Wisconsin: Cranes, Vultures and Glacial Lakes

It's time for our fall vacation, and my wonderful travel agent/husband booked us into a time share unit in Wisconsin. He kept telling me there were six water parks, and I thought he meant down the street. Nooo, this complex is HUGE, and has six waterparks on the grounds! It is right between Baraboo and Wisconsin Dells, an area that seems to be Branson du Nord, perfect for families with children and grandchildren. We will still spend most of our time in the out of doors, of course.

The International Crane Foundation is right down the road, so that was our first attraction. ICF is famous in this country for their program to save the Whooping Cranes. They breed them on the grounds, and use an ultralight plane to escort the young on their first migration to a site in Florida. They also have pairs of all 15 Cranes in the world, including the Wattled Crane here, and work with foreign governments to save all of them as well. Read the history of the Foundation on their website. It leaves out the part that the founders were only 22 and 23 years old when they began their mission of saving Cranes in 1973. How many young men end up in "feathered diplomacy" as their life's work?

I took this great movie of the Whooping Cranes in their enclosure, and was just about ready to give up on ever getting uploaded to the Blogger server. It's great when you can get any animal in motion, especially one so rare as the Whooping Crane.

Today we traveled to Devil's Lake State Park near Baraboo. The lake was formed when the last glaciers plugged both ends of an ancient river valley. The glaciers are gone, of course, but the lake remains. Great mounds of talus lie at the lake's edge, cracked off the bluffs by heating and cooling over thousands of years. The Quartzite rock itself is a rainbow of colors, from pink, to maroon, purple and almost black, metamorphosed from ancient sandstone. From a distance the rocks look gray, but that's only because they are absolutely covered with gray-green lichens. Some of the huge boulders still show the wave marks on the ancient seabed from which the sandstone was created. Really cool stuff!

A population of Turkey Vultures sit on the boulders at the west side of the valley, waiting for the morning sun to warm the rocks and themselves. When we walked along the trail, they decided they were warm enough and took to the air. Among the large birds, we saw another with lots of white on it's body, and I later determined that it was a Rough-legged Hawk, although we got no pictures of it.

On the other side of the lake are trails that lead to named rocks, like Balancing Rock and Devil's Doorway, so we decided to try one. It was listed as a .4 mile trail, so that's not too long, I thought. I should have guessed that these rocks would be up the steep cliffs, and the trails to reach them would not be easy. In fact, some conservation corps had taken the smaller boulders and made steps up the talus and cliff face. Steps with a rise of about 24 inches, and NO RAILS AT ALL.

I swallowed my acrophobia for a while, but when we lost the trail a time or two, I realized this was not a place I should be. How in the world will I get down these steep steps??? Ackkk! Dick was very understanding when I chickened out about halfway up the trail. I waited for his return, and he held my hand going back down so I wouldn't fall. At the bottom we walked through some nice flat woods and saw this cute little red squirrel. See, it's OK to stay at the bottom, especially if you are not a squirrel!

International Vulture Awareness Day

At the Falls of the Ohio State Park, in Clarksville, IN/Louisville, KY,  the vultures are full time residents, putting on a show for anyone who arrives between 9:30 and 10:00 on a sunny morning.  As the sun shines on the fossil beds, the warm air currents invite the vultures roosting in a nearby tree or electric tower to rise up into the air for the day's hunting. 

When the fish are spawning, however, the vultures may choose to ignore that invitation, and just eat the fish that couldn't get around the dam.  Silver carp 4 feet long are just too yummy to pass up, and the vultures feast till they are stuffed.

We have both Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures on the fossil beds.  The Black Vultures will chase away a Turkey Vulture to get a tasty morsel of fish.  Sometimes the Black Vultures look like a convention of funeral directors to me.

Those early morning visitors get a real treat when the vultures fly at our eye level along the deck of the Interpretive Center.  It's a challenge to get a clear picture when they fly so close and so fast.  This is a wonderful opportunity to teach youngsters the value of vultures.  They are amazed when they realize that a Turkey Vulture's wings may be longer than their father is tall.

The vultures all appreciate the importance of cleanliness, and will perch on the railroad trestle to sunbake any remaining bacteria.  The railroad bridge was built in 1870, so many generations of vultures have posed like this in between the train crossings.

Black Vultures are particularly intelligent, I think.  One morning, a red ball floated downstream, and landed on our beach at the Falls.  A group of curious Black Vultures decided to check it out.  One crept up on the ball and pecked it.  As the ball moved, they all jumped back.  Then another Vulture snuck up on the ball from the other side and pecked it again.  And once again they all moved when the ball did.  The birds looked like soccer player in their black uniforms, and since the World Cup was going on, we called this the Vulture World Cup.  All we needed was one bird with white stripes to act as the referee!

I also volunteer at the Raptor Rehabilitation Center of Kentucky, Inc. , and was delighted to see the Black Vulture chicks in the pen.  What cuties they are in their fuzzy brown feathers!  The chicks squabble over a piece of rat, reaching under each other's wings to steal it away, or tugging it back and forth.  A few weeks later, the fuzzy feathers are gone, and we have to move the adult Turkey Vultures into a different cage.  The young Black Vultures, which aren't even fledged yet, are eating the food intended for the Turkey Vultures. 

These wonderful birds helped me become a Certified Interpretive Guide as the theme for my official presentation.  During lunch break at Bernheim, I couldn't resist going out to the prairie to take some bird photos, and I especially like pictures of the soaring Turkey Vulture.  Only when I got home, did I realize the Vulture shared the sky with a silver jet.  I ask you, which ones enjoyed themselves more - the vulture or the people in the plane?

Many of my blogger buddies will be posting articles on the vultures they know and love, since this is  International Vulture Awareness day.  Just click http://www.ivad09.org/wp/ to see the list.  Have fun!

High Flier Certification

"Vultures aren't YUCKY, they are the
high-flying cleanup crews of the environment."

We have all attended programs at a park in which the ranger or volunteer absolutely blows us away with knowledge, humor, or emotions about their topic.  How can they tug so at our heart strings?  On the other hand, we have also been bored to pieces by a different presentation, on a topic that should have grabbed our interest.  Why is one so great and the other so terrible?  It's a matter of INTERPRETATION.

I spent four days last weekend learning about interpreting nature and how to make it real to the visitors who come where I volunteer.  According to The The National Association for Interpretation :

Interpretation is a mission-based communication process that forges emotional and intellectual connections between the interests of the audience and the meanings inherent in the resource.

There are as many as 15 principles of good interpretation.  Our class at Bernheim Forest, led by our friend, Wren Smith, was a real challenge, with 32 classroom hours, a written exam based on six different text books, and a 10 minute graded presentation.  Of the nine students, some were experienced speakers, while others were shaking in their shoes at giving a talk, especially when it was limited to only 10 minutes.  It's easy to just chat about things you love in nature, but we learned the ways that people learn, and how to make a presentation relevant to them.  We learned to create a theme and outline for our presentations to keep them on track, and the difficulty of remembering all of it in the right order.  We evaluated each other, and learned that no two people see your presentation in the same way, let alone in the way you intended them to see it.

The sessions on creativity were the hardest for me.  Wren gave us a basket of flowers, with the instruction to create a muse of inspiration.  Try it sometime!  Pretend to be an object such as a fish or fossil or motor home, for example, being interviewed for a radio show.  One man was a fish with gills and big round eyes, who made a popping noise each time the fish breathed.  We were all rolling on the ground laughing. I never knew you could color with flowers -- just rub the blossom on a piece of paper.  Even saying words like drama, art and creativity make me tense up.

The trick is to take all the academic parts, and make it come across to the listener as natural and effortless.  I guess every good teacher knows all the effort that goes into making something look effortless.  Fortunately, I have lots of enthusiasm, and that makes up for other parts that may be missing.  My fossil station at the Falls of the Ohio does qualify for "roving interpretation" after all.  I always thought you had to be walking around to "rove."  As anyone with a certification will tell you, whether it's teaching, law or medicine, the certification just gives you the basic skills.  You still have to practice, practice, practice to be good at it.

Benches by Renoir

They are just ordinary benches, used by Bernheim visitors who are waiting for their friends and family to finish in the restrooms. People who are tired and hot after a hike in the woods plop down on them with a groan of relief to have a seat in the shade. Grandparents listen and smile while grandchildren shout to hear their echoes in the concrete silos housing the vending machines.

From a distance, the benches look like they are painted a pale green, which has faded and peeled from exposure to the weather. The ecologically minded might guess the benches to be made from recycled milk jugs. It sounds like something Bernheim might do. As you come nearer, however, the green appears to be made of small splotches in at least 50 different shades of green, gray and brown, applied by an Impressionist painter. The lifeless bench has become a living thing now. It's been adopted and absorbed by the many small flat lichens in green and grey.

Although the lichens are worn away by human seats and hands and cares, they don't give up. Lichens quietly fill in the sides of the seat slats where no human can touch them. Eventually, more complex lichens establish a foothold in a secluded spot near the edge of the bench, curling like layers of pale green lace. At times, the lichens sprout what appears to be spiny needles along their edges. What small predator might hunt these lichens causing them to develop such a defense?

Did Renoir imagine such things when he created are in splotches of paint? If the lichens were removed, would the bench still exist? There is a world of life in the slats of a plain bench, beyond what we can imagine. My soul is enriched by knowing of it.

State Fair Memories

Even as newlyweds, some 35 years ago, Dick and I went to the Kentucky State Fair every year. As with most repeated activities, we developed a list of exhibits and shows we liked to visit. We haven't been to the fair for several years now, but yesterday was Dick's birthday and I was scheduled to work the Raptor Rehab booth, so we put on our walking shoes and headed for the fair first thing in the morning. As we searched for a place to park on the grounds, I recalled my father-in-law's determination to find a space close to the building, no matter what the parking attendants said!

Some things never change at the Fair, thank goodness. Freddie Farm Bureau has greeted visitors to the Kentucky State Fair and Exposition center since the Fair moved there in 1956. Small children are mystified when he speaks to them and asks them questions. Of course, we fair-wise parents know there is a man by a window watching and acting as Freddie's voice. Check out the Fair's blog for a day-by-day trip to the Fair!

As we entered Freedom Hall, the sounds of organ music announced the World's Championship Horse Show. My father-in-law had prime seats in the front row, and this was absolute heaven for a horse-crazy kid from Ohio. Green sawdust, organ music playing in time to the gait of the horses, attendees dressed to the teeth and whooping for their favorites, puffs of talcum powder sprayed by trainers to make the horses prick their ears up as the judge walked by... I admit, I got a little choked up seeing the whole thing again. After years of just watching the show, my daughter and I started showing Saddlebreds ourselves, and it was even more fun watching our friends and our favorites horses in the ring. We were never good enough for this quality show, but it was great fun. Plaques in the hallway honored the World Grand Champions over the years. I still get goosebumps remembering the battles between Imperator and Sky Watch in the 5-Gaited Championship!

Behind the show arena, the equine ambulance waited, just in case a horse was injured.

If you have never been to a Saddlebred Horse show, here's your chance. These are 5-Gaited horses doing the rack, a gait that has to be taught, as opposed to the walk, trot and canter, which they do naturally.

The West wing always houses the livestock, but unfortunately, we hit the turnover day. All the milk cows were gone and the stalls were cleaned and empty, waiting for the beef cattle to arrive. Likewise, we missed the chickens, ducks and rabbits, but a few 4-H'ers were preparing their sheep for judging.

Once a sheep has been clipped and bathed for judging, you certainly don't want them rolling around to get dirty again. Here is the latest in fair fashion for your high-class sheep!

Next, we visited the FFA exhibits, followed by fruits and vegetables. One lucky person set a new state fair record for their pumpkin--929.5 pounds. I can't imagine how they got it out of the field, loaded in a truck and safely placed inside the building without cracking it open!

The fairgrounds cover 520 acres, and has 1,200,000 square feet of air conditioned comfort for exhibitors and visitors. Not everything is inside though, such as this new Jump! dog show. Lou Mack finds most of his dogs at animal shelters, and made a great pitch for adopting dogs from shelters. His dogs really love chasing frizbees and leaping over 20 feet into a pool. They were the smart ones since they got to cool of while the rest of us just sweated!

