Whew..... only 1,850 miles .... but we safely made it to the Camas Nat'l Wildlife Refuge in Hamer, ID on March 31. Set the trailer up, got satellite up n running (for basketball of course), met the 2 paid staff and other volunteer couple who have been here 7 years.... fulltime !!! BV and I celebrated our arrival with pizza and beer, then went with the Refuge Manager on a tour of the 11,000 acre refuge. I don't have computer access yet..... so no pictures... but here's an update:
The big migratory birds are just arriving - geese, tundra and trumpeteer swans and some of the smaller birds. Saw all the birds, a young bull moose, pheasant and porcupines !
They've had some birds die-off due to winter travel stress.... so they shut off all water supply to get waterways & lakes to dry out... and get some of the birds to move on., then check for deceased birds. If they have two clean days..... then water will be turned back on to service all other incoming migrations. The snow melt has not started, so the "crik" isn't running (no rivers here..... they're criks)..... and it's dry. Fire crew will be conducting controlled burns over next few weeks, so today we jumped right in and assisted with fire suppression work around the HQ. Since winter is just ending...... lots of clean-up is needed... BV went with John to clear out old metal from a burn pile, tomorrow (weather permitting) we'll go on the air boat to help at one of the lakes. They have "grouse days" in April and we'll assist with this.....
Most work is done using ATV's so they are sending us to ATV training down in Idaho Falls. What we drove all winter .... we'll now be certified to drive !!!!
PS - Just heard, it's snowing hard enough in town .... the plows are out !!!!!
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