Hi Ho, Hi Ho....

It's off to work we go.

We started our volunteer work yesterday with a full day of training. It was an online defensive driving course that took the whole day to plow through. It is a requirement in order to drive the refuge's vehicles, which we will need to do. By the time we finished it was the end of the day and our eyes were glazed over. So, no birds yesterday, but the raccoons are still visiting the dumpster at night.

Today, we were scheduled to go over to Matagorda Island, the offshore part of the refuge, to help open the "Pilot House", an accommodation for researchers, and to inspect fire extinguishers and first aid kits in the various buildings and vehicles. The Pilot House is still boarded up from hurricane season and the Whooping Crane technicians will be going out overnight to monitor cranes on the island. Later in the spring, sea turtle monitors will be staying out there during the turtle breeding season.

Unfortunately, the trip was postponed due to high winds. It is a 45 minute boat ride out to the island and there are small craft advisories today and tomorrow. We were down along the bay later in the day and the whitecaps and chop were pretty fierce. It probably will not happen tomorrow either.

We went with Sarah, the biology intern, over to the Whitmire Unit, an isolated section of the refuge, about a half hour drive from the Visitor Center. It is a managed wetland area that is not open to the public. We went over for two reasons, first to introduce us to the area, as it is a site that Diana, the refuge biologist, is actively managing and is where we will be working part of the time, and second, to survey the birds on Foster Lake.  The birds were all on the far side of the lake and it was blowing so hard that we couldn't keep scopes still enough to home in on them. There were a few White Pelicans, which are big and unmistakeable, and quite a few dark ducks. My guess is Pintail Ducks, but we couldn't be sure.

We then toured the rest of the unit and were introduced to the various wetland areas. There were several Northern Harriers hunting and a Red-tailed Hawk as well. On the way out we spied a pair of Whooping Cranes, not more than 100 yards from the road in a marsh near the entrance. These were the first seen over there this year. It was a great close-up view.

We were back to Speedy by lunch time.

After lunch it was more online training. This time two short courses: hazardous materials management and off-road vehicle operation. Everyone has to do the hazardous materials training because of the various fuels and chemicals used here. Since off-road vehicles are the main way of getting out in the field, we needed to have formal training to use them. There is also a hands-on part we will be doing soon, probably tomorrow.

Just a bit more required training and then we will be useful.

I guess the bird-of-the day has to be, once again, the Whooping Crane. I don't know if we will get another close look, but I hope so.