4-29-18 - 5-5-18 (Week 9)

Sunday
It's been a while since we toured behind the locked gates of the Refuge.  We decided it is Sunday, everybody is off, we won't be disturbing anybody, we gotta get our fix.  It was our Sunday, Funday at the Refuge.

We had it all planned out, at the latest we would get up at 6:30 am,  Ferny Kat was right on board, except for a few minutes.  At 6:27 am, she woke Lauren up.  Who needs an alarm clock?

We had an awesome time, we saw 3 deer, an eagle or maybe two, had 18 Crane sightings, saw a bobcat, and a bunch more birds.  Definitely, worth not sleeping in.

We cooked another pack of the Tabby Cat Jeannie and Ronnie gave us, played cards with Roger and Carole, (they were teaching us Pow Gai, their favorite casino card game), and are calling it a night.

Monday
We decided we were going to stay around camp today.  We rearranged some of the plant signs on the CL Dees Trail and did a little bird watching.

The couple we met last week at Shell Mound Park that laughed about us forgetting our binoculars, were out on the trail.  And no, I did not have my binoculars.  We all had a good laugh this time.   I had intentionally left them at the camper while we were putting out plant signs.

After lunch, we made another round on the trail, (with binoculars), to bird watch.  We saw some really cool birds.

We walked to the gym and worked out for a little bit, trying to get back in shape.  We have been exercising our minds, but not our bodies.

We took our chairs and sat by the bayou for a while.  We only saw a few birds, nothing spectacular.

It was a nice, enjoyable day hanging out at the camp.

Tuesday
We helped Roger pick up limbs this morning, then went to Ocean Springs.  We walked back and forth across the 1.7 mile walking bridge in a howling, warm wind, which was a little bit annoying.

Afterwards, we went to the famous TatoNuts Donut Shop. We got a variety of donuts, they were all delicious.  I don't think I have ever had donuts that tasted this good.  Especially, when we washed them down with chocolate milk.  It was a good thing we got our exercise in to help with all the calories we consumed.

We walked the C.L. Dees Trail then sat outside until dusk. It's been a long time since  I had over 20,000 steps.

Wednesday
The loud chirping of the birds woke us up this morning.  Lauren decided he would get up and walk the CL Dees Trail.  I decided to turn on the a/c to drain them out and go back to sleep.  I could still hear them over the a/c noise.

We stayed around camp for most of the day, rode around looking for Sandhill Cranes, worked out at the gym, then relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

Thursday
Lauren and I got the tents and tables set up for the Gautier Elementary School outing tomorrow.  We went to the iNaturalist training, which was very informative.  We walked the CL Dees Trail and found new plants and blooms.  We are amazed by the different variety of plants that are here and how something new is always popping up.

While on the trail, we watched 3 Ospreys fly over squawking.  After watching them through the binoculars, we found their nest on a cellular tower.  We will keep an eye on them.

Friday
What a day!  We had 95 second graders from Gautier Elementary with their teachers and chaperons.  We had 4 activities set up.  Carol did the Crane Boot Camp station.  Lauren and I did the Animal Wrappers station.  The kids watched the movie and did a discovery hunt inside the Visitor's Center and had a teacher guided trail walk.

The kids were supposed to be here at 9 am.  We hurried up and got everything set up, and waited.  They were about 40 minutes late because one of the kids got sick.  When the buses rolled in, it was on.

Lauren and I talked to the kids about the animals, insects, plants, etc. that live here.  They were pretty sharp and very attentive.  We had pelts in a bag that they could not see. We did not tell them what was in the bag. We had the teacher pick a brave volunteer, to close their eyes and reach inside and pull one out.  We talked about each pelt after they pulled it out. We did this for 4 different groups of kids.

The first kid was a hoot!!  He reached in, starting pulling out a coyote pelt, screamed, dropped it back in the bag, picked it up again, screamed, and dropped it on the ground.   We repeated this with 6 different kids for the raccoon, red fox, gray fox, possum, bobcat, and skunk. Even though they knew there were pelts in the bag, some of them still got the heebie-jeebies when they pulled out a pelt.

As an added bonus, a beautiful, Swallow Tailed Kite circled above us as we were wrapping up the first group.  The kids, (and adults) were in awe.  The kids clapped and told the Kite good job.

We hope the kids enjoyed their day as much as we did.

After we finished, we took a short walk with Janet Wright, curator for iNaturalist, to look at an pegonia we had posted on the web site.  We came back and put up all the tents and tables, and left an  hour early.  They definitely got their money's worth out of us today.

