5-26-29 - 6-1-19 (Week 65)

Sunday
We hung around the refuge this morning then went to Island View to play our $10 free play.  I lost my free-play and a $20 bill,  Lauren cashed out $95.25 ahead.

Late afternoon, we had to wait for the Free Birds to get off the road so we could walk to the garbage.  They were headed to their feeder.

Monday
It is so cool to wake up and hear the Free Birds calling around 7:30 am.  It was not so cool hearing Ferny Kat meowing for Lauren to get up around 5 am on our day off.  She makes sure he doesn't oversleep.  Although, he ignored her and slept till 7 am.

We decided to avoid the Memorial Holiday crowds and go to the Ocean Springs Unit of the refuge.  We were amazed to sight 10 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes in this unit.  We had a Memorial Day picnic sitting in the van with the a/c on and windows rolled up, (to keep out the heat and horse flies,) watching 2 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes in the crop unit.

We decided to make a quick stop at Brown's Trail to check on the Great Blue Heron Nestlings.  As soon as we entered, we saw a pair of Sandhill Cranes with a chick.  It was our first sighting of a chick this year and our first chick sighted inside the refuge.  The chick quickly hid in the taller grass, while the parents kept an eye on us.  We got a couple of quick pics and moved on.

We only saw one of the Great Blue Heron nestlings when we drove into Valentine Road, and neither when we came back by.

After getting our count up to 13 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes, we decided to check out the South Gautier Unit.  We saw 6 more cranes in this unit bringing our total to 19 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes sightings.   The Crane Whisperers still have it.

We also saw a lot of deer, a raccoon, a Cottonmouth Snake, several Red Tailed Hawks, Great Blue Herons, and a bunch of other birds.  What we didn't see were Bald Eagles.  I guess Goober, Georgie, and BB have flown the coup.

We saw the Free Birds right before sundown.  Coconut and Banana were foraging together.  As I was sneaking around the side of the building, my phone notification of a frog sound croaked.  Coconut heard it and started walking my way.  I guess she was ready for her frog snack.  I went back around the building and walked up the road.  I found Crabapple ready for his roost on the back porch.  Shortly after, the girls joined him.

Tuesday
We had an 8 am tour with 3 people, an adult and 2 kids. The kids were in the 3rd and 4th grade and had a great appreciation of nature.

We had an awesome tour, looking at all the birds and other critters, driving and walking in the savanna looking at all the pretty plants, watching the Great Blue Heron nestlings through the spotting scope and seeing 6 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes.  We also watched 3 of the Mississippi Sandhill Cranes through the spotting scope.

We went with Angie and the Interns at sunset to release 99 Dusky Gopher Frogs.  It was a much nicer experience, driving the 3/4 mile instead of walking it in rubber boots carrying all the frogs and stuff.

Before we left we watched the Free Birds through the back windows of the VC.  They were near the road watching us as we drove out. We saw 2 more Ms. Sandhill Cranes on our drive to the femoral pond.

It was a beautiful evening on the savanna, except for the pesky bugs.  One of my frogs I tried to release, not only jumped back in the container that I was releasing it from, but jumped in a frog container that Rose had just emptied..  After much coaxing, we got him to take the jump into the wild savanna.

The Free Birds were on their roost when we returned.

Wednesday
We worked the VC today.  After we closed, we took Jackie and Randy out on the refuge.

We went to Brown's Trail first to check out the Great Blue Heron nestlings, (the Great Blue Heron is one of Jackie's favorite birds).  We enjoyed viewing the 2 nestlings through the spotting scope.

We saw a Wood Duck and her ducklings swimming in Valentine Pond.

We had a great surprise when we got to the crane pen and found 2 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes and their colt.  It took us over a year of looking for baby Sandhill Cranes to find our first on the refuge a few days ago.  The Ezell's got to see their's, the first trip out.  The Crane Whisperers, are glad that we had these lucky Ezell's with us.

On our tour of the South Gautier Unit to show  them the empty Eagle nests and the empty Ms. Sandhill Crane nest, we saw 2 more Ms. Sandhill Cranes, a Cottonmouth snake, a few more adult Great Blue Herons, and an Armadillo.

The Free Birds did a great grand finale of the tour.  They were at the VC when we returned and allowed us to admire their elusive presence through the back glass.  Then posed for a picture as the Ezell's drove out.

Thursday
Ferny Kat was insistent to get Lauren up early this morning.  I slept till 8 am.

It has been a week since we have walked the Dees Trail.  We found a few more blooms to go back and place plant markers on.  We went to Wally World, then stayed inside until late afternoon to avoid the heat.

The Free Birds were in the back yard of the VC eyeing Lauren as he walked to the garbage.

Friday
We have Anita for the weekend!!  We had some great sister time today while Lauren was at the Harley shop getting Amber road trip ready.  We leisurely walked the Dees Trail, then sat around and watched a few critters at Camp Crane.  We have a new resident, Little Joe.  It is a female Fence Lizard that hangs around eating ants.

