Site 13

Today I finally got around to checking out Site 13, where I'll be counting cranes a week from today.

It's important to check the sites first to get a feeling for the land, but also to be able to find them in the dark, since I have to be there by sunrise.  My old sites were always easy to find, but this time the directions took me from one highway to another highway to another highway to another highway to a lane.  In broad daylight, I found the place after several mistakes.  I will go back sometime next week to get it firm in my head.   In the dark, I won't be able to easily read road signs or the maps in my car, so I better know what I am doing.

I stopped in to chat with a couple of the local residents.  I'll be parked along their country road.  At 5:15 a.m. they would likely wonder what I was doing there.  This site hasn't been counted for some time, so none of them knew about the Midwest Crane Count.

I'll wear orange because next Saturday is the beginning of turkey season. I would prefer not being shot.

From my cursory glances around the site and the neighbors' comments, I doubt that I will see many cranes, but no matter.   An absence of birds is just as illuminating to researchers as dozens.  As for me, it's a rite of spring, this crane count.  And there's the magic of a sunrise over Wisconsin swamps, the sounds of the earth waking up.

Sounds insane to most people.  Maybe it's just me...and a few others.