We spent this beautiful morning taking a long walk on the CL Dees Trail enjoying our morning off.
We opened the VC at 1:30 pm for a scheduled group that never showed up. Not a problem, the 14 people that were there for the hour and a half we were opened took advantage of the VC being opened.
We decided after closing to revisit the crane less observation blind on Ben Williams that we sat in for the crane count a couple of days ago. It was a lot more exciting and well worth the revisit.
We saw 7 Mississippi Sandhill cranes on the way to the blind. Then as a added bonus, we had a group of 10 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes fly into the pen around 5:15 pm and 5 deer grazing in the crop field.
We heard the elusive call of the cranes long before we saw them. It was breathtaking watching the cranes graceful landing. After they landed, most of them stayed in the shallow pond. One couple and their fledgling walked around and ate corn from the feeder. As they ate from the feeder, two would be on watch and one would eat.
Then we realized the cranes were there to roost for the night which required us to wait until after dark to leave so we would not disturb them. It was a good thing we hadn't taken our flashlight out of our backpack from the crane count.
Monday
We assisted the Master Gardeners plant native plants in the flower garden at the VC. It looks much better.
Late afternoon, we saw Angie and Rose hauling the monster net to the pen area. We are so relieved we don't have to physically pack that out to the pen area tomorrow.
Tuesday
We worked with Angie, Areal, Scott, and the interns on the Crane Pen on this foggy start of the day. Most of the day was spent trying to figure out how we were going to get the net to fit over the frame of poles. We pulled and pushed and wished. We have the net over the frame and are a little short on one side. We will work on it again tomorrow.
The fire crew has the viewing stand up for public observation of the soon to be released cranes.
Wednesday
We had 6 people on our Halloween Crane tour this morning. The first couple of cranes we saw were at Rockhill Street about 32 meters from the road. They were not bothered by us. They preened themselves and allowed us to view them as long as we wanted.
We saw 6 Cattle Egrets, 5 deer, a Great Blue Heron, and 5 Sandhill cranes on this 2 hour tour.
We spent the afternoon working on the crane pen with Angie, the interns, and Cassie. We finally have the net in place. A giant step for the Crane Pen building crew!
There were three deer in the back yard of the Bunk House when we washed clothes late afternoon. One was a button buck.
As usual, Ferny Kat came out this afternoon and guarded the bird feeder, she loves to torment the birds.
We had some pretty good sightings at the VC this month.
Thursday
It was a rainy day today. We did a little shopping and rested up.
Friday
Happy 7 Month Anniversary of our Volunteer Gig to Us!!
We had 6 people from the Gulf Coast Audubon group on the Crane Tour today. It was a windy and cool day. We thought we weren't going to see a crane today. Our patience finally paid off when we saw 5 cranes and a Bald Eagle on the South Gautier Unit. The eagle was perched in a tree and was very photogenic.
We also saw Cattle Egrets, Deer and several American Kestrels on the tour.
After the crane tour, we helped with the crane pen. We got the electric fence up, the tarps up for shade, and the net mended where needed. We finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. If you notice in the picture below, I was almost skipping with joy when we wrapped up for the day!!
Saturday
We had 7 people from the Gulf Coast Audubon group on the Crane Tour today. Janet Wright, curator from iNaturalist was in the group. She organized the tour for the Gulf Coast Audubon. Her enthusiasm of nature has been a great inspiration and help to Lauren and I.
We had 14 Sandhill Crane sightings today. There were a total of 21 bird species sightings. We spent 3 hours on the North Gautier Unit and surrounding areas and never made it to the South Gautier Unit.
We worked on the flower bed and talked with visitors at the VC for the rest of the day. Then joined Jeff for a late afternoon campfire.
Rest of the pictures:
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