Even more exploring

We’ve seen Sandhill Cranes before, in several locations in Texas. But we learned there was a highly endangered species of Sandhill Crane near Biloxi living in the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge. Before Europeans arrived, the Mississippi Sandhill Crane, which is a non-migratory species, roamed the Gulf coastal areas of Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. As populations in Texas and Louisiana mushroomed, the Crane’s habitat disappeared and, accordingly, so did the Crane.

Now the US Forest Service says there are only 129 Mississippi Sandhill Cranes living all within the National Wildlife Refuge. We hiked the Fontainebleau unit in hopes of spotting one of these elusive beauties. We walked all 3 miles of the trails in the unit, but we weren’t having any luck. Then, at the last observation deck, I thought I saw some movement way off in the distance. Since we were silly enough to have forgotten our binoculars, I decided to snap a picture of the area where I saw movement. When I zoomed in edit mode, this guy emerged at full magnification – bonus!

Checking the official website on the outside chance that we might find a hidden Frank Lloyd Wright gem, we came up empty here on Gulf Coast. However, we did find the Charnley – Norwood House, a private home that was designed in 1890 by the “Father of the Skyscraper” Louis Sullivan. It turns out that Sullivan was Frank Lloyd Wright’s first boss. One of his first jobs as a young draftsman was to work with Sullivan on the design of this home in Ocean Springs Mississippi. 

While we had been in the general area before, we never made it to the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Managed by the National Park Service, we headed there with the pooch to hike some trails and do a picnic lunch – we used to do a lot of picnic lunches, but we hadn’t done one on this outing – actually, hadn’t done one in 2020 at all. The trails were nice, and especially appreciated by Kona – many trails in units managed by the National Park Service do not allow dogs.

We didn’t spot a lot of wildlife, although we did enjoy the hikes. We had hoped to see a Rec Breasted Merganser which are supposed to be resident here, but no such luck yet. We did however see one guy that we had expected to see in Florida, but never did. We had to go to Mississippi to actually see a gator up close.

Covid 19 update – we are starting to bump into families in our RV Park, more than we had seen all winter. We learned that many are from Louisiana where schools are closed, so they packed up their kids and escaped their total confinement. When we arrived in Biloxi, we learned that KISS was in the midst of their End of the Road Tour, and would be playing yesterday at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum, which is walking distance from Colectiva II. Of course, we bought tickets and of course they cancelled. At the age of 70, I was looking forward to seeing Gene Simmons and the gang. No luck yet in getting our money back!

Talk to you soon.