The refuge fire team spent the day at Camp Refuge, (our new name for the camp), cleaning out some more of the thick brush, which makes for a better view of the bayou.  I can't wait for them to get this job complete.

Saturday
We thought uh-oh, when we had 22 people before 10 am.  Last time we had 10 people before 10 am we got slammed with 67 visitors, (we must have had 50 of these 67people in the Visitors Center at the same time).  Today we had 50 visitors, that trickled in.  A very enjoyable day.

Most of the visitors today, gave great compliments of the facility.  It is nice to know that they are enjoying this Refuge as much as we do.  After all, that's why we are volunteering.

We had 7 Girl Scouts and 2 boys here to earn their Jr. Ranger Badges.  Usually, I take the initiative to go over the answers with them.  I insisted Lauren do this today.  After all, I had to do most of the talking to the 4 groups of kids yesterday.  After much insistence, He complied.

He did a fabulous job, interacting with the 9 kids sitting on the floor.  They gave him their full attention.  I think he enjoyed it as much as they did.  I knew he would do great, being he has the gift of gab.   All the kids gave him a big thank you before they left.

After work, we went out for and celebrated Cinco de Mayo at El Tapatio.  The food was great!

351 pictures are right here:

                                                                     ID this flower

4-22-18 - 4-28-18 - (Week 8)

Sunday
Anita, Ferny Kat, and I sat outside this morning enjoying our bird singing choir until the rain started.  Needless to say, we didn't go on the refuge crane watching today.  We sat around and had lunch waiting to go to Island View for the night.

We had a blast. We played slot machines for several hours, enjoying each others accomplishments.  You would have thought we were winning big bucks with all the excitement we had.  We all come out ahead, which makes for a really good time.

We picked up some grub at the grill and ate in our room.  The choir of the birds this morning must have rubbed off on Anita.  She did a pretty good job singing Chick A Boom, which Lauren secretly videod.  He may need to send that in to The Voice!!, (Just Kidding Anita).

Monday
We stopped and ate breakfast at Waffle House on our return to the Refuge.  We helped set up for the Ocean Springs Upper Elementary School outing that is starting tomorrow.  We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon, getting our walk in and bird watching.

                                                                  Sensitive Briar

                                                          Thread leaf sundew
Tuesday
We decided to be tourist at Ocean Springs today.  The white sand beaches at Ocean Springs are not that big, but they have a nice cement walkway bordering them and plenty of porta potties.  A great place to take the family.

                                                       loggerhead shrike on the post
We walked out on the pier on the south side of Highway 90 and watched people, pelicans, and seagulls fishing.  It was very entertaining, especially when one of the fisherman caught a big black drum that he had to walk to the bank to land.

We had planned on walking across the Biloxi Bay Bridge, but changed our minds when we got tired of the howling, cold wind.  We will have to do that on a warmer day.  72 degrees with the wind coming across the water is too cold for us.

We found a couple of short trails to walk, then went to IP.  We ate our free buffets and gave the casino a little donation.

We decided we needed to walk off some calories.  We took a walk on the fishing pier on the north side of Highway 90 then we went to downtown Ocean Springs. We think Ocean Springs is a good little tourist secret.

We detoured back on Highway 57, for some much needed Crane observations.  The Crane Whisperers saw 5.  We still got it!!

Wednesday
We have been hearing all the birders talking about sightings of the Painted Bunting and Indigo Buntings at Dauphin Island.  We decided to go see if we could find them, with an emphasis on finding the Painted Bunting.

I cooked our breakfast, washed the dishes, made up the bed, got ready, packed my sunglasses, packed my eyeglasses, and packed our lunch, Lauren packed up the camera and away we went.  Just one problem, I didn't pack our binoculars.

This was our first real birding experience.  There were several birders in the at Shell Mound Park.  Everyone was walking slowly, quietly, whispering, and looking through their binoculars.

We sat on a bench and watch several beautiful Indigo Buntings and other birds eating seed on the ground with the squirrels.

                                                      black and white warbler

                                                       

                                                                  indigo bunting

After a little while, we talked with fellow birders.  Lauren told them we were new to bird watching and had forgot our binoculars.  They laughed and agreed with him that we had to be new to leave our binoculars.  They could tell by my expression, I did not think it was funny.  Before long, they were offering to share their binoculars with me.  I bet we won't forget our binoculars next time.

We went to Cadillac Square Park to bird watch while we ate our picnic lunch.  There were 2 buses of school kids playing in the park, it was not a good time to be bird watching.

After lunch, we took a stroll around Audubon Birding Trail.  This trail has a lot of diversity, sun worshipers and bird watchers.

