In route to Ocean Springs for an Orchid Safari, we stopped to check on the Dougie Family. The colts were doing well foraging in the pasture with their parents.
We tromped around in a couple of 3 week old savanna burns looking for Calapogon multiflorus. We were delighted to find 15 of them in the second savanna, a new location for the refuge. It was a great find for our 365th day here.
We went in the Ocean Springs blind and saw the unbanded pair with their colt. They were at the other side of the pen. Maybe next time they will be closer for better pictures.
While we were out and about we found a lot of other cool things, including our first Yellow Meadowbeauties and Savanna Meadowbeauties of this year.
We have had a fabulous celebration of our Refuge Anniversary.
We made 2 loops around the Dees Trail reorganizing the plant markers on Monday.
We helped the Interns process 26 Dusky Gopher Frogs and released 30 at sunset. We were able to drive all the way to the pond. It is a rarity that it is dry enough to do this. This is good for us, but not for the tadpoles that were in the dried up pond. We only found one snake, a Pine Woods Littersnake. He was a cute little rascal. We had a nice sunset to watch while waiting for the frogs to acclimate. After the release, we took an usie of the Croak Crew.
The Croak Crew was joined by the Craniac at the DGF tanks today. We put the round traps in increasing the traps from one to three.
Today we captured 14 DGFs. Half of them were loafing and hand caught. Some of them were checking out their new condos that we were putting in the tank. Catching the frogs that were not in the traps became a sport. It looks like it's going to be a busy week.
Lauren loaded up the Bio team and left the boat lauch around 6 am. They had a nice, cool morning for the marsh bird survey.
That changed by the time they returned when we went to check crane nests. The temperature was much warmer and the sun was beaming. We checked out 3 different crane nest. The first nest had one egg. It was floated to check for viability and returned back to the nest.
The second nest had two eggs. One egg was beginning to pip. The other egg was nonviable. Good news and bad news.
The third nest was in a slough with only one of the two eggs present. Scott purred to the egg as it floated, and the chick kicked. One of our top highlights of volunteering here.
We all guessed the number of frogs that we were getting out of the tanks today. I was right on the money, (or bragging rights). We removed 35 DGFs today.
We saw an interesting camper traveling on I10 Thursday morning.
We helped the Interns run the DGF traps. We collected 31 frogs, processed 77 and released them tonight.
Friday the 13th was our lucky day. We went on an Orchid Safari and found Calopogon multiflorus at the G8 East Unit. A new location for these beauties. Of course we walked in the savanna for over an hour before we found them. They were located next to a firebreak, which would have been a much easier walk. Oh well, we got in some good exercise.
As we were walking back to the truck, we spotted 3 Common Nighthawks chasing each other. One of them landed on the ground where we found a nest with 2 eggs. One of them kept chasing the other nighthawk, while the third kept a keen eye on us.
We met Scott to do another check on the Milhouse nest. Milhouse and Crane 2005 flew as we walked up. We carefully stepped and looked for the little one and found it. The chick was doing what he was supposed to do. It was being still and squatted down in the savanna. Lauren and I both got to hold this small, soft, bundle of joy. When it got fussy, we would balance his feet on our hands and it would look around seeming content. This is definitely the highlight of volunteering at the refuge.
It didn't take long for Mom and Dad to return to their buddle of joy. Nature is so awesome!
The excitement continued when we checked the DGF tanks. Hefan, Lauren, and I removed 60 frogs. My oh my!
It was a slow day of visitation at the visitors center. We had 28 people trickle in. We got the garden watered and got the containers ready for the DGFs. After we closed, we helped Hefan collect 54 DGFs from the tanks. The DGF season is on!
