Wildlife and Radio - Parks on the Air Activation at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge

This afternoon, I combined my love of nature, wildlife, and radio with a visit to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge's Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive just across the Savannah River in South Carolina. It was a beautiful day for a visit, it got up into the mid-50s instead of the 30s that we had yesterday and it wasn't nearly as windy as it was yesterday, so it was a terrific day for watching birds. I saw a lot of Teal and Northern Shovelers, but unfortunately none were close enough to get photos of. I got some photos of American Coots and Common Grebes along with year-around residents Anhingas, Great Blue Herons, and White Ibis. I also saw what I think was an immature Cooper's Hawk. The cold snap wasn't so good for watching alligators and turtles, I only saw one alligator during the visit and it wasn't where I could get a good photo. 

I set up my portable HF station out of the back of my car at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge's Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive for a Parks on the Air activation

Great Blue Heron

Immature Cooper's Hawk?

American Coots

White Ibis

Turkey Vulture

Anhinga

Common Grebe

About half-way through the wildlife drive, I pulled off into a good spot out of the way and set up my portable HF station out of the back of KF4LMT Mobile. I operated for about an hour and put 38 stations in the log; from the US, I worked stations in California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming. I also worked a couple of stations from Ontario, Canada and one from Spain. I was very pleased with the performance of the Yaesu FT-891 and Chelegance MC-750. 

Unfortunately, I messed things up for part of the time... I misread the POTA app before I started operating and identified the Savannah NWR in error as US-0552 instead of US-0522 for about 2/3 of the activation. Many thanks to the Op that caught my error and looked up the right park number for me!

The Chelegance MC-750 portable HF antenna set up behind KF4LMT Mobile

Yaesu FT-891 set up in the back hatch of KF4LMT Mobile; no computer logging, just a note pad and pen

View of the Savannah NWR's diversion canal and the Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive from my the spot I chose to operate from