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:
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