Lauren joined us and the festivities started.  We had an enjoyable evening just sitting around and enjoying the great outdoors.

Saturday
We went to the Pleasant BBQ All you can taste Crawfish Festival and the Red, White, and Blueberry Festival in Ocean Springs.  The free ice cream topped with strawberries, and blueberries was quite refreshing after walking several blocks between the two events.

There were 21 different crawfish vendors competing for the best tasting crawfish.  We tried to taste them all, but we only made about half of them.  It was a hard choice, but we did make a vote.  After sitting in the hot sun, eating crawfish, and sipping on suds for a couple of hours we were about as cooked as the crawfish.  We made it back to Camp Refuge, got a good ole shower, and sat around chilling.  A very good day!!

                                                               Sighting for the month...


Weeks worth of pictures:

5-19-19 - 5-25-19 (Week 64)

Sunday
Lauren managed to get the yard mowed after several delays with the rain today then washed the truck late afternoon getting it ready to travel back to the refuge tomorrow.

I was lazy today.  After eating the Chinese buffet for lunch, I took a long nap while Lauren went tromping out in the Crossroads woods taking pictures of plants and stuff.

Monday
We had a nice surprise visit from Anita this morning. I was still snoozing at 8 am when she arrived.  It was great drinking my morning coffee with her.

We made in back to Camp Refuge around lunch time.We gave the native plant beds at the VC a little TLC.  We walked the Dees Trail late afternoon. 

On our way to the trail, we found the Free Birds on the back lawn of the VC.  They have painted themselves with red mud.  Maybe they did it to camouflaged themselves better with the dead underbrush after the prescribed burn, or maybe they are warding off those pesky yellow flies that have been biting us today.  It remains a mystery.

Tuesday
I got a 20 minute workout in this morning.  I am so out of shape.

We chased some more blooms on the CL Dees Trail and hung around camp, bird watching and grilling, till time to go release the most endangered amphibian in North America, the Dusky Gopher Frog.

It was a good long hike carrying buckets, supplies, and 151 Dusky Gopher Frogs on the 3/4 mile walk to the femoral pond wearing rubber boots.  We kept the frogs shaded with umbrellas to prevent them from overheating.  Each one had a carefully picked out spot to be released.

We only found one Cottonmouth that needed relocation.  Last time we found 6 snakes, 3 of which were cotton mouths.

We let the frogs go from their individual containers one by one.  I gave them many words of encouragement for a good life.  I hope they make it.

We had a 2 Crane fly over as we were releasing the frogs.  On our walk back to the truck, we were serenaded by Night Hawks. It was a beautiful evening on the savanna.

Wednesday
We worked the VC today.  Lauren moved Carol and Charlie's camper to a smaller spot.  Carol is hoping that an offer of a large camping spot will attract our replacements.  We met Carol and Charlie at Sicily's for an early dinner when we got off at 3 pm.

Thursday
Lauren mowed and I manned the VC.  It was a pretty slow day with 15 visitors.  9 of them were there at the same time.

We both got iNaturalist Challenge coins for our participation in refuge Bio blitz.

Friday
We worked the VC on this hot day.  What happened to spring???

Our hard work in the native plant garden is finally showing.  Our Cardinal Flowers are so top heavy with blooms we had to tie them to up.

Saturday
The countdown begins.  We have 5 weeks until departure from Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge.  We made the most of it today.

We got out and about early this morning, (at least for 2 retired folks), and headed to the refuge.  We entered the South Gautier Unit and found a Great Blue Heron and a Great Egret sitting on top of trees near each other.  Pretty spectacular.

We were greeted by several bird species as we made our way to Beasley Road.  Our crane nest that we found in Beasley Pond was lonely looking without the parent and the eggs.  On a happy note, they are somewhere in the savanna.

We saw 3 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes fly from the crop unit, but no eagles this trip.

We rode every road in the unit before departing for the North Gautier Unit.

The North Gautier Unit was more than we expected.  We found 2 nestlings in the Great Blue Heron nest on Valentine Pond.  They were being fed by one of the parents.  After the parent flew away, the two had play time.  When we returned they were resting, they must have worn themselves out. We named them Valentine and Elbert, the names of the 2 ponds in this area.

We saw a Night Hawk flew up from the grass and perch on a tree limb.  We always see them flying, but not sitting on a limb.  When we returned, we realized it was a youngster just learning to fly.  One of the parents was nearby coaching him.

We saw one Crane at Bright's Pasture  which possibly means they have renested.

On a sad note, we saw the Little German couple on Rock Hill Street.  Their youngster was last seen on game cam on May 17th. It was just a few days before it fledged.

It wasn't a bad Refuge Tour, we saw about 15 different species of birds including 6 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes, plenty of pretty blooms, plenty of butterflies, several snakes, and several frogs.

The icing on the cake was after 7 pm, when we checked on the Free Birds.  They were foraging in the back yard of the VC getting ready for their roost.  Our Ms. Sandhill Crane count is 9 for the day.


The week of pictures: