2009 – Week #10 Mississippi Gulf Coast Blue Bird Trail Update

Welcome back, Blue Bird enthusiasts! It’s Week #10 of the 2009 Mississippi Gulf Coast Blue Bird Trail Survey in Long Beach.

Master Naturalist Buddy John makes a notation at Nesting Box #7 during Week #10 of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Blue Bird Trail Survey.

And the heat and humidity are back on the Gulf Coast! [sweat drips off the author's brow] And, wouldn’t you know, just as the weather here on the Gulf Coast turns hot and humid, my air conditioner quits running! Great!

We are basically at the halfway point of the 2009 Blue Bird mating season here, and activity on the Trail continued in high gear this past week.

A juvenile Blue Bird which flew from Nesting Box #6 stays close to his mother Friday morning, in a tree near the nesting box.

Master Naturalist Buddy John and your author are very enthused with the results of the 2009 Blue Bird mating season thus far.

The First Hatch of the season has officially ended now, with the last remaining Blue Bird baby from Hatch 1, residing in Box #1, flying from the nest during this past week.

They stayed close on the Nesting Box, too.

The Trail totals from the First Hatch of 2009, included: 33 total Blue Bird eggs, 5 of which were sterile, and 28 Blue Bird babies flying from the nests, since the first trail survey of 2009, back on March 4.

In the 21 weeks of the 2008 Season, we had a total of 45 Blue Bird babies fly from the nests.

This juvenile Blue Bird feeds on the ground near the Nesting Box.

This week during the Survey, we found: 1 Blue Bird baby had flown from the nest, 8 new Blue Bird eggs in nests, 5 nests built or under construction, and only 3 empty nesting boxes. A great flurry of activity to move into the Second Hatch.

Here are the results of Friday’s Blue Bird Trail Survey – May 8, 2009:

Nesting Box #1 – 1 Blue Bird baby flew from the nest, 3 sterile Blue Bird eggs confirmed, removed old nest, cleaned box. – Last Week: 1 Blue Bird baby, 3 Blue Bird eggs.

Nesting Box #2 – New Blue Bird nest completed, 3 Blue Bird eggs. – Last Week: A few pieces of new straw in box.

Nesting Box #3 – New Blue Bird nest built. – Last Week: Empty box, no activity.

Nesting Box #4 – New Blue Bird nest built. – Last Week: New Blue Bird nest under construction.

There were 3 new Blue Bird eggs in Nesting Box #4 in Friday morning’s Survey.

Nesting Box #5 – Empty box, no activity. – Last Week: Empty box, no activity.

Nesting Box #6 – Some new straw in box. – Last Week: Empty box, no activity.

Nesting Box #7 – New Blue Bird nest complete, 3 Blue Bird eggs. – Last Week: New nest partially built.

There were 3 new Blue Bird eggs in Nesting Box #7 this morning, too.

Nesting Box #8 – Some new straw in box. – Last Week: Empty box, no activity.

Nesting Box #9 – Empty box, no activity. – Last Week: Empty box, no activity.

Nesting Box #10 – Empty box, no activity. – Last Week: Empty box, no activity.

Nesting Box #11 – New Blue Bird nest built, 1 Blue Bird egg. – Last Week: Empty box, no activity.

Nesting Box #12 – Some new straw in box. – Last Week: 4 Blue Bird babies flew from the nest, no eggs in old nest; removed old nest, cleaned box.

Nesting Box #13 – New Blue Bird nest built, 1 Blue Bird egg. – Last Week: Empty nest, no activity.

These beautiful little yellow wildflowers were in great abundance in the north pasture this week.

Oh yes: only 23 more days remaining until the 2009 Atlantic/Gulf Coast Hurricane Season begins.

Here at the South Mississippi Regional Center this morning, a hurricane evacuation drill was held, complete with our clients being loaded onto buses and vans for a short trip away from the Center, and then back again.

The drill went very smoothly. Hopefully, no evacuations will be necessary during this hurricane season.

Have a good week!

Read Full Post »

HURRICANE SEASON UPDATE: MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST

These past 3-4 days on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, it has been very quiet, mostly sunny, very humid, with folks here going on with their lives, and not saying too much about Hurricane GUSTAV anymore, except to say that the coast here was fortunate, this time.

