Sunday was a laid-back kind of day, except for the 37 DGF's we retrieved from the traps, another record-breaking day. We went to the Ocean Springs Unit and picked up termite infested fencing that someone had dumped at the gate. Dang people! We saw a few cool plants, birds, and critters along the way.
Monday was another DGF day. We removed 36 frogs from the tanks. We processed 96 frogs and released at sunset. We found a couple of turtles and a couple of snakes around the drift fence. A Cottonmouth was relocated and a Water Snake escaped in a hole.
Tuesday, we met Erin early at 8 am. We removed and processed 36 DGF. We picked up the plant markers on the Dees Trail in preparation of the prescribed burn tomorrow.
This afternoon, we headed to Crossroads to mow the yard. Ferny Kat must have been ready for a road trip. She stayed awake and co-piloted all the way home.
Ferny Kat kept her paw on Lauren's arm for our ride back to the refuge on Wednesday.
The Fire Center was doing a prescribed burn across the bayou when we returned to Camp Crane. The trail will be done tomorrow.
We processed 58 DGF, our all time record. We got to play, "Wheel of Frog," with the last one we processed. He got loose and hid in a wheel of one of the office chairs. These dang frogs!!
Thursday, Angie made it back to work after being gone a couple of weeks house hunting in Iowa. We processed 45 DGF. We learned a few tricks from our seasoned friend about the DGF processing. After all, she has 9 years' experience.
This morning, we got an invite from Scott to go with them to search for White-topped Pitcher Plants at Martin Pasture. We found several Macfarlanes Pitcher Plants, which are a hybrid of the White-topped and Pale Pitcher Plant. This gives the refuge 18 different species of Carnivorous Plants.
Friday, Angie, Erin, Lauren, and I left Camp Crane at 6 am for a Marsh Bird Survey. We had a beautiful morning for a boat ride. We called up several Sandhill Cranes but only one marsh bird, a rail, We spotted several other non-marsh birds and pretty plants along the way. This is a nice way to spend 4 hours of your morning.
We processed 44 DGF and attempted release at sunset. After over an hour of lightning, we returned to HQ with the 183 frogs that we were going to release. We will attempt again tomorrow night.
Ferny Kat must have known how tired we were Saturday. She let us sleep until 8 am, which was very much appreciated.
We took a stroll along the Dees Trail and checked out the burn then met Carol, Charlie, and Angie for lunch at Woodys.
Angie, Lauren, and I released the 183 DGF that we were unable to release last night. As we were looking for snakes, (no snakes), Angie found what may be, the first, natural DGF morph since she started this recovery program 9 years ago. To say, she was super excited is an understatement. We won't know for sure until she confers with her colleagues. After the frogs acclimated for 30 minutes, it took us over 45 minutes to release them. It was well past dark when we released the last one.
