We also found a pair of loppers in the Ben Williams Savanna that had been there before the last burn. You never know what you may find.
We saw Truffle and Milhouse without their Youngster. Banana and Coconut are still hanging with them.
We checked on both Crane nest and both nest are still active.
We checked on Dougie and his mate. We saw Dougie's mate under the shade tree. Hopefully, Dougie is sitting on the nest.
Greg, was perched really pretty on a mound in Firetower Pond.
We saw 2 Doves standing on a log in the Ben Williams Swamp area.
We spent the afternoon, bird watching at Camp Crane. The Hummingbird frequented the feeder several times and we finally got a picture.
Monday we helped Angie check on the tadpoles. We washed all the bins that were used for the tadpoles. We finally got around to making plant markers for the new plants in the native plant garden.
It was another relaxing afternoon bird watching at Camp Crane.
Tuesday, we did a few chores around the VC this morning then went to Fountainebleu Trail to record GPS coordinates for the phenology trail plants.
On our way, we checked on one of the Sandhill Crane nests.
On our way back. we made a quick stop to look for Many flowered Grass Pinks in the South Gautier Unit. It was planned to be quick, but... we had a lot of distractions.
We saw an alligator and at least 10 Little Blue Herons as we passed Firetower Pond.
We had another distraction when we were at the intersection of Ben Williams Road and Beasley Road. We saw a juvenile Eagle sitting in the road right before Beasley Pond and thought, it must be hurt. We got about 25 meters from it before it flew. We are pretty sure it was BG, the fledgling from the nearby nest.
We saw 7X, the recently banded Eaglet, in a tree near his nest and an adult Eagle perched in their favorite tree.
Our quest for more Many flowered orchids was successful. We found one more plant getting our total findings to 35.
Wednesday, we went on an early morning Orchid Safari with Angie to take pictures of flowers at the North Gautier Unit. We saw so many Sandhill Cranes that we almost missed the morning light/picture taking moment. We found 8 more Many flowered Grass Pinks.
After lunch we went to Independence Road Shop and the Oak Grove Trail to show Jim and Tina around.
Thursday, we went with Angie crane nest searching and to check on the Eaglet via boat. Lucky for us, the interns were working with Scott nest searching and Angie gave us the opportunity to go with her.
The bayou was beautiful with a hazy, foggy, mist over the water when we left at 7 am.
We checked out the Eagle nest and saw that the Eaglet was still in the nest and had not fledged. One of the parents was there as well.
We went across the bayou to check on an Owlet nest. The Owlet kept a keen eye on us as we were taking pictures. Such a cute, fuzz ball!
Before we got to I 10, we saw another Owl nest. It had 2 Owlets in it. Two fuzz balls is double the cuteness.
After we got on the south side of I 10, Angie tried to call up sandhill Cranes with an amplified Crane sound machine. We never got a response. We enjoyed watching a few birds in the marsh and an alligator nearby.
We went to Sioux Bayou and found Crane #533 in the back yard of one of the houses.
We kept hearing this beautiful whistling sound. Turns out it was a bunch of whistling ducks that were on both sides of the bayou.
There was also a Muscovy Duck sitting quietly along the bank.
After searching the marsh for the Crane nest, we decided to give up. About that time, Crane #533 flew from the yard to a marshy area. We are pretty sure the nest is in the area, but we unable to find it.
We were able to get our first picture of the year of the Swallow-tailed Kite.
We made several stops on the way back to Camp Crane for photo ops. We were gone 5 hours and traveled 26 miles round trip. An awesome morning of motor boating!
The afternoon, we spent collecting phenology data and recording GPS coordinates for the plants on the Dees Trail.
The VC native plant garden is getting prettier every day.
Friday, this is our last volunteer work day for a while due to Coronovirus. We made the most of this last day by going on an early morning Orchid Safari. We thought the Many Flowered Grass Pinks were about to quit blooming because it had been over 6 weeks since the last burn. We thought wrong. We found 31 new plants and a new location for them. We have found a total of 73 since this Orchid Safari started.
We spotted our first Orchid Oriole of the year, perched in a bush at Elbert's Pond.
We did a little bit of limb picking up then rearranged plant markers on the Dees Trail. We just happened to take a few photos while we worked on the plant markers.
We found a bumper crop of fresh hatched Easter Lubber Grasshoppers.
We found our first Rose Pagonias at HQ today, the Dees Trail should have them before long.
Saturday, this is the first day in a long time that we didn't have something planned to do. We turned out to be pretty lazy today. We didn't open the door of the camper until 3 pm when we took a leisurely walk on the Dees Trail. We found our first Rose Pagonia of the year on the trail.
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