Who cooks for you…all?

I was up before the crack of dawn this morning to get ready to lead another refuge tour.  We had an outstanding morning, and spotted 18 cranes in all.  Seven of them were Mississippi sandhills!  That is exceptionally good for this late in February. 

The last two we found were Crossbill and her mate.  It turns out that the female, Crossbill (on the left), has never had a mate, but this year a young male has taken a liking to her.  What an interesting time we had watching these two.  This is the pair that hangs out near the house that puts out corn for them.  As we arrived near this property, the owner came out of the house on a pair of crutches.  He has only one leg.  It kind of reminded me of Peg.    As he approached the cranes, the pair began displaying and dancing.  They jumped in the air, lowered their heads, and raised their wings.  It was obvious that they were comfortable around this gentleman, and knew a load of corn was coming.  I’m not sure how I feel about this familiarity with humans, but I can surely understand the thrill this man must feel as he communicates in his own way with these wild things.

Just before we arrived at this location, I slammed on the brakes and told everyone to get their cameras ready.  There was a barred owl sitting on an electrical line in broad daylight not 15 feet from us!  If I were a rodent, I would certainly fear those sharp talons that this owl possesses.

If you hear the hooting of an owl in the night, you may not know what kind it is.  This owl’s hoot has often been likened to the phrase Hoo-Hoo, Hoo-Hoo-Awe ( Who cooks for you all?) with the Awe being at a lower pitch.  That’s how you tell them from great horned owls in the dark.  They are also usually found in wet areas, like a wet pine savannah.  It was a real treat to find one out in the morning sun!

 

This afternoon, I took Emma with me over to the bunkhouse, and I started work on cleaning up that garden (?) area in the front.  I had a shovel, rake, and the world’s heaviest wheelbarrow.  Two hours was about all I was up for doing in the afternoon heat.  I’m thinking I’ll take my time over the next week to get things ready for the gravel cover up.

Later, I went over to ‘supervise’ the guys working on rebuilding an overlook along the Dees Trail.  Volunteers Tom and Jay are on the left, and volunteer coordinator, Doug Hunt, is on the right.  They didn’t quite get everything finished, but this overlook for viewing a swampy area should be open pretty soon.  That’s the kind of stuff some of the other volunteers do.

 

Tomorrow, we’re all going on a boat tour of the local swamps of the Pascagoula River, and then in the afternoon I’ll be going along with a crew to try to trap some of the unbanded cranes.  Can’t wait for the sun to rise! 

 

Thanks for stopping by…. talk to you later,  Judy