feeders that we will repair, and installing an a/c in Camp Crane's laundry building.

Monday Pics: 

Tuesday, we were joined by some of the Fire crew at the Fontainebleau Pen.  By noon, we had the place almost Crane ready.   There is only a few last minute things left to do.

This afternoon, we headed to the casino for an overnight stay.  We had a good time gambling on their money and a nice beach view from our room.  Lauren made it to Ultimate status.  The perks of gambling.

Tuesday Pics:

We lounged around Wednesday morning drinking our coffee, had a nice breakfast buffet, and played a little bit of slots.  It sure was nice to leave the casino with $40 of their money.  We stopped by Sam's on our way back to the Ranch then got a little bit of work in.

Some of the HQ crew were in the back yard as we were leaving HQ.  We spent a leisurely afternoon watching the critters at Camp Crane.

Wednesday Pics:

Thursday we attended Jake and Theresa's 2023 DGF presentation.  Their presentation was quite impressive.

The afternoon was spent adjusting the Bownet netting.

Thursday Pics:

Friday, we built another Bownet with Jake and Theresa.

We stopped for a bit and filled up the new 6x6 water containers in the backyard of HQ.  These are the containers that will be used for the captive reared acclimation pens.  Nothing like a crane swimming pool.

Friday Pics:

While we were out baiting the bownet Saturday morning, we saw a crane with an injured wing.  We reported our findings to Scott and we will try to catch it tomorrow.

We also saw plenty of wading birds at the almost dried up Valentine Pond, over 20 Sandhill Cranes, a few hawks, an Eagle, and a bunch of other pretties along the way.

The afternoon was spent at the Mississippi Songwriters Festival in Ocean Springs. We went to Knuckleheads Bar and Grill to see our friend Tom perform, along with quite a few others.

Saturday Pics: