On Trail With Nibi Mocs

Sioux Falls April 16, 2005

Nikon D70, 6MP Digital SLR
Nikkor 18-70mm zoom with polarizer.

On Monday, November 10, Gordon and I drove up for the annual lighting of Split Rock Lighthouse to commemorate the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. On the way, we took a side trip to Crex Meadows, located in NW Wisconsin, mostly to see the Sandhill Cranes. Thousands of them congregate each fall in preparation for the migration to their winter homes. We arrived around dawn, early enough to catch them leaving their roosting areas, ready to head out to the fields for their morning feed.

There were plenty still in the roosting areas, looking like they’re waiting in line for clearance to take off.

Some flew close enough for individual shots.

This was my sharpest, in-flight shot.

While driving around the refuge, we spotted this hawk in a tree. Gordon identified it as a rough-legged hawk.

After we left the refuge, we came across a lot of the cranes feeding in the surrounding cornfields.

I’ll post details later but the important thing is that we found him… cold, wet, quite a bit lighter, hungry and scared … but alive!

The abcess did not shrink … Pat is being scheduled for surgery sometime tomorrow to have it drained. She may or may not have to go back in a few months for a bowel resection. She’ll be in the hospital for about another week or so.

My server was offline for the last couple of days. The data center, located in Chicago, had a major outage. I’m assuming it was due to all the rain and the remnants of Ike.