7-5-20 - 7-11-20 - Camp Host Week 4

We finished our 11 straight days of working around 2 pm Sunday, then headed to Crossroads for a few days.   Of course, we stopped to take a few pictures as we were getting our work done.

After Lauren spent a few days fixing things at home we went back to Camp on Wednesday.  We are off until Sunday, which gives us a few days to enjoy the fruits of our labor. 

We enjoyed our time sitting outside and taking pictures of stuff Wednesday afternoon.  A couple of Wood Peewees were singing on a branch nearby.

Hummy seems to enjoy her fresh nectar I put in her feeder.

We found a mating pair of White-sand Tiger Beetles on the beach, along with turtles on a log when we rode around late afternoon.

Thursday was hiking day.  We strolled around the Gorge Trail taking pictures of critters and stuff.  We found several pretty Small Green Wood Orchids blooming in the wet area below the boardwalk.

We came across several spiders, a Rat Snake, butterflies, pretty plants, moths, birds, bees and other critters on our 2 mile hike.

We had a couple of Common Ground Doves visit at camp this afternoon.

Friday was another day of strolling around taking pictures of plants and stuff.  We found some beautiful Pigeonwings and Butterfly Peas blooming.

We walked with the Gills late morning and checked out another beach area.  We found a nice, cool, area in the creek that we plan to come back and do some more bird watching. 

The Purple Passion Flower at Camp that was closed this morning was opened this afternoon.

Saturday, Ferny Kat started waking us up at 2 am this morning.  She bailed out of the camper this morning and laid inside the fire pit.  She sure had a lot of vocal personality today.

We enjoyed Anita's visit and sitting around taking pictures of critters this afternoon.


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6-28-20 - 7-4-20 - Camp Host Week 3

This was our first full week working as Camp Host.  As we rode around doing our chores we were frequently distracted by nature.  We stopped and moved an Eastern Musk Turtle off the road Sunday as we were heading to the beach.

The campers poured out on Sunday morning, leaving us about 24 campsite to clean.  We had them done in about an hour.  On the other hand, the beach goers were after 7 pm before they cleared out which gave us time to sit on the bank and enjoy the river flowing by.

Ferny Kat was very vocal wanting us to get up way too early on Monday morning.  Before taking off for our chores, Lauren had to work on the Gator.  It was definitely a Monday kind of day.

We got our work done, then took Ferny Kat for a ride to Crossroads with the hopes we could keep her awake during the day.  She enjoyed her ride home, but was cat napping by the time we got there.  She slept in the closet until we drove back.  All for keeping her awake during the day.

The Northern Cardinals continue feeding their young from the feeder and a Cat Bird was hanging out in the trees.

We were greeted by a Fowler's Toad and a Green Heron at the Interpretive Area.

We had a steamy road after the rain on Tuesday afternoon when we made our rounds.

When we got back to Camp, Ferny Kat came out to explore and drink and play in her bowl of rain water.

There was a Green Heron hanging around in the branches on the river at the Beach area and some pretty Trailing Fuzzy Beans blooming on the bank of the river.

Our chores at the beach were delayed Wednesday morning when we got distracted by an Eastern Lubber Grasshopper, a Blue Grosbeak, an Eastern Kingbird, and a Red Spotted Admiral.

We spent the afternoon drilling holes in each of the campsite post for flags to be placed in for this holiday weekend.

We are the gate keepers, in our gated community tonight.

Thursday we continued to enjoy nature as we did our work.  We had our first armadillo sighting for this area on our way back to camp Thursday night.

There were 2 Green Herons at the Interpretive Area on Friday morning.  One of them strutted around the pier with his cool tufted head feathers.

When we got back to Camp, a Swallow-tailed Kite circled above us allowing us good closeup pics.

Saturday was a Happy 4th of July!  It was another nature chasing kind of day as we got our work done.

We were entertained by a pair of dancing Mockingbirds at Camp this afternoon.

