Just when I was settling down to accept winter, I received an e-mail that promised that spring was on the way.
The missive was from the International Crane Foundation based in Baraboo, Wisconsin. This organization works to save cranes all over the world. It brought the sandhill crane back from near extinction in Wisconsin and now is working to save the whooping crane as well as cranes in other continents.
The Foundation was sending the results of the Annual Midwest Crane Count held last April 15. Counters in the Midwestern states spend a Friday in the middle of April counting sandhill cranes and if we are lucky, a whooping crane or two. The report said that in 2011 we counted 338 cranes here in Outagamie County. Three of those cranes were on my site on the northern most edge of the county...or rather above it since they came flying over just at the end of my two hour stint.
By 10:00 a.m., we counters all meet at the Mosquito Hill Nature Center to compare notes, drink coffee and eat sweet rolls. We're old friends who come back year after year.
The Crane Foundation announced the date of the next crane count. On April 14, which is likely to be a cold morning, I will be on site, searching the skies and listening for those calls that announce that spring is indeed here.
A week or two later, Gary and I will be guarding sturgeon along the Wolf River and perhaps two weeks after that, we could easily be at our first campground of the summer.
The e-mail was a reminder that in only a few months, there will be a spring morning when I can go back to nature to find my serenity. Could there be a better Christmas card?
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