I woke up in the dark and cold. My phone had no power due to the cold but a little clock I have said 3:55 which I soon realized was only 2:55 as I was back on Central Time. I spent the next two hours trying to get warm and get back to sleep...in vain. I finally drove to the warm bathroom, brushed my teeth and went to Starbucks (thank God they open early) for a couple of hours before going back to Wheeler VC.
The fields adjacent to the refuge had hundreds of feeding Sandhills...but no Whooping Cranes. Swamp Sparrows were moving on the edges of the lightly frozen water along the trail to the observation tower and Carolina Wrens were singing to each other.
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| Swamp Sparrow at Wheeler NWR - AL |
I left the VC area and went to find Dancy Bottom Trail. What I think was the little parking area / trailhead (no signage) was blocked by a red car and a guy with fishing rod who was slowly getting out of the car. The main road here was narrow with no shoulders so I just went on. Later I read on the Wheeler web site that "This is an unimproved trail and is not universally accessible."
The thing is that the last posted Whooping Crane sighting had been in the "river bottoms" and I thought it might be near this trail. WhateVer.....
On to the next adventure which was the Watercress Darter NWR in Bessemer, southwest of Birmingham. I followed the directions and got nowhere. I found some different directions online which ended near a pond in an area of exclusive old homes perched on a steep hill overlooking the pond. Maybe this was the pond where the endangered Watercress Darter (fish) lives, but I didn't think so. I pulled over, mindful of a police car parked up the hill, and called the number listed for the refuge. The woman who answered was at a loss to help me and conferred with a"ranger" in the background. She, after several minutes of apologizing, said neither could help me....that the refuge was "remote" and that someone at Mountain Longleaf NWR would be better able to help me and gave me that number which (was I surprised?) was a recording: "We're sorry we are out of the office....."
Watercress Darter is tiny (refuge and fish) at a quarter-acre and 2.5 inches respectively, which was partly why I wanted to see it/them. It's urban, which was another reason. (It is not remote.) According to the directions, it was supposed to be next to the "MacAdory House of the West Jefferson County Historical Society" so I googled all of that and found nothing. Meanwhile I drove around and went into and out of various neighborhoods and one-way streets and dead ends and finally left the little colorful darters in their wee little Thomas Spring pond (which I also googled and got other Thomas references but no Thomas Spring). I did read that there are now apparently five springs where the darters live. I think the directions were off and six miles should have been three miles, so I probably drove right on by.
WhateVer...again.
It was gloriously sunny and warming as I drove to Tuscaloosa. I stayed in a nice Best Western and worked, after eating next door at O'Charley's. The pasta was rich, heavy and highly seasoned but the Tennessee Two-Step was delicious...Jack Daniels, Disaronno, sweet tea and lemonade. I thought of my grandson who likes to sing a song about Jack Daniels. It is such a Southern drink.
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