Freezing temperatures again tonight and there's yet another blizzard on its way, according to the forecasts, but a sandhill crane has been spotted at the south end of High Cliff State Park on the edge of Lake Winnebago. Spring is on the way.
We never saw cranes when I was a kid. Neither did we see bald eagles or wild turkeys. Now they are all over the place thanks to the work of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources allied with federal programs and the work of the International Crane Foundation center at Baraboo, Wisconsin.
I'm help by volunteering for the annual Midwest Crane Count., I missed two years ago because of eye problems and last year when my knee went out. Before that I participated for almost two decades.
This year I am in good health so signed up. On April 16th, I will get up at 4:00 am and be sitting in the middle of a swamp as the sunrise, listening for the cranes' guard calls and the entwining calls that tell us counters that there's been a pairing. When I first volunteered, those calls were rare, but these days the cranes are everywhere. They are back big time.
Now we hope for a new call, the "whoop" of the whooping crane. Maybe some day they will be everywhere as well, provided our elected officials behave themselves and don't sell off habitat. I worry about that..
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