This has been a rather interesting week. Monday was a holiday, Tuesday I was back to painting posts, and Wednesday I ran errands and visited Mr. Smith. Then yesterday I was expecting some visitors. A fellow Fish and Wildlife volunteer, and blogger, that I worked with a couple of years ago at Anahuac NWR, was making her way from the National Bison Range NWR to the Boundary Waters of NE Minnesota. I had great plans for a wonderful tour of the refuge as she and a friend stopped by.
However, Marilyn and her friend, Bob, didn’t arrive until late in the afternoon, and they had very limited time to spend on their way to the Twin Cities.
So, I took them to see all of the trumpeter swans on Flat Lake, and then we made our way to the Ice Cracking Lodge where they treated me to dinner. 
Thanks, Bob!
Today I thought I’d do some mowing around headquarters and the RV pads, but with the high temps and no rain that we’ve had for the last five weeks, there wasn’t anything to mow. The grassy areas are still a burnt out brown, and are likely to stay that way until we get a nice amount of rain.
So instead I decided to prepare for the bird tour I’m leading tomorrow. I needed to scout around the refuge for where I might take anyone that shows up to see some birds.
Despite there having been no strong cold fronts from the north, most of the little birds have left the refuge and headed south. When a cold front approaches, the strong winds out of the north help the birds on their way. The winds have been light or nonexistent at night, so the birds have left anyway as their internal clocks require them to do.
That makes a bird tour at this time of the year quite a challenge. With the temps in the 80’s and 90’s, the waterfowl birds haven’t been in the mood to build up their fat supplies and begin their journeys south yet. This refuge is a big stop over place for waterfowl from the north during migration, but none have arrived yet.
I did find a lone cedar waxwing this morning, but that doesn’t bode well for tomorrow morning. Oh well, we’ll find some birds to look at. I can always take folks to see the swans, and as a last resort I’ll bring them to my Hard Rock Bird Café to see a few hummingbirds, chickadees, and nuthatches. I suppose it’s a good thing I can talk a lot about birds whether they’re around or not. 
Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later, Judy