We made one last stop to Shell Mound Park and saw the Painted Bunting, a male and female.  They  really stood out in the blue sea of Indigo Buntings.

Cha-Ching!!!  Mission accomplished, (even without binoculars).

Dauphin Island pictures click here:

Thursday
A little bit of rain this morning caused the Ocean Springs School to cancel their outing at the Refuge today.  After a light shower this morning, the sun came out and it was a beautiful rest of the day.  This left us with a quiet, peaceful, slow day.

Our Osprey perched in his tree right at dusk.  Being he allows us frequent admiration we have named him Savannah.

Friday
We had 3 buses of kids from Ocean Springs School for their annual trip to the Refuge which has been going on for 20 years.  There were 5 stations set up which included Fire, Law Enforcement, Cranes, Hug A Tree, and Nature Trail.  Lauren and I checked out some of the booths and probably learned  as much as the kids.

After work, we finally had to break down and go to Wally World.  We bought two different block bird feeds and hung them up with the other bird feeders.  One of them we hung on the claws of the metal eagle to keep the squirrels out of it.  The birds sat up in the trees wondering what the heck was going on.  It may take them a few days to get use to it.  I am waiting for the brave soul to eat from the claws of the eagle.

Saturday
Thursday, we had 8 Visitors, All Day Long.  Yesterday, we had the Ocean Springs School Kids  that were here for their planned field trip, and 12 more Visitors.  It's been a really slow couple of work days at the Visitor's Center.

We had our tablet, the WiFi, Carole's cookbook, our camera, and a set of binoculars to pacify this, in our minds, another slow day.

                                                           on our way to open

When we walked over this morning, we had a couple waiting for us to open.  We had 10 visitors before 10.  The last time that happen we had a really busy day.  DeJuVu!!

Between 11 am and 12 pm, as I was helping the Jr Rangers with their projects, people were piling in.   It's amazing when you have at least 4 people working in the Visitor's Center only a few people come, but....

10 before 10, then 10 after 1 pm.  That sums up the day!

Our best count today was 69 Visitors. And yes, we are patting ourselves on the back, We did good!!

More pictures are here:

4-15-18 - 4/21/18 - (Week 7)

Sunday
It was a cold, windy, sunny day. A good day to go to Crossroads.  I spent the afternoon giving some much needed TLC to the house.  Lauren and Ferny Kat spent the afternoon getting some much needed rest.  They were wore out from last week's festivities.

Monday
I had an early morning doctor appointment. This afternoon, Lauren mowed the yard and I raked up leaves.  The place sure does look nice all cleaned up.  Anita came over and spent the night.  We had a lot of catching up to do.  Another fun time together.

Tuesday
It was a beautiful day.  We could stay home and rest, or we could go back to the Refuge. A no brainer. We didn't want to sit around Crossroads and watch the grass grow.

We got a lot of walking in and rearranged a couple of plant signs on the C.L. Dees trail.   We watched an Osprey perched on a dead tree trunk until dark.

Wednesday
The chirping of the birds woke me up this morning.  The slamming of the window I closed, woke up Lauren.  Not quite the way to ease into the day.

Lauren wasn't his usual chipper self this morning.   It was time for some wind therapy.  After wiping off the dust and spider webs, we took off on Amber to Dauphin Island.

We had a nice, relaxing ride to Dauphin Island.  As we crossed the bridge, we saw two dolphins splashing in the water.   Hence, the name Dauphin Island.

We rode to both ends of the island.  We hiked the Audubon Birding Trail and saw alligators, turtles, pelicans, seagulls, ospreys, and a lot more birds.  It was a very humid, but a  nice walk.

We made it back to Pascagoula in time for the shipyard traffic and to Gautier in time for the school traffic.  We need to work on that timing thing.

                                                           Back at Camp Refuge

A grilled hamburger and a couple of beers, and we are calling it a night.

Pictures are here:

Thursday
Our work week begins.  This morning, Lauren and Charley worked on the Escatawpa  Trail, Carol had her Colt Capers, and I manned the Visitor Center.  It was a pretty good day.

Friday
We had a slow Friday at the Visitor's Center.  We walked the C.L. Dees Trail after work then lounged around the rest of the evening.

Saturday
A great end to the work week.  Anita came over for the Native American presentation at the Visitor's Center.  The family of four, from the Lumbee/Choctaw Tribes, had a beautiful presentation of their dance and dress.  Anita enjoyed it so much, she watched both shows.  It was a gorgeous day to be outside.

After work, we walked the C.L. Dees Trail and sat by the campfire until after dark.  Another fabulous get together.

Click for pics: