Crane Ranch 6-18-23 - 6-24-23

We made it back to Camp Crane from Crossroads on Sunday.  We had an enjoyable stroll along the Dees Trail watching the growth of the new plants that have emerged since the prescribed burn.  The critters were enjoying the plants as well.

Sunday Pics:

We woke up to to flooding rain Monday morning.  That rain continued for most of the day.  We had 3 1/2 inches of rain by 4 pm.  In between showers we walked the Dees Trail and took a trailer over to Independence Road Shop.  While we were out and about, we saw a gator in the ditch along Bayou Heron Road.

When we returned, we were greeted by the new residents of the refuge, three roosters that have been hanging out near the gate on Crane Lane. 

Monday Pics: 

Tuesday, we got up early and were on the road by 7 am.  We checked the dam on Valentine Road to make sure it had not collapsed with all the rain we had yesterday.  We also went to Independence Road Shop and checked for storm damage after reports of a tornado near the area yesterday.  All was well.

We got back and met Lloyd to give him the bookstore deposit, then spent a few hours moving all the stock out of the bookstore getting ready for the flooring project.  I never realized how much inventory that we had until we moved it to the auditorium.   

Tuesday Pics: 

Wednesday we got a morning and an afternoon walk along the Dees Trail seeing a few cool plants and such.  The male Eastern Fence Lizard was flashing his blue underbelly on the pine tree.

The Red-headed Woodpecker was spotted both times going in the hole of a pine tree.  Maybe there will be babies before long.

In between our trail walks, we also got a some work done moving stuff around for the flooring project.

Wednesday Pics:

Some of the HQ Crew were hanging around the savanna Thursday morning on our way into work.

The day was spent moving stuff in HQ getting ready for the flooring project.  

Thursday Pics:

Friday morning we moved more stuff around in HQ.  The visitor center is closed and the building is ready for the flooring installation.

  

This afternoon, we went to the North Gautier Unit in the hopes of getting pictures of the cranes that have been frequenting the recently burned Coke Savanna.  The Cranes outsmarted us and flushed long before we could get their photos.

We enjoyed our long hot walk watching birds and checking out the new plant life that is emerging after the prescribed burn.

While riding along Valentine Road recovering from the heat, we found the first Snowy Orchid of the season,  a nesting Common Nighthawk, and a bunch of recently fledged Purple Martins.  A great way to beat the heat.

Friday Pics:

Saturday we made a day trip Crossroads to put in an air conditioner and check the mail.  On our way back we stopped at Sicily's for linner.  It was a no picture taking kind of day. 

Crane Ranch - 6-11-23 - 6-17-23

Sunday we started the week with a fun day.  We went on a crane road survey.  During our survey, we confirmed Super Mom and twins at Rock Hill were doing well.  As soon as mom saw us, she hid then the twins followed suit.  

We found Dougie's mate alone in Bright's Pasture. A good indicator that their 2nd nest is still active.

We saw a crane sitting on the Linda Lee Pond nest and an unbanded nearby.

We finally saw Super Dad and his colt in the power line across from Sunplex.

We heard the Riley Road pair showed up with a couple of chicks, off we go to see if we could get a visual.

We did a orchid road survey in the South Gautier Unit, did not find any Calopogon multiflorus, but we did see a couple of cranes.

We did an impromptu smoke patrol this afternoon.  Sami had concerns that the smoke was staying too low for their prescribed burn in the North Gautier Unit.  All was well with the smoke.  "Super Volunteers" are at it again!

Sunday Pics:

Monday, we got up early in the hopes of beating the heat.  We were out pushing Ole' Billy Goat at 8 am and still sweating our butts off.  What the heck?, it's not officially summer yet.

We watered the native plant garden and did some other piddling around the visitor center.  We borrowed the Edmond Fitzgerald, (fire's truck), and loaded the Kubota getting ready for trail work day at Escatawpa tomorrow.  

This afternoon we were pleased to find the Passion Flower plant blooming at our campsite.  A first iNaturalist species for the refuge.

Monday Pics:

Tuesday we broke in the new Kubota helping Tom and Bill place rocks on the Escatawapa Trail.  We had quite the assembly going.  We would pull up, Bill would load the rocks in the Kubota, we would bring them to the trail and dump them.  We did this for about 3 hours and got about a 3rd of the rocks moved to the trail.  The new Kubota was nice with it's a/c blowing, keeping the heat out and the bugs away from us.  Tom on the other hand, was not as fortunate.  He was fighting bugs and the heat as he was dumping rocks.

We got back and cleaned up the Kubota.  It has a few blemishes from the rock transfers, but that's what we got it for, a work horse.

Tuesday Pics:

Wednesday we attended our first staff meeting at the refuge.  We and the others got plenty of compliments.  We must be doing something right.

During the meeting, Melissa was honored then we had a farewell lunch at the bunkhouse.  She will be missed.

After lunch, we headed to Island View.  We were greatly surprised to get the sweet suite that Anita got last week.  We had a fabulous time sitting at the pool, gambling a little bit, and looking out of our glass windows.  We would spend time in the bedroom looking out the window, then move to the living area.  Life is good! 

Wednesday Pics: 

Thursday we stayed as long as we could in our sweet suite, then headed back to the Crane Ranch.  We did a little bit of piddling around the visitor center, got our walk in along Crane Lane and the Dees Trail, then relaxed at Camp Crane.

Stubby relaxed at Camp Crane with us, eating a few ants.  It is great having an ant eater at Camp Crane.

Thursday Pics:

Friday we had the Mississippi Museum of Science campers come by for a visit at the refuge.  We had planned for Lauren to take them on a refuge tour and me to do a plant safari.  The crane tour was cancelled due to the rain, but we were fortunate enough to have 8 cranes visit this morning.  Although, they walked into the savanna and were a long way off when the campers arrived.  We were able to get about a 30 minute trail walk in between the rain showers. 

 

After work, we did our usual, relaxed at Camp Crane.

Friday Pics:

Saturday, we headed to Crossroads to install a couple of replacement air conditioners (one would not cool) and mow the lawn.

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: