new press release

Spring is here, and soon millions of migrating birds will be heading to, and through, our fine state.

In just a few short weeks all of Wisconsin, and portions of surrounding states, will be involved with the 38^th Annual Midwest Crane Count in documenting one of the most magnificent birds in North America.

I first became interested as a counter a dozen years ago when a Wisconsin crane hunt was first mentioned. Today the hunt is a lot closer to reality, but I've since discovered other reasons for counting the tallest, and possibly loudest, birds found in the wild.

First, I'm guaranteed at least a couple of peaceful outdoor hours every spring to enjoy a beautiful sunrise over kettles, drumlins and moraines left from the last ice age. Hearing the ancient-sounding crane call takes me back to that long-ago era in Waukesha's history.

Also, documenting the proliferation and movement of the more numerous sandhills helps with establishing the eastern flock of endangered whooping cranes, who share the same habitat.

If you might be interested in joining us for two of the best hours you'll spend this spring, I'm interested in talking with you. Waukesha County has 52 counting sites, with most of them still available. This year's count is April 13^th, a Saturday, between 5:30 and 7:30 a.m. We hope you'll consider joining us.

Check out the A Sandhill Counter Almanac blog: http://midwestcranecount.blogspot.com/

facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WaukeshaCountyCraneCount

or International Crane Foundation's website: http://www.savingcranes.org/ for more information, or contact me: Brien at (262) 549-5241 or email howlinblog@yahoo.com

Thank You!

a ruling on whooping

An interesting article in yesterday's Journal Sentinel pointed out that the death of nearly a tenth of the world's only self-sustaining flock of whooping cranes was preventable.

Ruling on cranes' deaths in Texas has ramifications in Wisconsin

By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel

March 13, 2013

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In a major victory for cranes and other water users on the Texas Gulf Coast, a federal judged has ruled that the state's environmental agency is responsible for the death of 23 whooping cranes during a drought in 2008 and 2009.
The ruling on Monday is being widely studied in Texas but also has ramifications in Wisconsin.
Baraboo-based International Crane Foundation is a member of the Aransas Project, an alliance of groups that sued the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality over the way it doles out water in south Texas to communities and other users.
Federal Judge Janis Graham Jack agreed with claims by Aransas that the Texas commission failed to manage water use on the Guadalupe River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico and serves as a habitat for endangered whooping cranes.
The 23 cranes represented nearly 10% of the whooping crane population in the western United States.
In addition to its participation in the suit, the Crane Foundation has intensified its outreach efforts in Texas over the past two years because a protracted drought in the region has threatened cranes and their habitat. Whooping cranes, the tallest birds in North America, are a federally endangered species.
The foundation has hired a biologist in Texas and is working with landowners to protect crane habitat, foundation officials say. In addition, George Archibald, co-founder of the foundation, testified during the trial about work by private groups and government dating back to the 1960s to bring cranes back from near extinction.
Texas is the wintering grounds for the only self-sustaining flock of migratory whooping cranes in the world. The official population in the west now stands at 254 and has declined in recent years because of drought in south Texas.
A second flock resides in the eastern United States. Much of the population lives in Wisconsin in the spring and summer, and migrates south in the fall. The eastern flock is not self-sustaining. The eastern population is 111 birds, according to the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership.
In Texas, the judge ruled authorities there must come up with a plan that assures that cranes will have adequate supplies of fresh water.
In its lawsuit, Aransas claimed that the Texas authorities were allocating too much of the water in the river to upstream users. That raised salinity levels and forced cranes to move farther inland to forage for secondary food sources and rely less on blue crabs and wolfberry, a vegetative plant and food source.
"We are very excited about this ruling," said Richard Beilfuss, president and chief executive officer of the Crane Foundation. "People have to think about the basin as a whole."
In a statement, the Texas commission said it disagreed with the decision and will fight the judge's order that prohibits it from approving or granting new water rights permits.

everything but the math

In the interest of providing the most information available for the Waukesha Crane Count I'm copying ICF's crane count page to this blog. It's the perfect resource for identifying cranes, which activities to watch for and the record keeping used in the count. My contact information is available under the county coordinators link - scroll to Waukesha County.
thank you

Counter Information

← Annual Midwest Crane Count Thank you for your interest in the Annual Midwest Crane Count! To participate in Crane Count you first need to contact your County Coordinator to be assigned a site and receive additional instructions. Click here to view the listing of County Coordinators.  See "Counter Resources" below to download your data sheet, instructions for entering your data into eBird, and other useful links. If you have further questions, contact the ICF Crane Count Coordinator. Happy Counting!

How many cranes do you see? See our "Counter Resources" for your Crane Count data sheet and instructions for entering your observations into eBird. Photo by Ted Thousand

Counter Resources The documents below are in PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat Reader. Data Sheet Data Entry Instructions: Using eBird Digital Maps: We now have digital maps for each of the counties in Wisconsin. Click here to view and print your county map (8.5 x 11 in). Sandhill Crane Identification and Calls Whooping Crane Identification and Calls Report a Banded Crane

crane dance

Aldo Leopold Day

Stopped by Retzer Nature Center for Aldo Leopold Weekend, the anniversary celebration of Leopold's 3/4/48 writing of the foreword to A Sand County Almanac. I've been thinking more about him since stealing his idea for this blog's title. Bought the book from Retzer's store for a very resonable price. (As a side note, I spent about the same price for McNuggets and fries on the way home. I'm fairly certain I'll get more out of the book... maybe even for a lifetime... than ever I would've got from McD's.)

Larry, the Retzer naturalist, gave me many good suggestions on getting the word out on April's count and even offered to put up a poster in the Nature Center. Making a poster is my next task.

I sent out my first email two days ago to the past counters and have already heard from a few. Now that March, and the beginning of meteorological spring, is here things are moving fast. I'll be composing a flyer to post in nature type stores, contacting schools and scouts and thinking of other ways to get word out.

It's a beautiful sunny Saturday today. Thinking spring.