Crane Ranch - 6-4-23 - 6-10-23

Sunday, we lounged around and drank coffee with Anita and still made it back from the casino a little after 9 am.  We took a walk along the Dees Trail and Crane Lane.  The bugs and the blooms are beginning to come back after the prescribed burn along the trail.

We got back and stayed inside with the a/c running.  It is very unusual for us to stay inside the camper for most of the day.  Dang hot weather!

Sunday Pics:

Monday Lauren got in his walk while I lazed around.  

We got our chick fix in when we saw the Rock Hill mom and her colts doing well.

While looking for Super Dad and his colt, we saw the Linda Lee nest was still active and saw 3 unbanded cranes on Ritcher Road, but no visual on Super Dad.

Mean Momma's nest in Firetower pond is no longer active.  We did see a lone crane across the pond, but were not able to ID it.

We updated the plant markers on Dees Trail, then relaxed at Camp Crane with the squirrels and birds.

Monday Pics:

Tuesday we took pictures of the prescribed burn at the HQ savanna.  It sure was a smokey day.

Mississippi Kites took advantage of the burn, grabbing their grub that was flying up from the fire.

Tuesday Pics:

Wednesday, we helped the Interns check 3 nests.  The first nest was the Linda Lee nest.  When we started to the nest, the crane snuck off.   We were thrilled to find 2 eggs on the nest.

We went to Woodlake for our second nest check.  Chewie snuck off of her nest as well.  Again we found 2 eggs on the nest.

We thought Mean Momma's nest was no longer active and were expecting to find the nest predated in Fire Tower Pond.  We were pleasantly surprised to see a crane flush near the nest, then see Mean Momma and her chick walking around.  We thought we might do a quick health check on the chick, but we thought wrong.  Mean momma lived up to her name and we did not touch her chick.

We helped the Interns start lowering the water in the DGF tanks then packed up and headed to Island View to spend some time with Anita, George, and Lisa.  We were happy to find out Anita had been upgraded to a double door suite.  We were ecstatic when we found out we had an adjoining suite to hers.  Needless to say, we had a large time, even though we didn't win any money.

Thursday we waited until check out time to vacate our suites then headed to Pearlington to spend another night hanging out with George and Lisa.  It was another great day!

Wed/Thur Pics:

Friday we had a good time drinking coffee and eating breakfast with George and Lisa before heading back to the ranch.  There is nothing like a breakfast when you are camping.  We got packed up for Sand Jam tomorrow and did a few other chores then relaxed at camp.

Theresa, Lauren, and I manned a booth at the Sand Jam on Saturday.  It was a nice day, with a sea breeze, sitting under the shade trees.   It started out slow, but by the end of the 4 hours, we had 324 people stop by.  We thoroughly enjoyed the outing.

Saturday Pics:

Crane Ranch 5-28-23 - 6-3-23

After a few days in Crossroads, we got back to Camp Crane Sunday afternoon.  We checked the DGF tanks and only got 1 frog.  

We took a walk along the Dees Trail and found a Narrowleaf Whitetop Aster blooming in the recently burned savanna.

Sunday Pics:

We spent Monday morning doing what we love, riding around in the refuge.  We checked the Firetower nests.  Mean Momma's nest was still active, the unbanded pair is not.  Hopefully, they have hatched.

We saw over 25 Cranes while we were out and about.  Most of them were not staying around for a photo.  

We thoroughly enjoyed the bursting colors of the savanna, along with a few critters.

We found the Rock Hill family doing well.  The chicks are growing like a weed.

Super Dad and his Colt are doing well too.  Grow babies Grow!!

We checked the DGF tanks captured 4 frogs then relaxed at Camp Crane.

Monday Pics:

After a couple of trips and a lot of time and muscle, we got the Fontainebleau Trail parking lot signage updated.  While we were there, we did some lopping to clear out trees that were encroaching on the parking area.

During our 2nd trip to Fontainebleau, we checked on Dougie and found his mate alone foraging in Bright's Pasture.  It looks like they have renested!

While looking for Super Dad and his colt, we found a Yellow-crowned Night Heron along the ditch at C Bird Road.  

We took the Browns Trail short cut back and placed a couple of boundary signs on the entrance at Allen Road.  We just happened to see a few critters and a few pretty savannas on our way back to Gautier Vancleave Road.

Tuesday Pics:

Wednesday, we spent most of the day cutting grass and weed eating.  After we got finished mowing, we took a ride to the boat shop to get quotes for the refuge.  While we were out, we looked for Super Dad and colt, which we did not find today.

We, or rather, Eagle Eye, found a new nest in the Linda Lee Pond.  We figured they may have a nest considering we have been seeing an Unbanded Crane at Sunplex.

It has been a sad day at the Crane Ranch.  Crane #331,  female of the Aunt Alice trio, was found predated by the Interns this morning.  Crane #1409, the Rock Hill Dad, was hit and killed by a car on Gautier/Vancleave Road.  There have been 5 cranes to die this month.

When we arrived to help the Interns pick up the deceased crane, one of the chicks was resting on the ground across the fence. The landowner was standing between the chick and it's Dad to make sure it didn't get in the road.  Shortly after, Mom came back for it and away they went.  

Wednesday Pics:

Thursday we attended the zoom meeting for the Regional Director Awards.  It was nice to have the DGF teams acknowledged.  Go Angie Go!!

We attempted to get the counter data from the trail counters and vehicle counter.  Every last one of them malfunctioned.  We fixed one of them, the others, we will work on another day.  Crazy that they all had a hiccup in the same month.

We checked on Super Dad.  We visualized him way off in the tall grass at the power line, but never got a confirm spotting of his colt.  Fingers crossed that the grass was too high to see him.

When we traveled through the short cut on Browns Trail, we got to see 2 of our favorite cranes, Banana and Coconut.  They were with an unbanded crane walking through a gorgeous bog.

We also saw Super Mom, aka Rock Hill Widow, with her 2 chicks.  Somehow she managed to get them safely back across Gautier Vancleave Road.  Fingers crossed, they won't be crossing that busy road anymore. 

Thursday Pics:

Friday, we went with Jake to check on a couple of crane nests in the South Gautier Unit.  The first nest that we searched for was Perseus #2011, and her mate Twiglet #1115.  We knew the general area the nest was in from the g.p.s. data.  After a bit of searching, we flushed the crane that was on the nest and found that it had 2 eggs.  We floated the eggs and collected nest data.  This is the first crane nest that I have ever found. 

The 2nd nest was Clarabelle #1315, and FT17.  We were hoping to find that it had hatched but it still had 2 eggs on the nest.  Fingers crossed that they are still viable.  Again, we floated the eggs and did nest data collection.

After rehydrating, we went to the Martin's Pasture and found that the MacFarlane's Pitcher Plants are still there.  

We attempted to get a visual on Super Dad and Colt.  We did not see either of them.

We stopped by the Linda Lee nest and confirmed that it was still active. 

We were planning on going to Fontainebleau Trail to work on the counter, when Jake requested our help of catching an injured crane.  We went to the location and found Surge #2109, and his unbanded mate in one of the residents front yard.  This resident had notified Scott of the injured crane and had it in his fenced in back yard.  When Jake got there, we used the net and was able to capture him.  We had a zoom meeting with Scott and Richard, from Audubon Species Survival Center.  After determining the wing was broken, Jake took the crane to New Orleans for further evaluation.  The Crane Ranch is not having a good year.

We checked the DGF tanks and got zero frogs, then relaxed at Camp Crane.  We got in7 hours on our day off.

Friday Pics:

Saturday, RR19, was euthanized.  Very sad to loose our 6th crane of 2023.  We had a bookstore meeting with Lloyd, then met Anita at Island View.  We had another large time of fun, food, and drinks.  We even got a little bit of dancing in!!

Crane Ranch - 5-21-23 - 5-27-23

Sunday, we lounged around the room, enjoying our coffee time with Anita at Island View.  We had a good breakfast at the buffet, then headed westbound to do a little bit of shore birding.  We were looking for Least Tern babies.  We saw plenty of nests, but no hatchlings.

We were entertained by a male Least Tern offering his mate lunch.  He was very proud when she took the minnow from him.  It almost looked like he had a smile on his face.

We donated a little bit of money to the casino then called it a night.  Even though it may have still been daylight outside.

Sunday Pics:

Monday, we did a repeat of yesterday's morning, drinking coffee and eating breakfast at the buffet. Afterwards, we headed eastbound to do a little bit of birding.  We saw a lot of birds at Jones Park.  One pair of Royal Terns were doing their mating dance.  Nature is so amazing.

We finally found a Least Tern hatchling amongst all the other nests.

We made a drive through Hiller Park and saw a Pond Slider.

We made a few more stops before heading back to Island View.  We walked to Sully's for happy hour.  It was a fun place to eat and drink.

We got to spend a little bit of time with Norman and Jason while donating a few more dollars to the casino.

After spending Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night at Island View we made it back to the ranch Tuesday morning.  We got a bit of piddling done around HQ then relaxed for the rest of the day.

Common Box Turtle at the front door of the visitor center on National Turtle Day 

Tuesday Pics:

Wednesday, was back to work day.    

When we went to the South Gautier Unit to do some lopping, we checked on the Firetower Pond nests.  Both nest are still active.

We also got a visual on the Sunplex Dad, aka Super Dad.  He and the colt are doing fine.

Wednesday Pics:

Thursday, we had the West Elementary School outing at the refuge.  We led 3 walks along the Dees Trail.  The kids and the chaperones all seemed to have a good time.

The afternoon, we manned the visitor center and inventoried a new shipment of stock that came in.

Friday, Lauren got a walk in along the Dees Trail then I met him on Crane Lane.  We packed up then were Crossroads bound for a few days to give the place some TLC.

Friday Pics: