10-7-18 - 10-13-18 (Week 32)

Sunday
We spent our day off today preparing for our guided plant walk with the Master Gardeners tomorrow.

Monday
We had a group of 14 (parents and their kids) this morning for a non reader scavenger hunt and a self guided trail walk.

Melissa, (with our assistance, mainly Lauren's), gave a presentation on iNaturalist to the Master Gardeners.

Afterwards, Lauren and I lead a plant walk, which we thought would be about 30 minutes or more.  The group was short on time and only had 15 minutes for the walk.  It goes without saying , we were over prepared for this plant walk.  Oh well, it still went well.

After lunch, Lauren went to Grand Bay Shop to mow and didn't return until 5 pm.  I manned the VC.  Not the first visitor darkened the door this afternoon.  All the activity was before noon today.

                                                                   Didn't mow them

Tuesday
The SORT team (Special Operations Response Team), had an Active Shooter Training for refuge staff today.  The VC was closed until 1 pm.

We were given a yellow vest to wear so we could observe and not be shot at during the training.  The refuge staff were given 3 soft balls to throw as weapons and options that they could use if they encountered an active shooter.

The shooter had a nerf gun.  For sound effects, he was followed by an officer carrying an assault weapon shooting blanks up in the air.  A couple of Jackson County Sheriff Deputies were the first responders.  Other SORT members were recording and monitoring.

The staff responded to the 3 scenarios by locking themselves in closets, throwing red balls, climbing out windows, barricading themselves in their offices, calling a fake 911 number to give details, etc.

It was very educational and a real eye opener.  Something we hope we never need to know.

We consider the SORT team as the SWAT team of game wardens.  They are badasses.

Wednesday
We had our first official Crane Tour this morning.  Lauren drove the ox wagon, and I did most of the talking.  Our audience was a Grandmother and 4 home schooled children ages 9-11.  We told them we would come back as early as they wanted.  The 2 hour tour lasted 3 hours.  Our first crane tour was a success.

We saw 7 cranes, 5 swallow tail caterpillars, 2 deer, a pied-billed grebe, a king fisher, several great egrets, a little blue heron, and several great blue herons.

We spent the afternoon, helping Angie and her interns, Kelli, Shannon, and Rose, tear down a temporary pen at the Ocean Springs unit.  These items will be reused for the temporary pen at headquarters for this years crane release.

Lauren and I rode in Scott's truck, (lead biologist), which Lauren got stuck when he turned it around.  We had to call reinforcements to get the truck pulled out of the bog.

It was a lot of hard work pulling up and toting poles to the truck.  We have a little more to go back and get tomorrow.

Thursday
It was a piece of cake picking up the last of the poles at the Ocean Springs unit this morning but I can't say that about the afternoon.  We had a bunch of metal post that we couldn't pull the PVC pipe off without hammering the post to get it off,  but we got 'er done.

Friday
Hugh, another volunteer, joined us, Angie, and the interns this morning for another Crane Pen work day.   It is too wet for machines to come into the savanna so we did manual habitat clearing and restoration.

Lauren and Hugh weedeated around the perimeter of the pen and around the pond.  Us girls loped shrubs and pine trees, then packed the debris out of the area.

We got the metal post inserted in the ground for the perimeter of the pen. 

We enjoyed a Camp Crane bonfire this afternoon with Pat, Sally, Tom, Jeff, Dorie, their grand kids, and the interns.  It has been a long, but enjoyable day.

Saturday
We sat around and enjoyed our coffee and bird watching this morning.  It was nice to have the day off.

We made a shopping trip then drove back along the beach.  There were lots of people enjoying the beach, but not much on the bird sightings.

Pictures are here:

9-30-18 - 10-6-18 (Week 31)

Sunday
We spent this Sunday morning drinking coffee with Anita and Lucy and watching the birds at the feeder.  The rest of the day was spent in Crossroads, resting and getting things ready to go back to Camp Refuge.  The birds must be resting today also.  We haven't seen any at our feeders here.

Monday
We loaded up and headed back to Camp Refuge.  After we unloaded our stuff and Ferny Kat, we went to Cruisin the Coast.  Erica, Nick, and Anita offered us a place to stay for the night with them at Cajun RV Park.  We watched cars on Highway 90 for most of the afternoon, went to The Reef to eat, and then continued with the car watching past dark.

Tuesday
We were chauffeured around by Nic today.  First stop, breakfast at McElroy's.   Cindy and Jim Hunt had told us the food was good.  And they were right.  We haven't seen them in months until they walked in the door.  How ironic is that?

                                                                 view from McElroy's

We went to the Coliseum to watch the autocross, then to cruise central to view some vintage cars.  One man was nice enough to let me sit in his Auburn.  He even loaned me a hat and Lauren a sign to hold.  He was a hoot and a holler.

Ferny Kat was so happy to see us when we returned to Camp Refuge.

Wednesday
We saw 2 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes at the Gautier Church of God while on our way to do a little shopping.  The Crane Tours have started so we decided to go out and do a practice Crane Tour.  The cranes must be ready, cause we saw 26 cranes in these few hours.  A total of 28 for the day, another record broken.

We saw 3 in Bright's Pasture, 2 in a field on Gautier Vancleave Road, 2 at the Coca Cola plant, and 2 shortly after entering Brown's Trail.  When we got to the pen on Firetower Road, 2 Bald Eagles flew up, 2 Deer Ran across the road, and 2 Sandhill Cranes flew up.  As we were trying to look at all this, 10 Sandhill Cranes flew right over us.  What an exciting place!

We saw 3 more fly up from the pond on Beasley Road.  It is hard to practice a Crane Tour when you have this much action.

Thursday
This day off went by mighty fast.  After we walked the CL Dees Trail, we stopped by the VC to pick up a package and get Crane Observation Forms.  We spent the next couple of hours shooting the bull with Danny, Sally, Tom, Melissa, and Jeff.

We returned later to turn in the forms and showed Angie and the interns pictures of the 10 crane flyover.   After looking at them on the computer, Angie and Scott confirmed one of the cranes is a juvenile they are trying to locate for banding.

An afternoon of watching a few birds at camp and a little bit of TV viewing wrapped up the day.

Friday
Sally and Tom manned the VC.  Lauren and I went offsite to the Fountainebleu Trail.  The fire center has done a fantastic job of placing rocks on the paths and mechanical clearing of the Overlook Trail.  The forest trail is so overgrown, you have to push the brush out of your way to walk it.  Not any more, we lopped both sides of the trail to open it up.  The trail is looking good.

                                                                           Before

                                                                          After

Once the bridge is replaced on the Overlook Trail, this will be an outstanding trail to hike.

Saturday
Sally was our crane tour guide today.  We were planning on going out with her and some of our visitors but no one signed up for the tour.  She did an outstanding job.

We saw 5 cranes and 2 Bald Eagles.  The pair of bald eagles were perched in a tree, near their nest.  We should have some chicks born in the next few months.  We will keep our eye on it.

Lauren did a little bit of mowing while I manned the slow VC this afternoon.  We walked the CL Dees Trail and bird watched this afternoon.

The week of pictures:

Cruisin the Coast:

9-23-18 - 9-29-18 (Week 30)

Sunday
We got up and eased into our day off today.  We drank our coffee, chased squirrels off the bird feeder, and played on the computers.  We decided to take an early ride to Wally World and stock up on a few things.

We got back and stocked up our tummies and decided we would just ride into Brown's Trail and check out the growth progress of the caterpillars that we saw last week.  We would't be long, just in and out.  Not!!

I think the Mississippi Sandhill Crane Refuge has a spell on us.  3 1/2 hours later, we parked the Ox Wagon.

We were quite entertained at Bright's Pasture when we saw 3 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes close by the road.  One of them, named Dougie, decided to put on a show for us.  He was calling and dancing.  It was quite entertaining.

We saw 11 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes, 2 Hawks, 3 Deer, a couple of Great Egrets, 2 Juvenile Bald Eagles, a Kingfisher, a Bullfrog, a Black Snake, Pine-warblers, and a lot of beautiful plants.  The Caterpillars that we went to check on had grown to full size since last week.

The weather was a little bit cooler and a lot less humid.  I guess this had a factor in the reason we saw so many critters this afternoon.

The critter watch continued at Camp Refuge.  We saw Hummingbirds, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, a Carolina Wren, and plenty of Cardinals.

Ferny Kat wanted in on the action.  She patty-caked the kitchen window until I let her out of the camper.  She tormented the hungry Cardinals while she sat at the base of the bird feeder.  They would fly toward their feeder then change their minds and fly back in the tree.  That dang cat!

Monday
We watched deer outside the window before going to work.  We did catch a break in the rain and was able to rearrange the plant signs. A rainy work day at the VC results in a slow day of visitation.

Tuesday
I went to St. Paul's preschool with Carol to do a program on Owls while Lauren and Charley worked the VC.  It didn't take but a few seconds for Carol to totally capture the attention of the 4 year old's.  It was priceless watching their expressions on their face as Carol read them a story.  One child that never talks in class talked for the first time today. Carol definitely has a knack for teaching.

We stopped by Tato-Nuts and got a couple dozen doughnuts for the gang.  This was our lunch.

Lauren and I received some really nice compliments on our plant signs on the CL Dees Trail by an Entomologist and his wife.  It is nice that people let us know that they appreciate our efforts.

We decided to wash the Van, aka Ox Wagon, this afternoon to get it ready for the Crane Tours that start next week.  It was NASTY, inside and out.  We spent 3 1/2 hours scrubbing on it.  That should have burned off those extra calories we had in Tato-Nuts today.

Wednesday
We hung around the VC with Carol and Charley until lunch time.  We cleaned up the Explorer after lunch.   It only took an hour and a half to clean it up.

This is our last work day of the month.  We took a picture of the sign to remember what we saw.

Thursday
We had planned to go to Birds and Brews this afternoon at Audubon in Moss Point.  The continuous showers changed our minds.  Crossroads we went.

Friday
It took Lauren twice as long to mow the yard today.  The grass was tall and wet.  We are again, just glad it could be done while we are home.

All the time Lauren spent on the lawn mower had him looking at the Jungle, our field.  He has not bush hogged it for about a year.  We had to go exploring this afternoon and check out some of the blooms.  Not only did we find some really neat flowers and plants, we found a lot of butterflies, caterpillars, and spiders.  It was worth the struggle of walking in the tall thick grass to check it out.  He may never cut the field again.  Melissa Perez has created a monster!!

Our crossroads bird feeders did not attract any birds today.  We probably won't be home long enough to attract any.

We watched a beautiful Pileated Woodpecker in the top of the tree by the shop prune himself.  At least we got a little bit of bird action this afternoon.

Saturday
We spent this Saturday evening and night in Bush with Anita and Lucy.  Lauren worked on Anita's water heater, then we sat around watching birds and looking at flowers.

Lucy and I were quite the fashion statement with our matching shirts on!!

More pics click here: