Sunday was spent working on the safety audit stuff. Our first stop was the Martins Unit checking out the blind and admiring the pretty stand of wiregrass and toothache grass.
When we went to the Fontainebleau Unit, we found Mayong and Samus, the recently FB released cranes, foraging along Old Spanish Trail. After notifying Scott, we went back, waited for a break in traffic, and tried to flush them to the savanna. I jumped out of the truck and ran toward them, screaming at them like a crazy woman. Lauren stayed in the truck, honking the horn, and driving toward them. The goal was to scare the shit out of them and flush them to the savanna. Instead of them flushing to the savanna, they flew right down the centerline of Old Spanish Trail, (which scared the shit out of me). When they got to the intersection of Old Spanish Trail and Fontainebleau Road, they veered left. All in all, they flew about 2 miles. When they met an oncoming vehicle, they would fly just high enough to clear it. Thankfully, people slowed down and pulled over for them. We let Scott know what was going on and left them foraging in the ditch along Fontainebleau Road.
We took the shortcut through Browns Trail on the way back, seeing ducks and coots along Baker Road. We did not see the first crane on the North Gautier Unit. We sure do miss the Crane Circus.
Monday was another safety audit workday. We had a meeting at 8:30 a.m. then hit the ground running. We only took a couple of pictures at Camp Crane this afternoon.
Tuesday was a wait around kind of day. We got some more supplies to finish the Fontainebleau Trail boardwalk, got the boards cut, and we will install tomorrow. It was a no picture taking kind of day.
Wednesday we finally got the Fontainebleau boardwalk repairs done. We took the shortcut back through Browns Trail taking a few pictures along the way. We only saw 4 cranes that flew away. We haven't seen the Crane Circus that is usually here in quite a while.
I got back and got my dressing ready for tomorrow while Lauren took a stroll along the Dees Trail. He got some cool picture of critters.
Thursday was another Happy Thanksgiving. On our way to put the turkey and dressing in the oven at the bunkhouse, we had a beautiful sunrise, heard the peep of the recently released cranes, then saw them fly to the pond. A great start to the day.
We ate lunch at the bunkhouse with Jake, Rebecca, and Tom. It may have been a small group, but there was a great variety of good food. This is our 5th Thanksgiving that we have celebrated at the refuge. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have Carol, Charlie, and Angie there. After all, they started this Thanksgiving tradition!
We made an evening stroll along the Dees Trail and Crane Lane and got a few pics along the way.
The HQ crew were out by the pen when we pulled out of HQ Friday morning. Our first destination was the South Gautier Unit. The critters were out and about in the drizzling rain seeing 12 cranes while we were there. It is unusual to have this many crane sightings in this unit.
The eagles are finally back. We saw 2 adult and 1 juvenile eagle hanging around the power line on Beasley Road. After we got home and were going through our pictures, there was actually 2 juveniles eagles. One of them we didn't see until we processed our pictures.
We had another eagle sighting on our way out. The eagle was perched in a tree along Firetower Road. He hung around for a few good pics.
The Crane Circus was a disappointment on the North Gautier Unit. We only saw 1 crane. Which again is unusual. Wonder where Banana and Coconut are hanging?
Valentine Pond did not disappoint. We saw a Little Blue Heron, a Kingfisher, an Eagle, and a Great Egret.
It was one of those Facebook picture posting kind of days.
Saturday, we worked in the visitor center with Judy and Terry. We had 16 crane sightings from the back door of the visitor center. For a while, we had more cranes visiting the than we had people.
NV11 and family were at the feeder when we opened up the visitor center this morning. After they bellied up on the corn, they went out to the pen and harassed the youngsters.
Later in the day, the youngsters came to the HQ feeder to check out the unbanded pair. They only stayed for a bit before flying back toward the pen.
After we closed, we spent the rainy afternoon catch up on our pictures and blog.
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