Lauren took a stroll along the Dees Trail while I was waking up Sunday morning. We spent most of the day washing Rap. It has been way too long since we did this chore.
We enjoyed our 4th of July celebration by touring the Gautier Units on Monday morning. Crimson and Clover and their parents were foraging in the pasture when we checked on them.
Our favorites Nana and Coco and friends were in the middle of Valentine Road again today. This seems to be one of their favorite hangouts.
We saw our first, (of this year), Orange Fringed Orchids and a lot of other pretty blooms along Browns Trail.
After we turned around, we saw a River Cooter that had laid eggs in the middle of the road. She had leeches on her shell. Who would have thought turtles have leeches?? Not me.
We also had another first of the year sighting, black swallowtail caterpillars on water cowbane.
After our crane, blooms, and critter tour, we sat under our front porch, (aka under the 5th wheel hitch), grilling ribs in the rain.
We rode to Lowes on this rainy Tuesday morning to get ideas for our next Dough Boy Deer Buster Feeder prototype. Trying to outsmart a Fox Squirrel is an ongoing battle.
The HQ crew finally made an appearance out in the savanna. We have missed their frequent visits.
We made a stroll along the Dees Trail after the rain.
We got the mowing done and the Billy Goat blowing done on Wednesday. Stopped mowing to take this picture of a pink katydid.
Lauren also stopped mowing when he got the vehicle counter tubing tangled up in his mower. Nothing that can't be fixed.
When our alarm went off Thursday morning, "A beautiful day", was playing on the radio, and it was. The sunrise was beautiful when we departed from HQ at 0600.
We went with the Interns to the North Gautier Unit to try and catch NV11 and 337's youngster. We were not alone sitting in the savanna. We had a Squirrel Tree frog sitting on a gall berry leaf. We were dripping wet with sweat sitting there for 2 1/2 hours for this no show.
We were greeted by a Green Heron when we went to the South Gautier Unit to nest search. He was chillin, hanging in the fire break.
The first area we searched was so thick with vegetation and briars, that I aborted the mission. Lauren, Hefan, and Madison continued on their trek. They finally found some decent crane habitat where they found some cool plants and a couple of old crane nests.
We worked on some Dough Boy Deer Buster feeders this afternoon. The sweat continued even under the shade tree.
We heard the elusive sound of the Sandhill Crane on our walk into work Friday morning. The HQ guys were in the savanna. We had 10 people come to the visitors center today, five of them were researchers, one was a cop looking for a reckless driver, and 3 were checking out the site for their workshop next week. After we closed, we were Crossroads bound.
