Today, we walked in Cherokee Marsh, a city park in Madison. At one point, as we walked along the boardwalk...
... we heard a distinctive cry and saw (what I'm pretty sure were) 3 or 4 sandhill cranes fly across the sky over the marsh. Here's one:
September 3, 2009
Down in the marsh.
Today, we walked in Cherokee Marsh, a city park in Madison. At one point, as we walked along the boardwalk...
... we heard a distinctive cry and saw (what I'm pretty sure were) 3 or 4 sandhill cranes fly across the sky over the marsh. Here's one:
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It would appear the sandhill crane is more plentiful than the whooping crane.
How large is the whooping crane population?
The world’s whooping crane population has gradually increased from a low of 22 birds in 1941 to 503 birds in spring 2009. Always rare, the whooping crane population may never have exceeded 10,000.
Hey MacBook users: a cute thing I found en route to looking up something else:
http://www.vimeo.com/77426
I'd call it "Kitten on the keys."
Thank you for that, Professor.
I’m very sure I’ve never witnessed a better melding of image and narration to communicate a sense of place and mood.
Somehow, the passage of time portrayed, and the passage of time experienced, aligned just right and I felt like I was physically there to experience it for myself.
That was pretty neat.
I picked a very nice week to be out of town, judging from your pictures.
Watch for the kid with only one stone ;)
Turkey Vulture yesterday.
I concur - it was a sand hill crane.
All I ever see here are egrets, hawks (harrier and a few red tails), blue herons, and turkey vultures.
(So, where am I?)
In the spring you can get some bonafide trophy catfish (20-30lbs) out of Cherokee and the Yahara. You wouldn't think so by looking at it, but there are some absolute gorillas in Mendota that travel up to Cherokee to spawn.
Minor prediction: Chip will do something with the middle picture.
It would appear the sandhill crane is more plentiful than the whooping crane.
We're lousy with Sandhills.
The Madison Tourism Office should recoqnise you by giving you an award for your Photo Blogging that has singlehandedly done more to publicise tourist attractions in and around Madison, Wisconsin, than everyone else has ever done, and you a Law Professor.That is a true Community Service.
Sandhill cranes are so numerous that they can be hunted. At least that was true some years ago and they have not declined since then. They cannot be hunted where the whooping cranes are, however. I have looked at huge flocks of them picking over the grain fields and wondered how they would taste. The old joke around here is, "how would you get the legs in the oven?"
"Marsh Mellow"
At the moment Wisconsin appears lousy with all sorts of cranes.
Last evening the sandhill contingent held a conference in the hayfield in front of my bedroom window.
Good Lord, but those birds can talk and talk and talk....
And yes, Turkey Vultures. I do SO love the spot of roadkill on the rural highway turning into a OMFG windshield filling wingspan of a flock of carrion birds. Or rather my doctor loves it - "you really need to get your heart rate up from time to time"
The sandhills do have a nice musical sound to them, but the whoopers are a little raucous.
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