Yankee Southern Transplants in the Upper Midwest: Crane Congregations

I heard about the fall crane congregations program at the Aldo Leopold Foundation (ALF) last year and immediately added "see sandhill cranes congregate by the thousands for migration" to my bucket list, as should be on the bucket list of every wildlife enthusiast. I have appreciated my connection with ALF since participating in the Land Ethic Leader program in 2014, and had hoped to make more trips to the outskirts of Baraboo, WI (only a 2.5 hour drive from Green Bay) to participate in some of the weekend events, so this was a great opportunity for a quick overnight trip. I registered us back in September to participate in the Crane Congregations program for December 2. Even though dates were available in November, we were not free until December, which gave me some heartburn given that sitting outside in a blind in Wisconsin at that time of year may not be the most comfortable activity (lots of people do it though! Ice fishing anyone?). Nonetheless, I decided it was worth it and the cranes would still be there.

December 2nd came around and who would have thought we would have a "heat wave" (upper 40s!) over the weekend. As if I wasn't excited enough already, the weather was absolutely gorgeous AND we were for sure going to see cranes since winter didn't show up too early. We made the drive down to Baraboo and had a quick picnic lunch before arriving at ALF in the early afternoon. A few extra minutes meant we had time to look around the beautiful Leopold Center exhibits before the program began. We had an abbreviated, but engaging guided tour of the Leopold Shack during the off season, which was a great addition to the program. This was my third visit overall and second time inside. The Shack belongs to the family of Aldo Leopold and serves as a meaningful gathering place for conservationists and enthusiasts of Leopold's conservation writings. Scott and I visited for the first time back in 2013 when I was in Wisconsin for The Wildlife Society's annual conference, before we ever would have guessed we would live here. We thought we rolled in to Milwaukee for JUST for a couple of days to eat cheese and drink beer! Thankfully, most WI events involve some form of beer and cheese one way or another (read on...).

Leopold Shack

After the tour, we returned to the Leopold Center for a delicious WINE and cheese reception (with all local products of course) and conversation with the other participants. We sat with a couple from Iowa who came up for the weekend (the guy was a tai chi instructor- cool!). Next was a great presentation by Dr. Stan Temple, ALF Senior Fellow, about the life history of sandhill cranes and migration patterns. We learned that the nearby stretch of the Wisconsin River is an important traditional staging area for the birds that typically stay in small family groups to gather together in safe areas with plenty of food resources before they begin to move south for migration. They really like the sandy islands in the Wisconsin River as overnight roosting locations after feeding in nearby farm fields during the day. Most of the sandhills in Wisconsin travel towards Florida for migration, but often don't have to go that far unless conditions deteriorate at some of their other stopovers (many end up in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee if winter isn't too harsh). For some of my east coast readers who are not familiar with sandhills, they are absolutely huge (4 feet tall!), and evoke a lot of excitement from me even though they are very common here in WI. Earlier this year, two of them were standing in my front yard right in the city (Teddy was going nuts!). They are just so regal, it's hard not to be captivated. In fact, I have always loved that Leopold described them as "the trumpet in the orchestra of evolution," which I think is such an eloquent way to put it.

About 1 hour before sunset, we carpooled down the road to the viewing location and loaded into a tractor-drawn wagon to ride through an oak savannah restoration area (open grassy areas with a few scattered trees) to the blind location. Once we arrived, people spread out between the outdoor and indoor viewing areas to get a good look at all the action. Based on past blind experiences, I was expecting to be sitting still in a cramped area on the ground, but it was so nice to be able to move around to get different vantage points. The sights and sounds of thousands of cranes coming in for the night, not to mention the beautiful sunset, keep everyone busy for awhile. At one point, I was watching all the cranes gathering on the island and happened to see a flash or two of white. White peaked my interest because I knew there was a chance we could see whooping cranes (wild, but captive-reared as part of the reintroduction program). I was right- two whooping cranes were in the mix!! It was really exciting to see an endangered species in the wild in which so much time and effort is invested, even though normally whoopers and sandhills would not congregate together. These whoopers get reintroduced with sandhill families in WI so they learn how to migrate from the sandhills. Pretty cool.

The birds finally settled in for the night and the show was over. We loaded back in to the wagon just as it was getting dark and headed back to our vehicles. After making the return trip into Baraboo for the night, I convinced Scott to go to Driftless Glen Distillery for dinner, which I had noticed last time I was in the area. We enjoyed some delicious house spirits and soup and salad for dinner before retiring back to the hotel for the night.

A very special experience that I hope to relive again sometime! I hope those of you in southern climes enjoy the sandhills for the winter. Looking forward to their return to Green Bay in March!