There continues to be heard a number of expressions of relief here that the Mississippi coast is still pretty much intact, unlike the first days after Katrina three years ago. Sadly, the same cannot be said for our neighbors to the west, in coastal Louisiana. We wish them Godspeed, and send them our thoughts and prayers.

In the back of most everyone’s mind, though, is a bit of interest about the storms churning around out in the Atlantic, coming off the coast of Africa, more specifically, Hurricane IKE.

As is normal at this stage, though, so much of IKE’s near future is unknown, because of all the variables that can and will interact with it during the next five days of its journey in the Atlantic.

That interest was heightened some late this afternoon when the National Hurricane Center released its latest models of IKE and its potential tracks, several of which have IKE passing between the southern tip of Florida and Cuba, entering the Gulf by next Wednesday.

Eeeee-yeah! That sort of got a lot of people’s attention here abouts, especially the blue and red models, which rather project a possible landfall on the Mississippi coast.

Again, it is way too early in the tracking process to begin to worry about a landfall here, but it is lurking out there, as a possibility.

And, I, for one, having just experienced my first hurricane, up front and close, am paying attention.

On the campus of the Center, we continue to pick up debris after GUSTAV, and wind down from many of the preparation and implementation procedures that took place before, during and after the hurricane, to protect our clients and the campus.

The clients are all back in their cottages again, with the final buses arriving from our sister institutions to the north who hosted them, bringing them home on Wednesday afternoon.

While working in some of the cottages yesterday and today, I had the opportunity to ask several of the clients if they were glad to be back home. The almost unanimous responses were: “Oh, yes, I’m glad,” or some variation of that. Some enjoyed their bus trips, and some didn’t, it turns out.

Members of our direct care, dietary, professional and education staff, nursing and supervisors, who accompanied and cared for the clients while they were away, also returned home after spending several very long days and nights with the clients at the several locations of safe harbor.

Once the clients were all safely squared away in their cottages with rested staff to care for them, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, the first order of business for most of the evacuation staff was sleep! Which most of them did not get much of during their evacuation experiences. I can vouch for that feeling, not getting much sleep over the weekend myself. Just a little too much anxiety, I guess, from a hurricane first-timer.

Needless-to-say, plans are on the table and ready to activate for the next client evacuation, if that need comes to be, either in a week, or at some other time in this hurricane season, which is now in its most active phase.

When Ray and I brought home all the equipment, soiled bedding, floor matts and client duffel bags from the STF last Tuesday and Wednesday, we left the 20 air mattresses there for our staff, just in case they might be needed for another evacuation in the near future. One less truckload of stuff we will need to haul up there. The STF building where our 42 special needs clients were housed last weekend, is all cleaned and ready to go.

Most of our Center staff who evacuated away from the area with their families ahead of GUSTAV, are also now back at work on the campus, too. Our branch office for Early Childhood Intervention (EIP), over in Bay St. Louis, has been closed, and all the staff, equipment, supplies and records have been redeployed to an area in one of the buildings at the Center campus, after the EIP office in the Bay, experienced about 20 inches of murky storm surge water during GUSTAV.

Speaking as a first-hand, first-time observer of the hurricane operations procedures during GUSTAV carried out by Center leaders and staff, I have to give them all high marks for their efficiency, dedication and determination to keep our clients and campus safe during this hurricane exposure. I hope they all gave themselves high marks and a pat on the back, too, for a job well done!

Now, we’ll see what next week may hold for us, as these roller coaster ‘waves’ from the African coast keep chugging and churning our way.

Sincere thanks, again, to all of you out there, for standing with us in spirit, thought and prayer during the stressful Hurricane Gustav experience of this past weekend. It is most appreciated!

Until the next Mississippi Gulf Coast Hurricane Update (if one is needed)…

Take Care!

Read Full Post »

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE BUFFET… OH, MY!

It was about 3 weeks or so ago, that I posted “Dammit! (Not you, Maggie)” about my experience during an evening supper at a Buffet in west Biloxi, when four women sitting at the table next to mine, all ended up talking on their cell phones at the same time.

After finishing my day job late this afternoon, I was over in south Gulfport this evening, working on a home about two blocks north of the gulf, and after finishing up there, decided that as long as I was that far east, and it being the end of my birthday week, I would drive a little more east and treat myself to supper out at the Chinese Buffet I was at three weeks ago.

When I walked inside the restaurant, I was seated in the same general area where I sat last time, and after a quick glance around, I noted with relief that the same four women were not in attendance this evening.

