We had a program for USM Graduate Symposium Students on Sunday morning. The HQ5 were backyard and center when they arrived. They were not having anything to do with the corn in the bownet.
The students checked out the visitors center and walked the trail. After they left, we went to the Gautier Units on an orchid search. They should begin bloomiming anyday now.
When we entered the South Gautier Unit, Ole Eagle Eye, spotted a couple of Cranes that may be preparing to nest.
A little bit further, and he spotted a Crane sitting on a nest. This is one of the nest that Scott is aware of.
One of the Beasley Eagles was perched on a limb near the nest and the other was in the nest. The parents were not observed in the area. These guys have been taking short flights around the area for about a week.
When we turned around at the end of Ben Williams Road, we saw a couple of secretive Cranes hiding in the tall grass. Maybe they have a chick or two.
We saw several Cranes at the North Gautier Unit. Their performance was not as lively as usual, although we did see about 20 Cranes.
Lauren spotted Dougie's nest way across the field at Brights Pasture. Hopefully three times is a charm for them to successfully fledge a chick.
We thought we were going to Walmart Monday morning and taking it easy for the rest of the day. Right about the Walmart run, Wrong about taking it easy for the rest of the day!
After our shopping, we saw the Coca Cola Crane couple foraging. It has been a while since we have seen them.
We had a leisurely walk on the Fontainebleau Trail enjoying the Spring blooms and a few critters.
We were headed to check out the Eagle nest at G11 when we saw Madison's picture of a Calopogon multiflorus at the East Valentine feeder. We joined Madison and Hefan and went on an orchid safari, locating about 25 blooming plants. What a difference a day makes.
We stopped to show them a Rose Pogonia on our way back on Valentine Road and found our first Calopogon pallidus this year. Who would have thought a couple of Rednecks would be Orchid connoisseurs. Definitely, not us.
While we were out and about, we found a new location for the Calopogon multiflorus at the G8 north savanna.
We finally made it for one last check of the G11 Eagle nest, it is officially a failed nest.
Tuesday morning by 6:15 am we had the bownet untied and the coffee made. We waited and watched on this no crane kind of morning.
A couple hours later, Lauren and I went to the Ocean Springs Unit on an orchid safari. We spent over 2 hours in the first unit looking for them, with no success.
We replaced the dough boy deer buster feeder prototype with the latest and greatest version at Green Pond crop unit. These deer are relentless.
We ate lunch sitting on the truck tailgate then spent a little time looking for orchids at another recent burn, No luck finding any Calopogon multiflorus.
We were tired, not expecting to find anything, riding down the road looking at a 4 week burn, when Bam!! There it was. Not one, but 3 Calopogon multiflorus plants. A first sighting for this plant in the Ocean Springs Unit. ChaChing!
We did a Browns Trail drive through and flagged the Calopogon multiflorus plants that we found yesterday. We saw Banana alone and no Coconut, which is very odd. Maybe she liked the dance of the unbanded we saw a few weeks ago better than we thought.
We had a Meadowlark excursion Wednesday morning. MSU came to the refuge hoping to catch, band and place GPS trackers on them. They had a recording of their song and a decoy. The birds were interested at first, but did not fall for the trap. Maybe next time.
We went back to Ocean Springs looking for more Calopogon multiflorus. We did not find any new plants, but we did find a lot of pretties. The savanna we checked a few weeks ago, has burst in color with blooms and plants since we were last there.
We checked out a bog to see if we could find another location for the Chapman's Butterwort. We didn't find any, but we did find a different colored Bladderwort.
Lauren got a cool picture of a Chicken Turtle. After he put the picture on iNaturalist he was contacted for permission to use the picture for educational purposes.
We thought a dragonfly (Painted Skimmer) was caught then managed to get away from a critter. We showed the picture to Hefan and he informed us that it was emerging. Very Cool!
We helped the Interns place plankton in the DGF tanks then relaxed at Camp Crane.
Thursday we caught an unbanded crane in the bownet. She walked up alone and ate from the corn on the ground as we watched from the kitchen window. We now have HQ02 sporting blue, white, green bands and a GPS tracker. She was not happy with all the bling bling on her legs and walked out in the HQ savanna and sulked for a while.
We got our Crane Lane and Dees Trail walk in taking a few pics along the way.
This afternoon, we joined Scott for a bownet watch, hoping NV11 would come by. The only cool thing we saw, was a Luna Moth on the window screen.
Friday we disposed of the rusty bench that was on the Dees Trail and picked up some trash. On our way to get the trail counter total at Fontainebleau Trail we took a detour to check on the Dougie family. We found them with one chick near the nest. It was so far over there that the pictures were not that good. We will check back on them in a few days.
When we disposed of the bench, we saw the newly hatched goslings near the Fire Center pond.
We went to the Martin Unit looking for male Scarlet Tanagers that Scott Saucier had seen. We didn't find any, but did find the MacFarland's Pitcher Plants blooming and a few other interesting plants and critters.
The Crane Circus was in full performance at the North Gautier Unit. We saw anywhere from one Crane to a group of 11 Cranes. They were all over the place, flying, calling, and walking.
We found a Multiflorus calopogon at the North Valentine savanna. They are supposed to bloom about 6 weeks after a burn. This area was burned in late November. Another myth busted.
The Great Blue Heron rookery was busy. There was 1 adult heron and the 2 youngsters, along with a couple more adult herons hanging near the other nests.
We got in the blind at Gautier crop unit and watched the Jabba family. The twins are growing fast. They did not get as close as they did the last time, but we got a few pictures anyway.
While relaxing and birding at Camp Crane this afternoon, we had Yellow-throated Vireos and Red-eyed Vireos to watch.
We had a nice, leisurely day working in the visitors center. The HQ5 and 2012 came for their corn fix. They finally got past their trauma and ate at the bownet. They were really skeptical when it came to eating out of the center of it. They still don't trust this thing.
An Osprey perched in the dead pine right behind our camper this afternoon with a fish for supper. It took him about an hour to devour this fish.
