It pretty much took us all day Sunday to get back to the Turtle Ranch. We lounged around home, then stopped and shopped at a few places, waited for the ferry for an hour, then arrived at our Sweet Home Alabama. This week will wrap up our volunteer tour here.
While waiting on the ferry, we grabbed a couple of hot dogs and a couple of beers. We took a short stroll then the ferry was here. Time flies when you are having fun.
We finally got to see some Dolphins as we made our way across the bay.
We got unpacked and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
It was definitely a Monday kind of day. First Lauren lost his refuge keys. After looking everywhere, we found them in plain sight laying on Herman's driver's seat. Second, our personal truck had a flat. A trip to the tire repair store, and all is well.
After lunch, we decided to take advantage of this nice warm day and ride along the beach in the Kubota and pick up trash. There were a lot of beach goers taking advantage of this weather as well.
It was a nice, relaxing, ride, watching the waves roll in. One of the many perks of our volunteer gig! Tomorrow a cool front arrives.
Tuesday I got Wimpy, my weed-eater out, and trimmed up some grass at the Jeff Friend Trail and the Pine Beach Trail. Lauren pushed mowed at the Pine Beach Trail observation tower. Our work was interrupted by all the hikers along the trail.
We took a ride to the Sands Unit and walked around getting a few more iNaturalist observations. Then we sat outside at Camp Secour before the cool wind sent us in.
Wednesday, while waiting for Herman to be outfitted with his new gooseneck hitch, we loafed around. We went to Cracker Barrel to kill some time. It was the fastest that we have ever been served at a Cracker Barrel.
We loafed around Lowes, Home Depot, and Big Lots. As we were heading back to hang at Custom Trucks, we got the call that Herman was ready.
On our way back to camp, we got a call from Matthew. He and Alexis had bogged down in the Sands Unit. We went to the compound to get the chain that we unloaded yesterday for the hitch installation. We had hauled it around for 3 months and not needed it, until today.
Matthew and Alexis met us on the main road. While they were waiting, they found a cool Pine Woods Litter Snake. He was a pretty, little wiggly, rascal and the first snake that Lauren has ever held. As soon as Lauren took him, the snake chilled out and relaxed. Lauren must have a little bit of snake charmer in him.
As dry as it has been, it was hard to believe that there were any wet areas. It was believed when we saw the Intern's truck. Ole Herman to the rescue. Getting Herman turned around in this tight spaces was quite a challenge. But we got er done.
We sat around again this afternoon, until the temperature started to fall. Before going in, we got a picture of a Bay-breasted Warbler with his dinner and a Bald Eagle fly over.
We kept hearing a woodpecker pecking on a pine tree. We finally found him when we went back out to heat up our dinner on the grill. It was a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Our first sighting of one for this season.
Thursday was our, or rather my last day to man the visitor center at Bon Secour. Lauren did a little bit of piddling while I sat behind the desk, or maybe paced the front porch, and even walked around in the parking lot. Finally a few people trickled in, followed by a few more, and before I knew it, I had my record breaking day of visitation at Bon Secour, 23 people, up by 1 from last week. Cha-ching!!
It may have been a trickling kind of day, but the folks that stopped by were very engaging.
Afterwards, we unloaded our stuff from Herman and will get another ride in him tomorrow before we part ways.
Friday morning, we drove Herman and our truck to the compound then we did a little bit of joy riding, one last time, in Herman. Our first destination was the Jeff Friend Trail. We thoroughly enjoyed our leisurely walk along the 3/4 mile trail, seeing our first Grebe of the season along with a lot of other pretties along the way.
We decided to look for Palmetto Tortoise Beatles on our walk. Right after Lauren made the comment that there was probably no way we would ever see one of these little creatures, he saw several of them.
We did a little bit of tiding up at the Pine Beach Trail vault toilet, then checked out the observation tower. We talked for a long time to a couple that had recently moved to Alabama from Boston. We all had a great time, watching the numerous butterflies and bees on the Baccharis below the observation tower.
The tide was low, which enhanced our critter watching. We had the pleasure of watching a couple of Blue Crabs dueling it out and got pictures of a couple of needle fish in the water.
After the couple left, it got quiet. The rails were teasing us, flying back and forth in the tall grass. I am pretty sure that they were laughing at the fact that we did not get their picture. But we had the last laugh, we got a picture of one of them. Although, it is a bit blurry.
Herman is now back at the compound in his old parking spot. It has been a good ride!!
We, or rather I, had one more thing that I wanted to do before departing tomorrow. I wanted to eat at Tacky Jack's at Fort Morgan. We had linner, overlooking the harbor, watching Dolphins, Shore Birds, and Fishermen. The view was great and so was the Mexican Trash.
We got back, got most everything packed up, and will depart from the Turtle Ranch in the morning. Life is Good!!
