8-9-20 - 8-15-20 - Camp Host - Week 9

 We had a record breaking start to our Camp Host week.  We didn't take any pictures with our DSLR cameras Sunday or Monday.  The only pictures we took were with our cell phones as we were getting our work done.  We found a cool Eastern Dobsonfly at the beach restroom building.

The beach restroom building had another cool critter Tuesday morning,  a Lo Moth.  

Tuesday afternoon, we took a stroll and took a few pictures of pretty butterflies and such. 

 On our last round of the day, the critters were out and about.  We saw turkey, deer, squirrels, a rabbit, and a Ringed Saw Back Turtle.  

It looks like the turtle was doing a yoga move.

On our way to the Beach Wednesday morning, we stopped and encouraged a Black Racer to get out of the road.  Of course, we took a picture first. 

On our afternoon round, we saw the three turkeys again.  But this time we also saw a baby turkey with them.  This is our first sighting of a baby turkey in the wild.

We stopped for a cool spider in the sky shot on Thursday.

We were really quite, making sure we didn't wake up the sleeping frog in the window sill of the Beach restroom Friday morning.

Angie came for a visit on Saturday.  We enjoyed a day of hiking and picture taking.  

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8-2-20 - 8-8-20 - Camp Host - Week 8

We spent a few days at Crossroads, getting a few chores done and letting Ferny Kat get over her attitude.  For some reason, she fusses a lot at Bogue Chitto, and she ran away twice last week.  (Although, she didn't go far or stay gone but a few minutes).  Needless to say, she now has territory restrictions when she is outside the camper.  She was as content as she could be the whole time we were at home.  

We had a goal on Wednesday and Thursday to hike the Bird Dog Biking/Hiking Trail and the Zephyr Biking/Hiking Trail. Not only did we hike the 4 miles of biking/hiking trails, we also hiked portions of the Gorge Trail. We exceeded our expectations by 8.5 miles for a total of 12.5 miles of hiking in two days.

We hiked the Gorge Run Trail Wednesday morning from the camper to the Gorge boardwalk and back.  As usual, we enjoyed the nature along the trail.

We hiked the Bird Dog Trail Wednesday afternoon.  It had a lot of tree canopy cover and was quite buggy.   We saw some interesting things along the way.  Our total miles walking today was 7.5 with 36 flights.  

 

Thursday we got a total of 5 miles of hiking in along with 15 flights on the Zephyr Trail.  It was much more appealing to us than the Bird Dog Trail with plenty of interesting nature finds.

Friday morning after we walked the Disc Golf course, we found a spur of the Gorge Run Trail we didn't know about.  We hiked the mile and a half round trip of the spur that meandered through some wetlands.    Our total hiking/picture taking for today was 6.6 miles along with 19 flights. Us flatlanders are finally getting better acclimated to the terrain.  

Friday afternoon, our Camp Host week began.

Saturday, we went for a stroll along the Gorge Trail checking out a plant we had seen when we first got here.  While I was waiting on the trail for Lauren, (who was off the beaten path), a tree with a hollow hole, caught my eye.  I thought it would be a cool picture.  After I got back to camp and was editing the pictures, I realized there was a Gray Rat Snake in the hole.  I had no clue he was watching me!

After we finished our rounds for the day, we had a cute Coon family pay a visit at camp.  

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7-26-20 - 8-1-20 - Camp Host - Week 7

The rain Sunday morning caused us to have a late start to our work week.  The rain continued off and on until after 5 pm.

After completing our morning round, we sat under the awning in the light rain and bird watched.  The Cardinals were quite entertaining, running each other off of the feeder.  

The Hummingbirds were also busy chasing each other from the nectar.  Then all the sudden, a Hooded Warbler decided to chase all the Cardinals and the Hummingbirds away.  He was very photogenic protecting his territory.

We got back from our evening rounds and were sitting inside processing our pictures for the day.  The  territorial Hooded Warbler made another appearance.  This time, right out side our window.  He was banging at the window.  Hopefully, he was eating bugs and not trying to intimidate us.

We enjoyed nature as we got our work done on Monday. We had Gator sighting in our morning and evening rounds.  The morning Gator was swimming in one of the lakes.

One of the afternoon Gator's had a hitch hiker on top of his head.

The other Gator we saw in the afternoon was relaxing on a log with a turtle above him.  The turtle, jumped in the water when we stopped to take a picture.  That turtle sure is living life dangerously.

We watched the Gill's fish for a bit then stopped to move a Box Turtle out of the road on our way back to Camp.

The Hummingbirds have been competing for the nectar again this afternoon.  One minute they are swooping each other and the next minute, they are perched on a limb together.

We got in a heavy rain when we went to pick up trash on the beach Tuesday morning.

On our way out, we stopped to let a Copperhead move across the path.

This afternoon, we attempted a 1 mile walk in less than 15 minutes.  We were a few seconds above our goal.  After our fast walk, we walked a couple more miles, easing around taking pictures.

All the rain this week has the snakes, alligators and other critters on the move.

We completed our work and headed to Crossroads Friday afternoon.

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