Crane Ranch - 3-19-23 - 3-25-23

Sunday, was another cold day with the temps in the 50's and the wind blowing about 10 mph.  We did a little bit of shopping in the morning waiting for the weather to warm a bit.  After lunch, we headed out on our first 2023 orchid safari.  We went to the South Gautier Unit to an area that was burned 6 weeks ago.  The first place that we checked was too wet for the Calopogon multiflorus.  Even though we did not find our target orchid, we found several other orchids, Rose Pagonia, Pale Grasspink, and Bearded Grasspink, along with several other cool plants and critters.

Our second location that we checked looked more like the habitat for the Many Flowered Grasspink, and it was.  We found 2 plants, one of them had blooms.  Cha-ching!

While we were looking for the orchids, we had 2  Red-tailed Hawk squawking and flying above us.  It appears that we got too close to their nest.

We were tired of the cold wind, so we did a road survey in an area that was burned a month ago in the North Gautier Unit.  We didn't find any orchids, but we did see at least 15 Sandhill Cranes. 

 

It has been a great start to the week, having 35 crane sightings and a successful orchid safari.

Sunday Pics:

Monday, on our way to check on the Beasley eagle nest, we saw a pretty Red-tailed Hawk.

This afternoon, we got the new directional signs up along Gautier Vancleave Rd and a few other chores done around the visitor center.

Monday Pics:

Tuesday morning, a Dark-eyed Junco was feeding on the seed at Camp Crane.

The HQ gang were hanging around the feeder and the HQ savanna.   They were around for most of the day, which is always good for the visiters.

Tuesday Pics:

Wednesday, we had some nice, local, folks on our Crane Tour.  It was a fun tour seeing 35 cranes.  Our 2 hour tour lasted 3 1/2 hours.  Time flies when you are having fun.

As we were checking on the Beasley Eagle nest, a sub-adult Bald Eagle was checking it out as well.  The Eaglets were not fond of the attention they were getting, especially from the Eagle that was gawking at them.  He perched on the edge of the nest for a bit, then flew away.  Whew!  I am glad he was not looking for a meal. 

While we were checking out the Eagle nest, we found a baby pond slider on a log with his head resting on a limb.  So dang cute!

The HQ gang were hanging out in the backyard when we returned from our 3 1/2 hour tour.

We met Anita at Island View and had a great celebration for my birthday.  Not to mention, the great view that we had.

Wednesday Pics:

Thursday, we lounged around and drank coffee with Anita, and still made it back to Camp Crane by 9 am.  That's what happens when you get up at 6 am.  

On our way to the Fire Center to check on the lawn mower, a Fox Squirrel was scurrying in a tree along the edge of Crane Lane.

As we were taking the squirrel's picture, a Swallow-tailed Kite fly over Crane Lane.  Our camera lens were a little bit foggy for clear shots, but it is what it is.

Lauren got some great pictures of Palamedes Swallowtail butterflies that were attracted to the blooming Bristle Thistles.

We disposed of some tires that were dumped at the North Gautier gate, worked on the lawnmower, and pulled some grass from the native plant garden.

 

We topped off the afternoon, by doing a little arm chair birding and squirrel watching at Camp Crane.

Thursday Pics:

Friday, we eased into the day then took a stroll along the Dees Trail and Crane Lane enjoying all the pretties along the way.

We had another entertaining evening of arm chair birding at Camp Crane.

Friday Pics:

Saturday, we only had 2 people show up for the Crane Tour.  Not a problem, they seemed to really enjoy their private tour.

The cranes did not disappoint.  We saw 21 of them during the tour.

We saw several other bird species while we were out and about including a Great Blue Heron nesting at the Valentine Pond rookery.

One of the Eagle parents had brought lunch (fish) to the Beasley babies.

On our way out of South Gautier Unit, we saw 3 Little Blue Herons.

After resting up a bit, we took a stroll along the Dees Trail and watched an Osprey enjoy his fish in a tree across the bayou.

As we were relaxing at Camp Crane this afternoon, we had a Bald Eagle fly over.  It has been another great week at the ranch!

Saturday Pics:

Crane Ranch 3-12-23 - 3-18-23

We had an unusual Sunday, a rainy one.  We managed to get a Dees Trail walk in.  It was a nice walk with a lot of new blooms which are attracting the pollinators.  It will only get better as more plants bloom.  As an added bonus, Lauren got a new species for the refuge on iNaturalist, Osmia chalybea.  

We attempted to take another walk this afternoon, but another shower started.  Oh well, every now and then it is good to just laze around and take it easy.

Sunday Pics:

The temps on Monday were 20 degrees colder than the last few weeks.   It was a good day to stay in and out of the wind.  We opened the visitor center for the Master Gardeners for a couple of hours.  Those hours were extended due to popular demand of the nice folks that happened by and found it open.  We were happy to oblige.  

We placed plant markers on the Dees Trail, helped Scott set up for the Crane Recovery meeting tomorrow, then stayed inside at Camp Crane out of the cool wind. 

Monday Pics:

Tuesday we had a great day sitting in on the Crane Recovery Meeting.  We had 9 people attending in-person and a bunch more that were remote.  It is so cool to be included in this meeting with the Crane World.  It was also awesome to see our names being projected as 'Super Volunteers'.

Scott, Jake, Theresa, Kelly, Andrew, and us had a nice relaxing lunch at Country Gentleman restaurant.

After the meeting, we showed Andrew around the refuge.  He is the lead Crane expert at White Oaks and was our tour guide when we visited a couple of years ago.  It was nice to repay the favor.

We checked out the HQ pen, the DGF tanks, the Fontainebleau Pen, and then took the short cut back through Browns Trail.  We got back about 3 hours later.

We thought the Pale Pitcher plant blooms were pretty last week at the Fontainebleau Pen area, but they were amazingly pretty today.

We had a couple of cranes inside the Fontainebleau Pen when we walked out to the pen.  They reluctantly flew away when we got close.

We saw a Bald Eagle and a Sandhill Crane on our way to Valentine Road.  

We saw 3 Bald Eagles and about 18 more Sandhill Crane out in the savanna off of Valentine Road.

Andrew was in no hurry watching the cranes in their natural habitat, and neither were we.  He definitely has a very rewarding job.

Tuesday Pics:

Wednesday we had a Crane Tour for 5 engaging people.  It is always nice to spend time with people who love nature as much as we do. 

The afternoon we went to Grand Bay with the Crane Recovery Team to check out the plans to restore habitat and release cranes there.  The 5 year plan sounds promising.

As an added bonus we got to watch the Fire Team start a prescribed burn across the road from the visitor center.  

Wednesday Pics:

Thursday we were sipping on our coffee when we got a message from Scott asking if we wanted to do a road survey.  He and the Interns were in a blind watching the bownet when they heard unison calling.  He asked us to go to the area and see if we could id the crane couple that were calling.  Not only did we Id the mated pair, we saw them in action.  Snipe, Crane 1908, and an unbanded Crane are a new couple.  Hopefully, it won't be long and we will have some little Snipers on the ground.  Some of the first pictures Lauren took with his new camera were Crane Porn!

We made an afternoon walk along the Dees Trail then sat around at Camp Crane practicing our picture taking.  As we were taking pictures, a Brown Thrasher flew into a Cardinal that was perched on the feeder and pulled out his tail feathers.  Who knew that Thrashers were this aggressive?? 

Thursday Pics: 

We checked on the Beasley Eagle nest Friday morning.  Bad beak was standing tall and proud.  His brother was hunkered down in the nest.  We only saw his back.

  

On the way out, we looked for the 2 Crane nests that are in Firetower Pond.  We couldn't see the nest, but did see Cranes in the area.

We managed to get the old directional signs down, gathered up supplies to put up the replacements, then the heavy rain started.  Oh well, we can revisit this next week.

We spent the rest of this rainy afternoon, in the comforts of the camper.

Friday Pics:

I had a Happy Birthday Saturday.  When we went into work this morning there were no cranes in sight.  That changed shortly after I checked to see if there was corn in the feeder.  It is amazing that they seem to show up shortly after we check the feeder.  These cranes are something else.

We had a morning Crane Tour for 5 people.  The tour folks asked me why I was doing a tour on my birthday, my response was I can't think of anything else I would rather do.  We definitely enjoy spending time sharing our refuge with folks.

We had 12 Sandhill Cranes sightings during the tour.  As an added bonus, we saw 50 or so Cedar Waxwings.  This is one of our favorite birds.   It was one of those unload the van so everyone can get a good look.

The twin Eagles were standing tall and proud in the nest while one of the parents was keeping a keen eye on them and us from a nearby tree.

We saw our first Swallow-tailed Kites of the year today.  Actually there were 6 of them.  Another exciting sighting.

We spent the afternoon working in the visitor center.  Although, work is not quite the term to use when we are having this much fun.  

After we closed, we went to Lucy's Retired Surfers Bar & Restaurant for an early dinner.  The food and atmosphere was good. This was our first time here, but will not be our last.  

I had a very enjoyable first day of my 62nd year!

Saturday Pics: