Last Sunday we wore shorts, today we wore hoodies. What an extreme change in climate we have in the South.
We rode around for several hours today watching birds from the warmth of the Jeep. We saw 6 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes in Bright's Pasture.
We toured around Gulf Island National Seashore and Ocean Spring's beach and marsh watching shorebirds.
As we turned into Camp Crane Lane, we saw our 5 resident deer enjoying the acorns under the Live Oak.
Ferny Kat kept insisting we take her outside when we got back. This is one time, she didn't get her way.
Monday
It's hard to believe it's been a month since we released the captive raised cranes in the temporary pen. Today they became Free Birds!
Prior to releasing, crane decoys and feeders were placed around the East Pond to help them find their new roosting place.
Scott, Angie, and Shannon opened the gate and attempted to herd the 3 cranes out of the temporary pen. Only one cooperated. 1803 ran out, flew over the pen, and went to the front side of the net where her 2 cohorts were. After several failed attempts to get the other 2 cranes out, Danny and I joined, Team Crane Herder.
Trying to coax long legged, sharp beaked, sharp clawed, 4 foot birds with a wing span of 72 inches out of a pen is quite the experience..I now have another claim to fame, a Crane Herder.
The second crane, 1805, was literally pushed out the gate by Scott.
The third crane, 1804, was our biggest challenge. She was determined not to leave her gated community. When we finally coaxed her out, Scott chased her off in the savanna to encourage her to fly.
It didn't take them long for the 3 to get back together and meander around the savanna.
They were redirected a couple of times when they attempted to cross Crane Lane.
After wandering around and foraging in the savanna, the last tracking of them is in the East Pond, where we hope they roost for the night.
Tuesday
The newly released cranes, aka Juveniles, roosted across the bayou last night, not the best place for 3 newbies to roost.
We spent the most of the day birding from the comforts of the jeep around Pascagoula.
We continued our birding, walking the CL Dees Trail. It sure would be nice to see the cranes on this walk.
We had a nice campfire tonight. Unfortunately, we heard a pack of coyotes across the bayou. I hope our cranes are safe.
Wednesday
The juvenile cranes are still living on the edge, by not roosting in a pond at night. Hopefully, they will figure out they need the comforts of water to help keep them safe from predators.
We assisted Biology, Mississippi State, and Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources with bird banding today. Our first stomping was in the savanna behind the kiosk on Crane Lane. Ten of us walked in a line and jumped up birds in the savanna. After we saw a Henslow's Sparrow in the brush, they set up a net and we flushed the bird into the net. We caught 3 in 40 minutes. This is a bird, we probably would only get a glimpse of, if we were that lucky, and our savannas are one of the most populated places for them in the winter. We caught 3 in 40 minutes. Weighed, measured, banded, admired, and them set them free. They are pretty little birds. We also caught a Sedge Wren which we also admired. Eric took the time to show us details on the birds before they were released.
We spent a couple of hours with Scott Checking on a family of 4 cranes in Ocean Springs that may have been victims of predation. We were relieved to find the parents and their twins alive and well.
Tonight, we went out stomping again. This time in one of the original savannas on Valentine Road. There were 17 of us. Our caravan use the parking lights on our vehicles to ride into the savanna to prevent disturbing the cranes on their roost.
This was quite the experience, we all had headlights, 2 people pulled a rope that had bottles with rocks in them to make noise as it was dragged across the savanna. The rest of us, ran along with them watching for Yellow Rails to flush. The sprinters, aka the much younger ones, had nets and when the rail was flushed, would run to the bird and catch in the net. We caught 2, banded them, and released them.
As Scott said, the birds are like the movie, The Field of Dreams. When you release them in the grass, they just disappear.
Us 2 old farts have really enjoyed ourselves today. We are proud that we did not fall and was able to keep up, somewhat, with the youngsters. We will definitely sleep good tonight.
Thursday
A sad morning at the refuge this morning. Our juvenile crane, 1805, was killed by a bobcat last night near the temporary pen. I learned how to work the telemetry today and took us straight to her body.
The bobcat left the carcass covered in grass in the savanna. The living on the edge and not roosting in a pond, was detrimental to her.
A rainy day started right after we got back inside. It was an extremely slow day of visitation at the Visitor's Center.
Friday
Melissa, Danny, Lauren and I went on a plant walk with Mark LaSalle. We spent the morning on the Fountainebleu Trail obtaining, or at least trying to obtain, all kinds of knowledge from Mark. It was a well spent morning. We are continuing to overload our minds with knowledge. There is always something new to learn about nature!!
Saturday
We had 9 Sandhill Cranes in the Crane Lane Savanna today. Two were our juveniles and seven were from the Ben Williams pen. It is great that the juvies have made new friends and are bringing them to the VC. They hung around until 12:50 pm today. Our visitors sure did enjoy watching them walking, foraging, and dancing from the back side of the VC and the observation blind. And so did we!
We also watched a Great Egret flying above the pen while the cranes were in the savanna. This is the first Great Egret we have seen flying over this savanna.
Today is finally the day, Anita made it to Camp Refuge for a visit!! It is long overdue.
Week 41 pictures
Crane release pics:
Lasalle Fountainebleau Plant Walk