People expect certain competitions at the Fair, such as quilts, cakes, tropical fish and wood crafts. The quilts were all beautiful. If I worked that hard on a quilt, I would be devastated if it didn't win anything at all. We saw many gorgeous works which were just as good as the ribbon winners, in my opinion. The photographs were the same. That's why I don't even consider entering anything at the fair. I do feel sorry for the judges though, having to choose only a few items from all the beautiful entries. The Kentucky State Fair has a competition that is surely unique though... the Ugly Lamp. A local restaurant sponsors this, inspired by their decor of old ugly tables, chairs, and salt shakers, many of which I remember from my own grandmother's house! I guess Ugly as well as Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Cloud Races

We are on a mid-week mini-vacation at Rough River Dam State Park, an easy drive from home. A leisurely afternoon at the pool led me to engage in the sport of cloud racing. This is a dry county, so no, I was not seeing any sort of "pink" elephants, but I found an elephant cloud leading the pre-race parade.

It's hard to tell if clouds are moving, and in which direction. The closer ones seemed to speed by, while the ones farther away stood still. Two light poles at the pool make the start and finish lines on my cloud race track. Granted, this sport will never replace the Kentucky Derby for most racing fans. As you try to watch the racers, they tend to change shapes mid-heat and you are never sure if you are watching the same cloud or not! It's hard to award Wind, Place or Blow to clouds when they don't wear numbers! Finally, these clouds were overshadowed by an incoming weather front, and the race was called on account of rain.

Earlier in the day, we took a pontoon boat ride around the 5,000 acre lake, which twists and turns along the old river course. Cliff Swallows built nests in the cliffs resembling brown jugs. No babies left in mid-August, of course.

It was exciting to see a Bald Eagle on a lake this small. The park staff says there were three pairs this year. Kingfishers and Great Blue Herons joined the resident flock of Canada Geese in our avian escort for the morning.

There is no fishing allowed from the marina itself, of course, so enormous carp swim around hoping for a handout. This turtle would pop his head up for a minute, and when he thought someone was looking, quickly submerged again. When the threatening rain petered out, we went canoeing at sunset and saw a red fox, which was more rare to us than the eagle!

The Kentucky State Fair starts tomorrow, and I'll be there several days assisting at the Raptor Rehabilitation of Kentucky, Inc., booth. I've started volunteering there and I love it so far. Got to handle my first Great Horned Owls for their meds last week. Go for the drumsticks, John said. But when it was time to work with the Screech Owl, I quickly learned that they don't have any drumsticks to grab!

Proud Pseudo-Mama

I feel like a proud Mama, showing off the pictures of the wonderful things her baby does, which no other baby in the world has ever done before. Sorry about being obsessed with the Cooper's Hawk fledglings. At least one of my babies is successfully hunting! At first I wasn't sure if this was an adult or one of the babies. She looks so competent. Just catch the bird and perch in the pine tree for a leisurely lunch. No fuss! The eye color indicates this is one of the fledglings to me. Do the adults lose that red coloring after the breeding season is over? One of the other fledglings landed on a nearby branch, whistling and begging for a handout. This one just ignored the noise, and didn't even try to mantle her catch and protect it from sibling thievery. How's that for confidence!

Juvie Coops

Our juvenile Cooper's Hawks are doing quite well. They fly easily from tree to nearby tree now. This one even perched on our swing for a while, giving me an outstanding photo op! Look at his eye. The mature Cooper's Hawk has a red eye. An immature that is perhaps a year or two old has a yellow eye. And this fledgling has grey eyes.

Their mother taught them that cleanliness is important if you want to fly, so preening is their primary activity when perched in a tree.

Those rotten Blue Jays follow them all day. Even though they don't hunt yet, you always know they are around because of the ruckus the Jays make. Just because Jays have blue feathers, they think they are the Hawk Police!

What are you doing down there?

Does Mom have some lunch ready for us?

1,2,3... Ready or not, here I come!

This time I'm really going to fly off this branch...

Ah, the shade feels wonderful. I need to practice my stalking.