A day of challenges & an anniversary story

The clouds had rolled away by this morning so I picked up Barbara, and off we went to the East Unit to try to find some mottled ducks for my photography assignment.  It was a day for multiple layers of clothing and gloves.

As we neared an area that had thousands of ducks in it last week, a Sprague’s pipit was rummaging around in the grasses.  Nature photography has many challenges, and birds hopping around in amongst vegetation is one of them.  It’s frustrating to not get a clear view.

There are only a few cattle egrets left that haven’t migrated south, and I wanted to get a good picture of them doing their cattle thing.  Problem is they’re so white that it’s hard to get detail to show up in them.  They’re also very flighty so you can’t get very close to them.

                      Considering the cold temperatures, I was surprised to even see an alligator today.

There was no shortage of raptors, however.  I would have liked more detail in the face of this young red-tailed hawk.

It was low tide when we neared the intracoastal waterway so lots of mudflats were exposed.  Only challenge here is that the birds, like this marbled godwit, are so far away.  There’s no way to get close enough for an outstanding shot.

I could get close enough for these shots of the exposed oysters.  Oysters Rockefeller anyone?  I really don’t mind these kinds of challenges.  Give me a day out on the refuge any time, and I’m happy as a clam (or oyster).

Alas, we didn’t find any mottled ducks to try to photograph, so on the way back we stopped at the boardwalk that leads to the handicapped hunting blind.  This may be my best bet for getting the pictures I need.  On a day without the bitter cold temperatures and biting winds, I may hunker down here to patiently wait for the ducks to come to me.  I’ll be sure to bring a gallon of bug spray with me though to combat the mosquitoes on a warmer day. 

Back at the ranch, the battle of the rodents continues for several of us.  My score so far: mouse 5, me 3.  When I checked the one good trap today, it had gone off, but no mouse attached.  I bought two more of the traps I like this afternoon. 

Now for the anniversary story.  Today marks the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  I was not yet born at that time, but I do have a remembrance.   My father was in the printing trade at that time, and was exempt from the draft because his job was considered essential.  He died when I was eight, but I think he always regretted not being able to serve his country.  Every weekend, however, he spent time in the basement of the house in Chicago playing records on the victrola which resonated through the house.  Almost 60 years later, I still remember the words…

                                                   Let’s Remember Pearl Harbor,

                                                   As we go to meet the foe.

                                                   Let’s Remember Pearl Harbor,

                                                   As we did the Alamo.

                                                   We will always remember,

                                                   How they died for Liberty.

                                                   Let’s Remember Pearl Harbor,

                                                   And go on to Victory!

I will always remember…

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

Cabin fever?

Three days of rain, wind, and cold temperatures means I’m chomping at the bit to get back outside.  I did spend Sunday afternoon working the VIS, but that’s an even smaller space than the rig.  Yesterday was a totally inside day, so I was happy to go to a volunteer meeting at the maintenance office this morning as it’s a ten mile drive there and back, and I could see if the rain had improved things on the refuge for the birds.  (Oh my, try diagramming that last sentence.)

The meeting took a couple of hours, and afterwards I decided to take a drive down to the bayside boat launch just for the chance to prolong going back to the rig.  I found a common merganser, on the right, and two hooded mergansers working the waterway off of the bay.

The male hooded merganser is a rather perky looking little guy.  They’re all pretty skittish, so I really had to make these shots from afar.  That’s the first hooded I’ve seen this year.

As I reached the bay, I found a couple of white ibis working away with a gull flying in to monitor their success.

                                    It’s kind of humorous to watch the gulls follow the ibis around.

                    I’ve seen gulls snatch food away from ibis and even ospreys…the little marauders!

It was low tide so the crab traps were visible sticking out of the bay.  It also meant the flats were alive with shorebirds, but the overcast conditions made for poor lighting for photographing them.

I was hoping to capture a shot of a seaside sparrow, but all I found were several savannah sparrows in amongst the beach rocks and oyster shells.

Heading back to the exit, I found a neotropic cormorant shaking and stretching on one of the water structures before it took off.  It was an enjoyable break from sitting inside, that’s for sure.

I’ve had the opportunity the last few days to do some thinking about this coming summer.  I’m not going to just sit somewhere; I want something to do.  In September I applied for a couple of camp hosting jobs outside of Estes Park, CO, but even after leaving messages I haven’t heard anything.  Since they planned to make their decisions by the end of October, I’ve crossed that possibility off of my list.  I have two other ideas in mind.  Volunteering at the National Elk Refuge in Wyoming would mean a 32 hour/week commitment for the entire summer, or volunteering at the Cle Elum Fish Hatchery in Washington would mean a 20 hour/week commitment for two or three months.  Of course, I haven’t officially applied to either location yet…just dreaming.  It’s time to put my dreams into action however.  I’ll be working on that in the very near future.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

Is salinity testing boring?

Not on your life!  At least not for me.  Come along with me on yesterday’s adventure on the refuge.  I picked up fellow volunteers, Barbara and James, as I left the RV pads.  They were interested in going along with me since I would be on one of the roads not open to the public while I went about my testing.  (the last two pictures tonight, and any with me in them were taken by them even though they’ll have my watermark)

First stop was down by the bay.  After a walk through some cow plops, we made it to the water structure of Ditch #1.  The probe is dropped to the bottom of the waterway and then raised a couple of inches off the bottom.  We take three readings at each stop to get an average.

Since I had help with me, we shared the duties.  The readings turned out saltier than last week, and the water was flowing in the opposite direction.  Tides do play a factor in these readings.  As you can see in the left hand picture, I bring my walking stick along to help me maintain my balance as I climb up onto the water structure.  Staff adjusts the openings in these structures to change water flow.

The second stop was at a popular crabbing location on the refuge.  After we took our readings here, I talked to some of the folks to find out more about the fine art of crabbing.  Having grown up in the Midwest, I knew nothing about it.

Luckily, this gentleman was more than willing to educate me about the process.  The first thing you do is toss a string with a chicken leg tied to the end into the water.  Then you let it rest there a while.

              After soaking for a bit, you gingerly pull on the string to see if there is any resistance.

If there is, you slowly pull the string in and get your net ready.  If you pull too fast, the crabs let go of the chicken leg.

If you know what you’re doing, you scoop the net under the end of the string to catch the crab.  This one scoop resulted in four crabs on that one chicken leg!  Then you toss the leg back into the water and begin the whole process again.

Then you toss the crabs into a cooler.  I asked the man what he did with all of these blue crabs.  He boils them, and then picks out the meat to add to his shrimp and sausage gumbo.  As I’ve said before, learning something new each day makes life interesting.You always see something new on the roads in the refuge, and yesterday was a day for pelicans.  We didn’t see one pelican along here last week.

                               This week the pelicans were around every curve, both white and brown.

We also had the treat of finding some roseate spoonbills in the marsh.  Pink is not a color often found in birdland.  That coloring is the result of the shrimp that they eat.

One thing remained the same on this road however.  If you step out of the vehicle, you will surely be most popular with the mosquitoes!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

A lesson on nature’s food chain

One of the things that I enjoy most about volunteering on my nation’s National Wildlife Refuges is that hardly a day goes by that I don’t learn something new.  Today, I learned a lesson about the food chain that I’ll share with you.  A little background first.  When I talked to Stephanie yesterday, she gave me a new assignment.  The refuge needs some pictures of mottled ducks.  Now there’s an assignment I’m more than happy to try.  What with the drought, finding mottled ducks to photograph meant I’d have to do some scouting on the East Unit.  That’s a unit that’s not open to the general public except for hunters on Saturdays, Sundays, and Tuesdays.  Since today was Friday, I was given permission to be on the East Unit and ‘hunt’ down my quarry.  Following the law, my ‘shots’ are lead free!  Fellow volunteers, Barbara and James, accompanied me on my excursion.

We found thousands and thousands of ducks and geese, but not too many that were willing to pose for a close up.

However, we did come upon a Northern harrier that had caught something to eat.  Perhaps one of the shorebirds in the moist soil units?  (remember the food chain)  All was calm until…

…another harrier decided that it wanted what the first harrier had.

That’s when the battle ensued.  Eventually, one of the birds dominated and returned to eating its dinner.  My thought was that it was a good example of survival of the fittest.  Until…

…along came a crested caracara to steal the prize from the winning harrier!

That sure surprised me.  Who would have thought that a young carrion eating bird could scare off a raptor of similar size that hunts for a living?  I’ve always thought of caracaras and vultures as the natural world’s garbage men (or perhaps I should call them sanitation workers to be more politically correct), and hunting raptors at the top of the food chain. 

Like I said, you learn something new everyday.  To the victor go the rewards, I guess.  We couldn’t figure out what is was that this big battle was all about, but it sure didn’t look very tasty to me!

Here’s the score for those of you that inquired on my personal battlefront:  Mouse 3  Me 1!  Yep, I caught one of those little buggers after figuring out that the new traps that I bought couldn’t be adjusted and needed an elephant to step on them to make them go off.  Before his demise, that little mouse took avail of the peanut butter lined dental floss, and left it clean as a whistle.  So much for catching on his teeth!  I have one old trap that worked, and I’ve re-baited it for tonight just in case my marauder wasn’t alone.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

Back to the birds, and a goodbye

Time to drive the refuge roads and do trash detail again this afternoon.  Yesterday I went on a drive to specifically see birds and got skunked.  Today, I went to look for trash and found birds galore.  Go figure.

Before I left, I watched an interesting way to plant a field.  The other day, a tractor came by the field next to the RV pads and mowed and disked the area.  Today, staff was out there planting.  Two guys shoveled seed while one guy blew it off of the trailer with a leaf blower while the truck slowly drove along.  Then a tractor came by with huge rollers to flatten the seed into the ground.  I’ve never seen this kind of planting before.

                      Found one of the gazillion Savannah sparrows that inhabit the refuge in the winter.

           I then came across a meeting of egret minds.  What do you imagine they were discussing?

In a rice field along the entrance road, about six thousands snow geese were working the harvested field.

In amongst the snow geese where several Ross’s geese.  They kind of look like miniature snow geese.  There are two in this picture.  One smack dab in the middle of the pic behind a snow goose, and another about three feet in front.

Then I finally found my first alligator of the year.  With the drought, they’ve been harder to find this year.  I’m posting this pic especially for DONNA  of Cave Dwelling fame.  This will be a safe way for her to see one.

While the gator lay there sunning, several white ibis and great egrets flew into the wet area.

Don’t think I’d be feeding this close to a ten foot alligator.  I was hoping to get an action shot of the gator procuring dinner, but nothing ever happened.

Late this afternoon, I read that my friend PIDGE has decided to come off of the road with her husband.  She has been experiencing medical issues and now has her truck and fifth wheel up for sale.  She has also decided to quit blogging.  I’ll miss reading her Frugal Traveler posts.  Best wishes Pidge!  I know that’s a decision all of us RVers will have to make at some time, but I can’t stop feeling that the decision came sooner than she wished. 

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy