Thursday, February 2, 2012

Should I play musical chairs?

After a very dry summer and fall, the five inches of rain in the last week has helped to bring the wet pine savannah back to normal.  On her first outs this morning, Emma and I found the terrain back to what it looked like when we were here last year.  The small cypress swamp bordering the entrance road actually had standing water in it.  I was happy to see that.

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Last week, volunteers Mary and Don completed the construction of a clothesline toward the back of our area.  I can’t remember the last time I hung my wash out to dry.  I use the Splendide inside my rig when I’m here, so the loads are small, but how nice to be able to let them dry in the fresh air.  While I was hanging up the wash, I got to thinking about my location.

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Phyllis and Albert pulled out in the rain yesterday leaving the site I had last year open.  These are some views of the volunteer village.  Top left is our entrance road, and you can see that headquarters and the visitor’s center is a short walk away.  Top right is a view of the sites as you enter the area.  Bottom left shows the locations from the clothesline area, and the bottom right is the view of my site.

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This is the site I had last year which is on the other side of the entrance road from the other sites.  I really liked this site as I had a little view of the bayou, and the birds seemed to bubble through this area.  Do I want to move back there before my friends John and Diana arrive?  That is the question.  I like the site I’m in now as it will have a little more shade as the weather heats up, but I needed help getting into it.  I’m a little nervous about getting out of it, and I know I can get out of the other site by myself when I leave.  It may come down to a coin toss.  I have about a week to think about it.  So, play musical chairs or not…?

This afternoon, I decided to move one of my bird feeders to a slightly different location.  I had hung a feeder from a tree outside my table window, but in order to refill it I have to balance myself on top of a two foot tall log that tends to wiggle when I get up on it.  I could just see myself taking a header one of these days.IMG_5984

What I decided to do instead was to use one of those poles you stick in the ground with two hooks on top.  There was one in between the sites that wasn’t being used by anyone that had an old empty bird feeder hanging from it.

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As I grabbed the old feeder to remove it, these Green Anoles startled me.  There were three or four of them living in the feeder.  What a shock!

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I don’t think they were pleased with their relocation.  I moved the empty feeder to a picnic table, even though this one didn’t appear to approve.  Who me?

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy