It’s gobbling time on the refuge

I’ve got a little over two weeks left at Okefenokee, and I’m getting short timer’s attitude.  Some people call it hitch itch, but I have noticed that as the time for me to move on nears, I become less tolerant of minor irritations.  Same thing happened just before I retired almost seven years ago.  The excitement of new horizons builds, and the attitude turns to “What can they do?  Fire me?”  I’ve been at this volunteer assignment longer than any other I’ve had, and I guess I’m ready to move on.  It seems to happen every time as the departure date nears. 

I’ve spent the last two days between roving and working the VC.  This is the busy season here, and work in the VC is non-stop as hundreds of visitors come in.  Roving and observing the wildlife is a welcome break from all the harried activity.

I got a call on the radio this morning that fellow fulltimers and bloggers, Randy and Pam, had arrived at the VC.  I headed in, picked them up, and gave them a tour of the refuge on a couple of the back roads and out to the Chesser Homestead.  Little did I know at that time, that they had already been out there a couple of days ago.    It’s always nice to spend some time with people of similar interests.  The last time I saw them, they visited me at Mississippi Sandhill Crane NWR in Mississippi when I was pretty much under the weather.  This was a much more pleasant experience.

Before heading in to pick them up, I had made a stop at the secret pond.  Love is still in the air, and the tom turkeys were gobbling away and showing their finery.

I had thought that this flock only had two toms, but today I’m thinking there may be four.  At this point, most of the females had headed for the woods, but one was left.  I think all four birds on the right are males.  Two of them just couldn’t help themselves from displaying to the fullest every couple of seconds.  They seem to be helpless to the effects of spring fever! 

It’s always nice to spot one of our endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers along the way.  Notice the two yellow and one blue bands on its left leg?  I believe this bird hatched here on the refuge. 

Nearby was one of the much more numerous red-bellied woodpeckers working the longleaf pine branches for tasty morsels.  I had a minor accomplishment today, as I had decided to not rely on using my cane all day at work.  I felt I needed to push myself a little to get past the recuperation plateau that I seemed to have reached.  Things went well, so I will concentrate on not using the cane.  I think it became too easy to use it.  I want to move on to more normalcy. 

                                                                                THE END!!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy