All In A Day's Work...

It's kind of quiet here today.  Kirk is on leave for a couple of days and Steve is down at Moosehorn NWR...  


So it's just me and Bill holding down the place...


The Northern Maine County Fair starts today in Presque Isle and Bill loaded up a refuge truck with the Friend's display...  informational board and handouts...  to set up at a booth at the fair. Another couple will be manning that booth each evening, but we'll go back Thursday evening to take the display down and return it to the refuge.


Richard, who is the usual Tuesday volunteer here at the visitor center had another commitment, so I'm manning the VC today.  I've had a few visitors already.


Richard and Christina, the Tuesday and Wednesday volunteers, are here through RSVP...  Retired Seniors Volunteer Program.  That program is out of Caribou (it's a national program but that's the local office) and just recently got a new director.  The woman who places people brought her over today to visit us and see where some of her volunteers spend their time.


So it's been kind of a varied day...  We've had some time between these things to get some odd jobs done.  

The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)  has a weather station located here on the refuge...

The data collected here is transmitted electronically to the national facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Occasionally they need something fixed on the equipment located here...  Last week they e-mailed these diagrams...

Those little white boxes on these 2 sheets explain what needs done to which wires...

I can only say that I'm very glad that I wasn't the one who was elected for this job.

Bill had everything fixed about 5 minutes after we went through the gate.  I'd probably still be standing there looking at that panel of "doo-dads" and "watchmacallits" and saying a prayer that I didn't either electrocute myself or wipe out all the data on the eastern seaboard!

After that was done, we decided to put up a game camera on the new trail...

Can you see it?

It's about waist high up on that center tree....

We know that critters are already using this trail...  

It might be intended as a "human" walking trail, but even the critters like a nice, cleared, even trail through the woods to get where they're going.

A few nights ago we heard some very different sounds.  Took us a while to figure out that we were hearing owls...

UP CLOSE!

In fact, there were 2 roosted on the roof of the building we're parked along side of.

They came 2 different nights, and though they haven't come back, we know that they are Short-eared Owls.

This morning, when I was out for my morning drive, I came across them sitting on top of an old guard shack building.

They flew away and I wasn't able to get a good shot..

But...

They both flew into a spruce just up the road...

Again, not a very good shot, but, along with the distinctive call, I feel we've made the right ID.

I'll keep the VC open until 4pm...  When Bill gets back from Presque Isle I think he's going to move a culvert from the old trailhead to the new place.

As I wrote...

It's all in a day's work...

That's All For Today!