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