Wild Wednesday

Its getting harder to get up when my alarm clock goes off in the morning. I don't like waking up when its still dark out. I got up early today to give myself time to really wake up but I was still sleepy when I got to work. I got started on paperwork while my co-workers walked the park and opened up the cabin. I also called to check on the status of our Gator which is being repaired. Its going to take more time. That wasn't the news that I wanted to hear, but that also meant that I didn't have to do all of the driving that I expected to have to do today.
When the paperwork was done, I headed to Adams Tract with our new worker. I gave him a tour of the place while checking garbage cans and sleeping platforms. Everything was in great shape. I dropped off some supplies in the storage building, and set to work fixing the sink while our new worker swept out the other restrooms. For once, a quick plumbing project really was a quick plumbing project. I had the right replacement parts and didn't have to run back to the hardware store for this or that. It went together easily and didn't leak when I was done!

The last visitor to the river camp left the porch light to the restrooms on. Several different moths had been drawn to the building because of that. There were so many neat ones, but here are my top two favorite. I wished that I had the time to photograph all of them.


When we got back to the park, it was time for lunch and to move on to the next projects. My co-workers were going to work on mowing and weed eating and I was going to work on making photo points around the spring. These photo points will remain the same throughout the years so that we will have a good record of changes and erosion and such. While I was looking over some information, my co-worker came into the office to tell me that he had seen a baby deer. We looked out the window and saw that it was still near by. I slowly and quietly opened the back door of the building and had my camera ready. The sweet little spotted baby just kept coming closer to us. We were talking softly about it because we were so amazed that it kept coming towards us. It seemed to be drawn to our voices. It was so interested in us. I was torn because I thought it was an awesome experience, but I didn't want the deer to be too comfortable around people. That may get it into trouble if it leaves the park. I got some great photos while the deer was happily munching on mushrooms in the grass. Fortunately, the air conditioner solved my moral dilemma. It kicked on and the noise scared the deer into the woods. We never saw its mother. We are guessing that she jumped the park fence to feed somewhere else and she would come back to her baby later. We are all going to watch for them both so that we know that the little one is safe.


When I got to work on the photo points, I headed to one side of the spring to start taking photos of the other side of the spring. As I walked down the walkway, the butterflies were as busy as ever. I saw so many of them, but I had work to do so I didn't take the time to chase after each kind. I did catch this one silhouette of a Long-tailed Skipper. I liked the image with the beautiful blue sky behind it.

My process with the photo points was to find places where I could get a good view of the opposite side of the spring. I took several photos along each bank. At each point, I recorded GPS coordinates, wrote a description of where I was and what was included in the photo. I also took a photo of where I was standing to take the photo so that I can be sure to get the same spots when I do this again in the future or when another ranger does this someday. This next photo is just a photo of where I was standing, but I liked the way it turned out.

I walked past this little flower and took such a quick photo that I didn't think it would turn out. I was pleasantly surprised.

On the way back up the walkway to head to the other side of the spring, I saw this little Skink. It ran away from me a little, but it had a nice meal of Cricket in its mouth that it didn't want to loose. It decided that I was not enough of a threat to drop its meal so it went back to munching while I took a few more photos.

After the photo points were done, I talked to my co-workers and chatted with the few visitors that filtered through before I made one last check of e-mail and phone messages and headed home. I am looking forward to my weekend and riding again on Friday finally!