We had a great early Thanksgiving at the Ezell establishment. We will recuperate tonight in Crossroads and head back to Camp Refuge tomorrow.
Monday
We loaded up the Jeep, (or maybe overloaded the Jeep), with winter clothes and Christmas decorations and headed back to the Refuge for a while.
We had a nice, long walk along the CL Dees Trail this afternoon.
Tuesday
We did a requested Crane Tour today for a family of 5. We had a great day of 12 Sandhill Crane sightings, along with a Red Tailed Hawk, a Great Blue Heron, several egrets, and an American Kestrel
Wednesday
The Crane Tours have been popular this holiday week. We did 2 tours today. The first tour had 7 tourist with 5 cranes sighted, along with Egrets, a Red-Tailed Hawk, and several Deer.
In between the tours, we got pictures from the Observation Blind of the interns in their costumes and Crane Muppets feeding the Cranes in the pen.
The second tour left at 1 pm, the van was packed with 9 tourist, and we saw 10 Sandhill Cranes., several Deer, a Great Egret, a Merlin, an American Kestrel, a Great Blue Heron, and a beautiful Bald Eagle.
Not a bad day on the savanna!
Thursday
We had Thanksgiving lunch at the Bunk House with the other volunteers and the interns. We had a traditional meal with a little bit of international flair, (at least for us 2 rednecks) . We played games afterwards then Lauren and I tried to walk off some of the food we ate.
The walk paid off when we saw our resident Button Buck and a Fox Squirrel, under the Oak Tree with the Colorful Foliage in the back ground. We were at the right place at the right time.
Friday
No crazy Black Friday frenzy at the McLaurin camp. We spent the day enjoying nature in Pascagoula and at the refuge.
Saturday
We got up early, and joined the Gulf Coast Audubon Group at Graveline Beach. It is an undeveloped beach with plenty of birds including our first White Pelicans.
We saw more shorebirds than I ever will remember their names then went to Mars Pier. A few weeks ago, we went looking for a Rosette Spoonbill in Dauphin Island. We didn't find it. Today, when we least expected it, we found 16 around the pier. There were more beautiful than I ever imagined.
We stopped on our way home and ate at DaBayou. The food and atmosphere was fantastic. On our drive home, we saw 5 Sandhill Cranes.
Pictures are here:
Graveline and Lake Mars Pier Pics:
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