Sunday, we had a nice time, sitting under the shade tree taking pictures of the fire crew doing a prescribed burn at the entrance of Camp Crane. They only burned an acre, but that acre was burned with precision. The Hotshots last day at the Crane Ranch was quite impressive.
The afternoon, we went on another orchid safari at G05-S, but did not find any of the elusive calopogon multiflorus. But we did find Mean Momma on her 3rd nest of this season. Hopefully, 3 times is a charm!
Monday, I got up early to see Lauren off to Tractor School. As I was lounging around on the computer after he left, I got an invite to join the class. It only took me about 10 minutes to be seated in my chair for this 4 hour class. Driving a tractor is a new challenge for me, but not for Lauren who has been driving them for most of his life. We will get our seat time of driving tractors later this week.
Monday afternoon, I did the online training for the Tractor Course while Lauren helped Jake and Theresa process and tag 68 DGFs. Logan, one of the guys in the tractor class happened to stop at the visitor center as we were heading to Camp Crane. He went with the 4 of us to release the DGFs at sunset.
As we were walking to the pond, we could hear the rumbling. Right before we got to the pond, we saw a beautiful rainbow.
While acclimating the mets, we checked for snakes. We found one Cottonmouth that we relocated on the way out. We were pretty lucky that the thunderstorms missed us and we only had a light rain while we were at Justin's pond.
The new Visitor Services Kubota was sitting in the parking lot waiting for us when we went to work Tuesday morning. We got in and took her for a spin. It has an enclosed cab, windshield wipers, air conditioning and heating. Lauren did a good job picking it out.
This afternoon we helped Carol pack up her things after she turned in her refuge keys. The Loews will be missed.
Wednesday morning, we got our chick buzz in first thing. We got to see both of the chicks with their parents at Rock Hill.
We also checked on the Sunplex Widower. His behavior led us to believe the chick is still alive, but we could not get a visual on the colt in the tall grass.
We had our first volunteer meeting with Jeremy and Melissa. During the meeting Melissa announced that she has taken a job at Desoto National Forest. Yesterday, Carol turned in her keys. Today Melissa announced she is leaving. Life at the Crane Ranch is never going to be the same.
Thursday, before opening the visitor center, Lauren and I walked the Dees Trail. It is already starting to green up after the prescribed burn and has a few blooms popping out. We can't wait to watch it progress.
Thunder, Squall, and Tsunami were chowing down at the HQ feeder when we walked to the trail. That all changed as we were opening up the visitor center and NV11 and 337 flew in and made them skedaddle.
I manned the visitor center while Lauren and Jeff took the Visitor Services SUV in for repairs. My plan was to get bookstore orders done while they were gone. That plan changed when I had all these nice folks to talk to about the refuge. After Lauren and Jeff got back, I got the orders done while they talked with the visitors.
Friday, we sorted and washed the plant markers from the Dees Trail then did our seat time of tractor training. I thought the big tractor with the bat-winged mower would be the hardest to drive. I did pretty good on it. On the other hand, the smaller tractor with the bucket was a lot harder than I thought it would be. On my first try, I scooped up the gravel, backed up the tractor, then went forward and dumped the gravel. I thought, I got this, but I thought wrong. After many unsuccessful attempts, Lauren came over and helped me out. I was finally able to successfully scoop up and move the gravel. It would have helped to have a working gauge for the bucket. It would have also helped if the clutch and stick shift were easier to maneuver. I may have been worn out when I finished, but it was well worth the effort. We are now Tractor Certified for the US Fish and Wildlife. Team McLaurin is awesome!!
This afternoon, we walked the Dees Trail and placed a couple of plant markers.
Saturday, we went to see "Lonesome Lilly" at the Pascagoula River Audubon Center, Lauren's entry in their Nature Photography Contest. She was exhibited above the refreshment table. Lauren got a nice wooden chopping board for his efforts.
Afterwards, we had an impromptu Crane Tour for Jake and his grandparents. The tour started off good seeing 3 cranes when we entered the North Gautier Unit. Although, they didn't hang around for a picture.
We had our first Purple Gallinule sighting on the refuge. He was hanging around Valentine Pond and very photogenic.
We got a visual on the Sunplex Widower and his colt and for the grand finale we got to see the Rock Hill Family.
We were surprised to have 16 Crane sightings considering it was after 12 pm before we left for this impromptu tour.
This afternoon, we met Anita at Island View for a 3 night stay in our adjoining rooms. We didn't win any money, but we had a great time. We even made an appearance to listen to the band that started at 8 pm, although we didn't last very long.
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