Wisconsin Wrap-Up

Well, this is embarassing. I've forgotten this thing exists. For those of you waiting for tantalizing details about my life, I must apologize. To be fair, things have been pretty crazy!

For those of you not up to speed (again, my fault), I finished up my internship at ICF in November of 2013. I'll miss not just the cranes, but all the awesome people I met while I was there and the awesome experiences I shared with them. So here goes, covering ground since my last post!!

Summer in full swing on the ICF property

The sun sets on Devil's Lake State Park.

Intern berry-picking outing.

It was a long, hot summer for Baraboo, Wisconsin. Dealing with the summer heat while in costume was no walk in the park. But our hard work paid off as we successfully released 9 whooping crane chicks into Horicon National Wildlife Refuge (2 remain at ICF to help introduce some valuable genes into the captive breeding process) ! This year's naming theme, in honor of ICF's 40-year anniversary, was 70's sitcom characters. M*A*S*H dominated the field, with Radar, Hawkeye, Hunnicut and Klinger; the others were Mork, Squiggy, Maude, Barbarino, Latka, Epstein, and, of course, Fonzi. Unfortunately, not all those released made it to migration, but that's the nature of this sort of work. Still, half the birds we released are out there, alive and well!
A lot of down time was dedicated to taking advantage of the growing season. The intern crew grew everything from fruits and veggies, such as tomatoes, squash, and beets, to herbs, including thyme and LOTS of basil. I was able to crank out a few habanero peppers before things got too cold; this is a pretty big milestone, because it's the first time I've grown anything without it dying or exploding into a parasitic wasp.
There was plenty to gather as well. Those of us who knew how found plenty of edible mushrooms around, including morels, chicken of the woods, and giant puffballs. Otherwise, elderberries, blackberries, and raspberries were plentiful on the ICF grounds, and a nearby berry farm yielded baskets and baskets of strawberries and blueberries.

There was still plenty of work to do, though, before things started to get cold. The Field Ecology Department bands all of the season's Sandhill Crane chicks, and yours truly got in on the action.

Autumn at ICF means three things: dramatic foliage changes, colder weather, and annual physicals. Nothing could have prepared me for handling so many large birds. Most of the trouble came not from weight (the heaviest of cranes don't even come close to 20 lbs), but from how tall and strong they are. Still, the whole shenanigan went off without a single hitch, and every bird came away with a clean bill of health. 

One of my favorite adventures while I was at ICF was a day-long excursion to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. It's always a lot of fun to go to places like this with fellow animal nerds, and especially such an incredible facility! The best part, of course, was that it was almost entirely free! ICF fronted the admission costs, complete with stingray touch and mammal show passes!!

Aldo Leopold's shack!!

Two of my final experiences in Baraboo were a crane roost count at the site of Aldo Leopold's (the author of A Sand County Almanac) shack, and a falconry session with my boss's young Red-Tailed Hawk, Val. It was her first outing with an extra person along, so I felt pretty honored. Though she didn't catch anything, it was cool to see the budding partnership between a seasoned falconer and his new charge as they searched together through the woods for prey. Here she snacks on a reward for doing so well, given at the end of the session.

It's times like these that truly miss ICF, if only for the wide of array of opportunities it's possible to have here, from crane handling and rearing to foraging for food in the wilderness. I was pleasantly surprised by everything Wisconsin has to offer, and I dearly miss my crane and intern family.
That's not the end of my crane adventures, though. Coming up next time, the beginning of my work in New Orleans taking care of endangered Mississippi Sandhill Cranes, Whooping Cranes, and other beasts.

Note: Unfortunately, I can't share pictures of this year's babies on public sites. Drop me a line, though, and we'll see what we can do about that!