Monday, we had a 10 am Crane Tour for the Loew's, their pastor, and his wife. We had so much fun. We saw 25 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes, an American Kestrel, a Great Egret, other species of birds, and lots of deer.
We finally saw General Plantain. She is one of the 2018 captive reared Cranes that was released from the acclimation pen at HQ. She found friends in the South Gautier Unit and relocated to that area.
The Eaglet on the Ben Williams nest was posing with one of the parents allowing us a good view through the scope.
A juvenile Eagle was flying near the Beasley nest. Mom and Day were not happy.
We saw 2 Sandhill Cranes across Firetower Pond walking then the dance began. A grand finale for a grand tour.
Tuesday, we had an impromptu late afternoon Crane Tour for a group of "avid birders" from Michigan. Our so called abbreviated tour was 3 hours long.
Banana and Coconut started the show by being close to the road in the slough off Crane Lane, this is one of their favorite hangouts.
One of the parents was in their favorite perch near the Ben Williams nest. One of the parents was in the nest on Beasley. We did not see the Eaglets today.
We had a special show at Valentine Pond. We had a Merlin, a juvenile Eagle, and a Great Blue Heron perched in trees above the pond. An almost mature Bald Eagle flew in and moved the juvenile Bald Eagle to another tree. Pretty spectacular to see all 4 of these perched over the cypress pond.
We had 17 Mississippi Sandhill Crane sightings, and saw several other species of birds and lots of deer.
Wednesday, we had a 9 am Crane Tour for a group of 8. We had 29 Sandhill Crane sightings.
The parent Bald Eagle on Ben Williams nest had her Eaglet sheltered from the misty rain and wind.
Both parents flew in with food for BG, (Beasley Eaglet), he sure is growing and looked pretty hungry being fed by his parents.
We spent the rest of the afternoon working at the VC.
Thursday, we took a ride to Sam's and spent Lauren's free play at Island View. We got a whopping 14 cents, a free cookie and a drink, and we didn't spend a dime.
We went to Pass Christian and drove back along the beach and found a few shorebirds. There was not a lot of bird activity on this gorgeous day.
We did a hike on the Dees Trail, then us and Ferny Kat did a little bit of bird watching at camp until the temperatures started to cool around 3 pm.
We met the co-volunteers plus Angie, and Linda at Woody's for dinner.
Friday, we went to turn in the Crane Reports from Wednesday and got an impromptu invite from Scott to join them for the Crane Recovery Program. There was a group of about 16 people in the conference room, and internet access for White Oaks, International Crane Foundation, and other places. We got introduced as "Super Volunteers," Luckily we didn't have to go on screen. We learned a lot and we only caught about half of the presentations.
Saturday, we had a 9 am Crane Tour for a group of 8. One of the couples said they had been here several times and had never seen a Ms. Sandhill Crane. The pressure was off of us shortly after we drove into Brown's Trail and saw 5 flying around. We had 23 Sandhill Crane sightings for the day.
The Ben Williams Eaglet was very active with his parent in the nest. We didn't see BG on the Beasley nest.
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