Visitors from ‘across the pond’

While Robyn was here, she wanted to see the Mississippi Sandhill Cranes, so we all went for a tour of the refuge yesterday morning.  Avery, of course, couldn’t care less about such a thing being only four years old.  It’s getting harder and harder to find the cranes as we get closer to the end of the month and the beginning of their breeding season.  Luckily, we were able to finally see some.

Monday afternoon, all of the volunteers got together to have a cook out.  Avery was feeling a little more comfortable with all these strangers by the afternoon.  After all, most of us are grandparents, so you know it was a friendly atmosphere.  As the sun set, I drove Robyn and Avery to a motel in Biloxi right across from the airport.  They had a very early morning flight out today, and had decided to spend the night there rather than having to get Avery up at four in the morning for the drive into the airport.  Just as my mother used to, I get choked up at these partings.  It was a short, but wonderful visit.

Then early this morning, Colin and Denise arrived for a tour of the refuge.  I’ve volunteered with Colin several times in the past at Anahuac NWR.  He is a citizen of England, and has volunteered at Anahuac for about three months a year for the last nine years.  His trip to the US was strictly for birding this time, and he brought his wife, Denise, along.  It was great to finally meet her.  As you can see, she is seriously into photo taking, and we did get a few opportunities for her to get some shots of the cranes.  It seems that Colin travels all over the globe to pursue his birding passion.  I’m sure glad I could deliver this morning.    I’d also like to thank them for treating me to lunch!

After lunch, I was feeling pretty worn out from all the excitement and goings on of the last five days, and way behind in doing my laundry.  So I threw a load into the Splendide, and Emma and I relaxed outside for the afternoon.

I did some trimming underneath one of the bird feeders for better viewing, and it wasn’t long before this brown thrasher stopped by to scratch in the debris of the forest floor.  It was 3:00 before I could put the load of wash out on the line, and the jeans and a few other items didn’t dry.  Since there’s no rain in tonight’s forecast, I’ve decided to just let them hang overnight.  Tomorrow, I’ll get another load going before I do the tour.  Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s back to work I go.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy