It was another fun day riding around on the Refuge today. Sunday is our favorite day of the week to explore behind the locked gates because everyone is off and we have it to ourselves.
As usual, we saw plenty of birds. We also saw the most Hawks and Red Headed Woodpeckers in a day, although, we didn't keep a count of them.
There is an exhibit in the VC of a Loggerhead Shrike. This is a mean bird that kills other birds by piercing them on sticks and eats them after they die. We saw our first one today, luckily, not eating a bird.
We made a tour of the South Gautier Unit, North Gautier Unit, and the Ocean Springs Unit. On our way back, we took Hwy 57 and Gautier Vancleave Road. I had to coax Lauren to go down Briarcrest and Rock Hill Streets to check out the neighborhood Crane residents. We saw 3 more Sandhill Cranes, which got our count to 20, our record for sightings in a day.
The deer count was also up today. We saw a total of six deer, a couple of them were beginning to get their horns.
And it goes without saying, we saw lots of beautiful plants.
After weeks of hard work, Lauren caught the varmint in the camper compartment, a big old rat. One good thing about this July heat, it softened the glue on the traps, which made it impossible for him to pull himself out of the trap.
Monday
I worked the VC today. Lauren, got to be a tour guide. Lucky Him!!
Lauren took Janet and Aaron, (iNaturalist peeps), on the CL Dees Trail to show them the Snowy Orchids. Afterwards, Lauren took them on the Refuge to see the Purple Bladderworts. As an added bonus, it just so happened, a couple of Sandhill Cranes were in the road at Brown's Trail when they rode by on Gautier Vancleave Road.
I have to say, Lauren really enjoyed his morning. He really works hard at researching all this nature stuff, and interacting with Janet and Aaron, was icing on the cake.
One of the tadpoles made it to Frog status today and will be released to the vernal pond. We still have 3 more to grow!!
Tuesday
After a couple of days of attempting to rearrange the plant signs on the CL Dees Trail, we finally had success today. The rain may have hindered our efforts, but it does the plants a lot of good.
We went to Fountainebleu Trail on our day off to walk. We found out the bushes needed cutting back, so we took care of some of it while we were there. After we finished cutting bushes, Lauren said if I was too tired, we would skip the walk. Not a problem, I walk with my legs not my shaky worn out arms.
We found some interesting clothing items at the beginning of the trail. Unfortunately, we had limbs loaded in the back of the truck on top of the trash grabbers. We will get pick it up next time.
Our day off was spent doing the things we love, taking care of the Refuge.
Wednesday
We were undecided of what we wanted to do for the 4th of July. We thought about spending the 4th behind the locked gates of the Refuge, we thought about just sleeping in and hanging at Camp Refuge. When we woke up this morning, it was a no brainer, we headed to the beach.
We stopped by Micky D's and picked up breakfast to go. It was a delicious breakfast picnic on the bench of the boardwalk in Biloxi while watching the numerous birds fishing for their feast in the gulf.
We walked the boardwalk and took lots of pictures until the temps heated up. We made a stop at Island View to spend our free play then made several stops along the beach on our way back to camp.
We saw a lot of Ospreys catching fish and flying away.
We saw an Osprey with her twins nesting on a pole near the base of the Biloxi/Ocean Springs Bridge.
After a walk on the CL Dees Trail, we did the traditional grilling of ribs this afternoon, that were awesome. We listened to the pop of the fireworks until after dark, which didn't bother the neighborhood Coon for his feast of bird seed on the ground.
It was a really slow day at the VC. Lauren mowed pretty much all of Headquarters, Pat and I manned the center.
We sat around after work and watched the birds enjoying their feast of seeds and nectar at Camp Refuge.
Friday
Lauren was going to Independence Shop to mow grass when he was stopped by Danny, LEO. Danny advised Lauren to stay around Headquarters because of the search for an escaped inmate. Danny was dressed in his bullet proof vest and was assisting with the manhunt.
It was a very slow day at the VC.
Saturday
We didn't have a visitor until after 10:30 this morning, then a few more trickled in. Although, we only had a few visitors today, it was a productive day.
We had a couple make a donation to the Refuge for our one of a kind, hand carved, mahogany wood duck carving. We really enjoyed talking with this couple. They were conservationist, who had converted 300 acres of their land to Longleaf Pine.
Her husband showed us her picture in one of the books we sell in the book store. It was a beautiful picture of her riding her horse in her Longleaf Pine forest.
We are going to miss this beauty, but we know he went to a good home.
Crosssroads bound this afternoon.
The week of pictures:
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