3-1-20 - 3-7-20 Volunteer Gig II

Sunday: Our Gig II is already halfway over.  Time flies when you are having fun.  Lauren and I checked out the Ocean Springs Unit this morning.  We saw 4 Sandhill Cranes and a few other birds.  We also found a guy fishing at Blue Hole.  He packed up and left real fast when we told him there was no fishing allowed on the refuge.

Judy and Terry and their friends George and Ruth went with us on an afternoon tour.  We saw 23 Sandhill Cranes and one of the parent Eagles and the youngster at the I 10 crop unit eagle nest.  We found our first wild azalea, pitcher plant, and hatpin blooms.  Spring is in the air.

Monday: We started at the refuge 2 years ago today.   It is amazing the things we have done and learned since we started here.  We had a 10 am Crane tour and had 29 Sandhill Crane sightings.  We saw both Eagle youngsters in the nest and one of the parents.  After the tour, we cleaned up the SUV.

Tuesday: We saw a Northern Flicker and a Downy Woodpecker along with a few other critters on the Dees Trail today.

We went to Valentine Pond after lunch to break up a Beaver Dam.  The dam was in the culvert about 5 feet on each side of the road.  I say we, it was actually Lauren that did all the work.  (I was the photographer for the event, LOL).

There were no Sandhill Crane sightings at Valentine Savanna, but we did see Banana and Coconut near the Gautier Pen and a couple more Sandhill Cranes way out in the recently burned savanna as we were exiting the North Gautier Unit.

We also saw a couple of Sandhill Cranes in what we used to call Collie's Yard, that is now called Lechner's Yard.

Wednesday, we had a 9 am Crane Tour for a group of 8 on this rainy, gloomy, day.  Before we left the VC we saw Auk, Dikkop, and the Wild Hatch way out in the savanna.  A no pressure tour today, since we saw cranes before we ever left the VC.

We thought it would be hard to spot a Sandhill Crane out on the refuge.  Our thoughts changed shortly after entering Brown's Trail when we saw 18 Sandhill Cranes before we made our turn on Valentine Road.

As everyone was straining their eyes to see the Cranes way off in the savanna, we found Coconut and Banana about 25 meters from the road.

We didn't see any Sandhill Cranes at the Gautier pen, but saw a pretty Bald Eagle on a branch.

We saw our first Snapping Turtle on the refuge as we were exiting Brown's Trail.  No one wanted to coax it out of the road, so Lauren steered to the left to prevent running over it.

Our tour was a pretty good one.  We had 32 Sandhill Crane sightings, both Eaglets in their nest and one of their parents nearby the nest, and some other cool species of birds.

It was obviously a good day for Bald Eagle sightings.  We saw an almost mature Bald Eagle perched in a dead tree at the VC savanna about an hour before closing.  He was still there when we closed for the day.

Thursday, we had about 30, 4th and 5th graders, their chaperones, and their teachers from Gulfport West Elementary today.  We did 3 nature walks on the Dees Trail.  The kids and the adults seemed to  have had a great time.

We had a couple visit the VC late afternoon that were volunteers from the International Crane Foundation. They had a little time to kill, so we took them and 4 more visitors on an impromptu tour for a quick look at the North Gautier Unit.  Lauren hoped he could find Coconut and Banana.

Lauren got more than he hoped for.  Not only did we see Coconut and Banana, we saw 19 other Sandhill Cranes.  Pretty good for a 45 minute tour.

BTW, this tour was so impromptu,  Lauren didn't have his camera.

We made it to Sam's for our 4 pm appointment for new tires on the truck.  We got back after 7 pm with new shoes on the truck.

Friday, was our day off.  Good thing, cause we, (mostly me), was dragging from the active day we had yesterday.  We got some laundry done, a little camper keeping done, a little bird watching done, a little bit of hiking done, and a little Ferny Kat outdoors time.  Whew!

Saturday, we had a special guest on our Crane Tour today, Anita.  We had another great time with 11 Sandhill Crane sightings for the group of 9.

Banana and Coconut were quite photogenic today.  They posed for us a few feet off the Browns Trail.  As we were exiting Valentine Road, they had moved over to the feeder.  Coconut was standing on top of the soft coffin eating corn out of the feeder.  Silly birds!

Lauren and I were very excited when we found a Sandhill Crane nest.

We had a nice lunch at Huck's Cove, a nice stroll on the Dees Trail, then relaxed by the campfire until after dark.

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2-23-20 - 2-29-20 Volunteer Gig II

Sunday, we made a Wally World run, walked the Dees Trail and Crane Lane, and sat around Camp Crane bird watching.  We found our first Southern Butterwort and Yellow Butterwort blooms of the season.

Monday, we had a 10 am Crane Tour and saw 23 Sandhill Cranes.  We saw a lot of other species of birds as well.  The recent burns are recovering nicely with a little bit of green showing. We had a longer than usual tour when we took a couple that had time constraints back by the visitors center  before going to the South Gautier Unit and replaced them with 2 other people.

We were able to see the Adult Eagle at the I 10 crop unit, but the Eaglet must have been napping on this cloudy, on and off again rainy morning.  There was a Juvenile Eagle perched in the nearby tree that is frequented by the Adult Eagles.  We didn't have any activity at BG's nest.

After the tour we met Anita at Hollywood Casino.  We had a nice view of the bay from the 7th floor. We didn't win any money, but as always, we had a good time.

Tuesday, we sat around enjoying our view and drinking coffee at Hollywood Casino and got to see Jackie and Randy for a little bit.  We stopped by Island View, Sams, and Sicily's on our way back to camp.  Lauren turned his $10 free play at Island View to $50.  We got a good talking to from Ferny Kat when we got home about staying out all night.

Wednesday, was a Happy 38th Anniversary!!  We went to Pascagoula and Grand Bay looking for birds on this cool but sunny day. 

Our first stop was to check out the Arthur Street property where we did the i Naturalist bioblitz last year.  They have torn down the house and are converting to native plants.  We were pleasantly surprised to see several White Ibis foraging at the edge of the canal.

We checked out shore birds along the Pascagoula beaches.  This was our first trip to the Pascagoula since we started Gig II.

Late afternoon, Judy and Terry joined us for a great anniversary dinner celebration at Saltgrass Steak House.

Thursday, we were headed to Dauphin Island for birding and picnicking, when we had a change of plans.  The truck had a check engine light come on that needed service.  We took the truck to Ray Brandt Chevrolet and received excellent service.  We sat in the lounge with complimentary snacks and drinks watching HGTV.   We left about 5 hours later, with the repair done at no charge to us.  Whew!!

When we returned, Dikkop, Auk, 337, NV 11 and an unbanded Juvenile was in the back yard of the VC foraging.  It's great that this wild hatch has decided to visit HQ.

Friday, we had a home school group of 8 on the Crane Tour, 3 adults, 2 teenagers, and 3 kids that were 5 yrs. old and under.  We had 15 Sandhill Crane sightings.  Lauren finally got lucky and got a picture of the Wilson snipe that has been frequenting Valentine Road.

We were very lucky to see a parent Bald Eagle bring in a fish to her youngster at the I 10 Crop Unit.  There were also 2 Juvenile Eagles soaring above us.  One of the teenagers was really proud of her pictures and will be coming back with more of her family for another tour.

We saw the Unbanded Juvenile Crane standing in the tall grass in the HQ savanna.  Late afternoon, the unbanded, Dikkop, and Auk were eating at the feeder.  He must have been standing in the savanna waiting on his cohorts for dinner.

Saturday, we had another fabulous Crane Tour for a group of 8.  We had 17 Sandhill Crane sightings on this pretty day.  Lauren got a really cool picture of the Belted Kingfisher at Elbert's Pond.

There was no Eagle activity at the I 10 Crop Unit nest, but plenty at the Beasley nest.  One of the parents was standing on a limb above her youngster, and another parent came by chasing off a Juvenile.  We set up the spotting scope for the group.  Some of the group had an interest in looking at the plants, some of the group wanted to talk, but all of them loved watching the Eagles.  After standing around for about 30 minutes, we headed back to the VC.

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