We made a couple of stops Monday on our way back to Camp Crane. One was to stock up on vegetables at Charlie's U Pik and the other stop was at Academy Sports. We found our new home away from home at Academy, a tent. With the prices of fuel, we are not planning on pulling Rap very far. We are hoping to head north for a couple of weeks and do some tent camping along the way.
We picked one of the hottest days to make this decision. We sweated down in the shade with the breeze blowing as we were checking it out. We definitely will not be using it around here anytime soon.
We got a bundle that had a tent, chairs, table, sleeping bags, and mats. It seemed to grow after we opened it up and tried to put it back in the bag. We will have to practice this a time or two before we get it mastered.
We sat around afterwards, grilling and cooking some fresh purple hull peas. We added some tomatoes, cucumbers, and cornbread for a good ole home cooked meal.
It was another HOT day Tuesday. Lauren made a loop along the Dees Trail while I eased into the day. There were a few critters enjoying the trail as well.
We helped the Interns close down 9 of the DGF tanks that are empty. We also helped them catch and release hundreds of Squirrel Tree Frog tadpoles from 2 of the tanks.
We went to the North Gautier Crop Unit blind this afternoon. We decided we were going to give the Jabba family until 3 pm to show. I was shocked when Lauren looked through the binoculars and saw them at 2:59 pm. Scott was on the ground and attempted to catch Dabba. The parents flew off and Dabba hid in the swamp. The mud was so deep, that Scott was using trees to pull himself out of the mud. We know where they hang now and know that Dabba has not fledged. We will try again in a few days with a new strategy.
We sat around this afternoon enjoying the birding at Camp Crane. We have a Northern Cardinal that drinks from the a/c water runoff of the camper.
We loafed on Wednesday. Our first stop was to the Gulf Island National Seashore to purchase Lauren's lifetime pass for the national parks. The perks of getting old!!
While we were there we drove around and found a couple of Green Herons at the boat launch.
We rode to Front Beach in Ocean Springs. There was plenty of human activity, but not much birding.
We had our birthday burgers at Ruby Tuesday before heading back to camp.
We made a loop along the Dees Trail hoping looking for pollinators on this hot afternoon. We found a few.
We stayed inside with the a/c until after 6 pm. June feels more like July and August this year.
Thursday we cut back limbs that were blocking our view at the North Gautier Pen blind. This will make our picture taking of the Jabba family better.
We saw about 20 Sandhill Cranes near the East Valentine feeder. Of course, our favorites were 2 of the Circus Crew.
We also saw a couple of American Bullfrogs hanging in the water across from Elbert's Pond. One of them was huge.
We picked up my new phone and stayed inside until after 6 pm. It was another hot day.
Friday, while manning the visitors center, Lauren got some mowing done. It was a very hot day with a heat index of 114 degrees which accounts for a very slow day of visitation.
After we closed, we collected the phenology data and took a few pics along the way.
Saturday was another day of manning the visitor center. We only had one person walk inside on this very hot day.
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