Shortly after I arrived and started eating my food selections, a young family with three children, probably ranging in ages from 5 to 10, were seated at a table next to mine.

As they approached their table, I ventured a quick glance in their direction and noted that the mom was a stunning, young woman, about 5’9″ tall, buxom, slender, long, black, shoulder-length hair, with a low-cut, black blouse on top of a pair of snug, designer jeans. Dad was in a white t-shirt and jeans, also.

What was particularly noticeable about the woman though, in another glance their way a few moments later, was the design of her loose-fitting black blouse.

How can I accurately describe it and due it justice?

Well, it was constructed so that the black fabric stretching from the left shoulder crossed the center of her chest and went over the other expanse of fabric coming from her right shoulder and attaching at her left side. The most notable thing about the blouse, though, is that it was cut very low and very open! In fact, the opening in front was so large as to just about expose most of her breasts.

The next time I glanced over at their table as I was taking a drink of Diet Coke (and yes, I continued to eat my supper; I didn’t freeze and just stare open-mouthed), I almost spit the Coke all over the table, when I saw that her left breast had escaped from her blouse and was right there in the open like a grapefruit sitting there waiting to be picked!

About the same time, her husband, who was sitting across from her, noticed the gate was open, and said quietly to her, “Honey, your breast is out of your top.” She looked down at it, made a quick comment: “Oops!” and deftly tucked it sort of back inside the blouse.

No on else was sitting close enough or at the right angle to have noticed the ‘action’ as myself and her husband had, and as I took another drink of my Diet Coke, I said to myself, “This could be a long meal!”

As it turned out (no pun intended), “IT” happened 3-4 more times during their supper, with the husband noticing and telling her each time, to cover it up.

When the wife/mom went back over to the buffet lines a few minutes later to refill her plate, a younger man from the other dining room came out to refill his plate also, and ended up being near her as she made her way along each line to check out the foods.

It was interesting that when she walked from her table over to the buffet, the husband stopped in mid-bite, kind of like he froze in place, watching every move she made, as well as how close the guy from the back dining room was to her during her selection process. When ‘they’ would become partially hidden by a post or other patron, the husband would half stand and stretched right or left to try to see his wife and what she was doing.

I couldn’t help suppressing a chuckle watching his movements as he watched her so closely, wondering just how much he really trusted her. When she was just about back to their table, the hubby ‘un-froze’ and started eating again, watching her as she sat down. He then said something very quietly to her, so softly that I didn’t catch what was said, but she just kind of made a face and shock her head a little and went back to eating, pretty much ignoring him as she did. A short time later, they finished their meal and left.

I sat there for a few more minutes at my table, slightly shaking my head and chuckling to myself, thinking that one never knows what human drama will play out near him as the minutes and hours of his life pass.

I finished up, paid the bill and then stopped by the Sears store in the Crossroads Mall for a few minutes to purchase a new screwdriver, to replace one I had lost a couple of days ago.

I then headed back west towards Gulfport and Long beach, driving on Hwy 90 along the gulf shore, enjoying the beautiful sunset to the west.

It was an interesting day, and an even more interesting night, down on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Earlier this afternoon, just before punching out from my day job, I spent about 20 minutes sitting on the sidewalk beside one of my favorite clients at the Center, Gary, who is wheelchair-bound, repairing his super squirt gun, which had sprung a pretty good leak.

During each afternoon I am at the center, when I see Gary in his mobile chair near his cottage, I usually stop, go over and see if he has his squirt gun with him, and if so, I’ll go inside the cottage and fill it with water, so he can squirt everyone who comes along. Gary gets a great kick out of it, no one else seems to mind, and he ends up fulfilling one of the staff goals for him to flex and exercise his fingers on the one hand he does have the use of.

When ever I see Gary tooling around campus in his motorized chair, we always stop and exercise a crisp, military salute to each other, each one a reminder of our friendship with each other. When I catch him when I am out of my work truck, and am fairly close to him, we also do an ‘Incredible Hulk’ upper body flex action at each other, and then knuckle bump before parting company for that time.

When I finish my two-year hurricane relief personal mission down here around the end of this year, and head back up to Wisconsin, I am going to miss terribly seeing and interacting with client friends like Gary. It will be very hard to leave them.

Tomorrow, I will be working on another home just north of Pass Christian. Hope it isn’t too hot and humid.

But it probably will be.

After all, it is mid June in south Mississippi…

Read Full Post »