Crane No. 301 checks in from Florida

By David Horst  sandhill7@gmail.com  

I’ve been thinking a lot about cranes lately.

Crane #301 (at center) in Florida.
Photo courtesy of Harriette Canon

That’s not all that unusual for me, but I have had some triggers that got me going in that direction.

One was the March 3 Fox Valley premiere of “Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time.” The biographical film on my favorite nature writer, done by the Aldo Leopold Foundation, was terrific. And it featured some great scenes of huge flocks of cranes.

Then, on Monday, I was walking across Houdini Plaza in downtown Appleton and heard a bugling call that has been absent too long through this unending winter. A single sandhill crane – my first of the season – was flying high over College Avenue. Tuesday evening I heard a riotous burst of sandhill enthusiasm flying over the sand hill we call home.

But those were all warm-ups to an email I received from Pat Fisher, the New London bird rehabilitator who thinks about cranes way more than I do.

You may recall a column in November about a release of sandhill cranes for which we accompanied Fisher. Yes, the one where I ended up running through a hay field flapping my arms in an attempt to lead the young cranes away from the people and toward a flock of their brethren.

One of those cranes – the one bearing tag No. 301 – has shown up in Florida, Fisher was told. Better yet, a birder down there had sent a photo clearly showing Fisher’s mauve 301 tag.

Fisher was beside herself with joy.

“It’s good to know that rehabbing works,” she said.

No. 301 had come from the Oconomowoc area, where he had been kicked out of the nest, probably by a stronger sibling. Sandhills frequently hatch two chicks, with only one surviving.

Fisher cared for 301, and others, and then released them near Fremont when migration time grew near. Young 301 was not one of those following me in the hay field. Immediately upon being released, he flew off and quickly joined the flock.

“He was very independent. He was top dog,” Fisher recalled.

She last saw him Nov. 21, a few days before the flock he joined headed south.

He is now the guest of Harriette and Allen Cannon of Grandin, Fla. Harriette named him Mr. New London, after finding out about Fisher when she reported the tag number to the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo.

The two women have been trading emails ever since.

“She sends me daily updates,” Fisher said.

Mr. New London has been hanging out with a flock of about 80 sandhills near the Cannons’ home on Boyd Lake. Harriette says it’s “as close to heaven as we can get until God calls us home for sure.”

She and Allen can watch the cranes from their porch. Fisher’s glad they do, so she at least knows where one of her charges is.

“If they hadn’t been banded by the Crane Foundation, I wouldn’t know it,” she said.

Fisher will be on the watch, too, checking to see if No. 301 returns here.

“I don’t think this story’s over yet,” she said.