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6-21-20 - 6-27-20 - Camp Host Week 2

After yesterday's hike, I was sure that I wouldn't be capable of walking up and down these hills today,  I was wrong.

We started out Sunday morning on another of those short, unstrenuous strolls going in the opposite direction than yesterday on the Gorge Trail Run.  A couple of hours later and  about 3 miles and 11 flights, I had wobblier legs than yesterday.  Geez!!

We hiked the Gorge Trail Run until it crossed the gravel road to the tubing area then hiked the road to the beach to take pictures.  Lauren got a good close up of a Cottonmouth yawning as we walked across the bridge.

We made it back to camp, relaxed a while, then went riding around for about 10 minutes.  Before we got back, the ole wind started blowing what we thought was a thunderstorm brewing.  Luckily for us the wind only got our canopy over the table and not our awning.  Whew!  And by the way, the wind was calm and we never had a thunderstorm as we were putting down the canopy and awning.

We spent a little time with Kay showing us how she does her Camp Host work, then took another ride around the park.  We had a beautiful Mississippi Kite flying above us as we were driving at the power line.

We returned to camp and realized that without an awning or a canopy above our heads, we can see more birds.  Losing the canopy that we bought in the 90's and never used until our first day here, was more of a blessing than a curse. 

Late afternoon, as we were grilling our dinner, a Summer Tanager was eating a wasp for her dinner.

BTW, yesterday we didn't get a good picture of the Hooded Warbler.  But today was another day.

Ferny Kat was very insistent that we get up early on Morning morning.  We finally gave in, and got up at 6:30 am.  As soon as we opened the door to go outside, she bailed outside.

We had on and off showers that she played in, while we sat under the awning and drank our coffee.  She sure has a lot of personality today.  After breakfast we went to Crossroads for a few days.

Tuesday morning we went to the Dees Trail looking for a Snowy Orchid that we found 2 years ago.  On the way, we made a detour and checked on the colts.  They are about grown and should be fledging soon.

We didn't find the Snowy Orchid, but as usual, we found lots of other pretty plants and such.

Wednesday afternoon, we got back to camp and took over the Camp Host duties.  I was flagged down from one of the campers to report a maintenance issue during my first time of driving the gator from Kay's.  We are official Camp Hosts!

Of course, our maiden voyage of making sure the beach and restrooms were tidy, involved some picture taking.  We rarely leave home without our Canons.

Thursday was our first full day of being Camp Hosts.  We met a really nice guy at the beach who is a professor that was doing turtle surveys.  He was most interested in the Pearl River Map Turtles and Ringed Sawback turtles that are only found in the Bogue Chitto River and Pearl River.  He gave us a lot of information on the turtles.  He set up his spotting scope for us to view as he explained the characteristics of the turtles.

He has done studies on Mimic Glass Lizards at the refuge and was on a field trip with his students on the Dees Trail last summer.  He was also involved with the Dusky Gopher Frogs earlier in the recovery program.  It is a small world!!

His conversation inspired us to go turtle hunting.  We found Ringed Sawback and Pearl River Map Turtles, along with a few others.   The only problem, most of them were across the river and a little bit much to reach with our camera lens, but we snapped turtles anyway.

We realized when we were headed out to spruce things up on Friday morning that we had left our disinfectant spray in the last restroom we cleaned yesterday.  Our first rookie mistake.  One of the employees found it and returned it to us.

We stopped on our way back to check out an alligator swimming near one of the campsites at the Bottomland Campground.

We started out Saturday morning watching Cardinal parents feed their young fledglings seeds from the bird feeder.

As we were driving to the beach, there was a jogger, running around drawing circles and arrows on the road with a white powdery substance while carrying a roll of toilet paper.  You see all kinds!!

Saturday evening as we were driving back to camp, a Swallow-tailed Kite was soaring above us.  A great way to wrap up the day. 

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