Sylph, Link, Mist, and Yoshi were under the oaks when we got out for our Sunday morning stroll. There was a little bit of squabbling going on by the time they got to the bayou.
The pollinators were enjoying the blooms on the Dees Trail.
The goslings at the Fire Center are growing like a weed.
We took in a little bit of nature at Camp Crane before tackling Rap's bath. She is all washed up and road trip ready.
Monday we enjoyed more nature chasing on our morning stroll.
Siren, Squall, and Quicksand were foraging in the backyard this morning.
The rest of the day, I spent getting a few things done inside while Lauren continued the nature chasing at Camp Crane, seeing lots of birds and other critters.
Lauren had an admirer today, a Magnolia Green Jumping Spider. It would jump on Lauren, he would remove it, and it would come right back. I guess nature decided to do a little bit of chasing of their own.
Another strolling kind of day on Tuesday. We saw the first Orchard Oriole of the year on the Dees Trail.
The pollinators were enjoying all the pretty blooms today.
After a trip to Island View, Lauren went on another stroll while I took a nap. He got this cool picture of a Yellow Garden Spider.
Wednesday morning the pollinators were enjoying the Little leaf sensitive briar blooms.
After our trail walk, we met Scott Wiggers, refuge botanist to prep for the nature walk. Let's just say, we wished we could have met him a while back. He had a wealth of knowledge.
While we were on the trail, we saw our first, ever, Gopher Tortoise on the Dees Trail!
The afternoon was spent with about 70 people from the SERPPAS group. I worked in the bookstore and Lauren and Scott did two trail walks. It was a fabulous day!!
Thursday, we showed the Interns how to put the deer guards on the crane feeders.
The afternoon, we went on another nature chasing stroll.
As we were walking off the Dees Trail we had two Swallow-tailed Kites fly over!!
We checked on the Rock Hill family. The colts are growing like a weed.
Friday we worked in the visitor center. It was a slow day of visitation with the early morning rain.
Sylph was our only crane visitor this morning.
Lauren saw a Common Nighthawk and a few other cool things on his afternoon Dees Trail walk.
Saturday was our final day of working in the visitor center. It was a slow day of visitation for people and cranes.
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird was very striking this afternoon. We finally got her picture sipping nectar from the Coral Bean blooms in the native plant garden.
Finally after we closed, Sylph made an appearance in the backyard.
We did a little bit of packing, then relaxed for our last evening of arm chair birding at Camp Crane.
I was awaken by the elusive call of the Mississippi Sandhill Cranes on Sunday morning. The calling continued after I got up. We met at the intersection of Camp Crane Lane and Crane Lane. What a way to wake up to our last day of resident volunteers.
They were still hanging around when we met Lloyd to take care of the bookstore closure stuff.
We got another picture of Hummy in our native plant garden. She is enjoying the fruits of our labor.
We got Rap packed up and was out of there within an hour. As it stands now, this is our last rodeo as resident volunteers for the Crane Ranch. It is bittersweet, but new adventures await!!
