2/22/08

Friday, 9:00 AM. 6 degrees, barometer predicts snow. Wind calm. Skies clear, a gorgeous day! Got back from Texas late yesterday afternoon, found all in good order. Neighbor Gordy watched the heat in the house, and neighbor Wayne blew snow off the driveway a couple of times so it was only minor work clearing the driveway.
Roads down and back were bad in many places, and it was a white knuckle trip at times, but Lucky didn’t seem to mind. The new grandbaby is beautiful, of course. We saw cranes migrating in Arkansas both going and coming They are moving to the stopover on the Platte River near Grand Island, Nebraska. They will stay there a month or more, feeding on waste corn and over-nighting standing in the shallow river, safe from predators. There will be hundreds of thousands of them, 80 percent of the 650,000 sand hill cranes in existence. They are very wary birds and it is hard to approach them but they can be viewed easily from the car window, with or without binoculars. They dance and call continuously and it is worth a trip at some time just to see this wildlife spectacular. The birds at Grand Island are a slightly smaller version of the sand hill cranes which nest in Wisconsin. They will continue on to nest in Canada and Alaska, some even to Siberia. They over winter in Texas and Louisiana, whereas the Wisconsin birds over winter along the gulf coast. When we lived in Nebraska it was an annual ritual for us to go to Grand Island to see the cranes. They arrive usually all at once, in enormous flocks, like leaves falling from the sky. Visit the International Crane Foundation web site for more information.
Have to water plants and get the bird feeders filled.