Expert says crane hunt inevitable

By David Horst sandhill7@gmail.com

The offer was more than I could refuse. Sit on the bank of the Wisconsin River on pioneering environmentalist Aldo Leopold’s former farmstead, watching thousands of sandhill cranes with an international expert on the big birds.

The evening, and the conversation, didn’t go as expected.

Stan Temple         Aldo Leopold Foundation photo

The program was offered by the Aldo Leopold Foundation, located between Portage and Baraboo. The expert is Stan Temple, a retired University of Wisconsin professor of wildlife ecology. He has helped in the recovery of many bird species, including the sandhill, peregrine falcon and California condor.

It was a great opportunity to talk with a man who held the same seat the great Leopold had 80 years earlier. I asked him how cool that was. Temple said it was so intimidating that he didn’t mention it much when he had the job. Now that he has retired, he uses it for instant woods-cred.

He also rubbed elbows with “Silent Spring” author Rachel Carson as a boy working at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He remembered being thrilled by getting a set of birding binoculars that were the same model Carson used.

Unfortunately, there was little to interrupt the conversation, especially cranes. It was Sandy’s fault. Winds from the hurricane made the bend in the river where the observation blind is located inhospitable for cranes. Complicating things further, an imposing adult bald eagle was perched above the cranes’ usual evening hangout. First time I ever regretted seeing an eagle.

Paddle locks up season three

By David Horst  sandhill7@gmail.com

See photos on Flickr

Check on plans for Fox-WIsconsin Heritage Paddle 2013 at www.wisconsinpaddlers.org

Season three of the Fox-Wisconsin Heritage Paddle ended last Saturday (Sept. 29) on about the most perfect day you could order up.

With the temperature in the low 70s and the wind just a whisper, kayak and canoe paddlers launched from Lutz Park, passed through all four Appleton locks and landed 6.5 miles later at Kimberly's Sunset Point Park.

I was the member of the Heritage Paddle organizing committee who questioned whether the locks paddle had run its course. People may be thinking, been there, done that. Cars with boats strapped to their roofs started arriving early, and kept coming. In the end, 147 boats took to the Fox River. So much for me having my finger on the pulse of the paddling community.

The perfect weather had drawn them all out. The woman with the pristine wooden boat. The two boys with matching recreational boats. The guy paddling his young daughter and her two stuffed dogs. They all paddled with a smile.

De Pere trip leaves paddlers winded

By David Horst  sandhill7@gmail.com

The 78 boats easily fit in the De Pere Lock.

GREEN BAY -- The scouting report was not good. Two-foot waves rolling off Green Bay driven by a forecasted 20 mph headwind out of the north.

Our plan was to launch the 78 kayaks and canoes that had arrived at De Pere’s Bomier Park and travel eight miles down the Fox River to the Green Bay Metro boat landing, paddling into the wind and waves with paddlers having varying levels of experience ... in the dark.

This was the Moonlight Paddle of the Fox-Wisconsin Heritage Paddle series on Aug. 10, and the plan had to change.

Before launch, we made the decision to cut off the final three miles, where we would be paddling into the worst of the wind. Only the most experienced kayakers bristled at the compromise.

We would take out instead at Zeller’s Ski and Sports, a paddle shop about five miles down river where several of us had purchased our boats. The owners welcomed us. The parking was sufficient. All that remained was to reschedule the shuttle bus from the Green Bay landing to Zeller’s.

That recalled to mind the one item on my to-do list left unchecked: “Get contact info for shuttle.”

The arrangements had been made by Jeff Mazanec, whose brainchild this whole paddle series had been. He was driving back from a business trip. I punched his number on the cell phone and asked him if he had the number for the bus company in his phone. He wasn’t sure, and there was a traffic situation up ahead so he’d have to call me back.

He was laughing when the return call came in. Out of the traffic jam outside of Kenosha, a bus changed lanes ahead of him. Painted on the rear of the bus was, “Go Lamers,” with the 800 number. The Green Bay-based bus company was providing our shuttle. A call to the dispatcher solved our problem.

But the bigger problem was yet to come.

Injured eagle lifted by helping hands

By David Horst   sandhill7@gmail.com

WEYAUWEGA – Healing hands loosen their grip and, with a few quick beats of powerful wings, a bald eagle lifts into an endless blue sky, back to where he belongs.

That he can fly at all is testament to the power of luck – and people who care.

A month earlier, the eagle was diving in to feed on a muskrat carcass. It’s the nature of a scavenger, and the reason Ben Franklin thought he was unfit to be the national symbol.

Unfortunately, the muskrat had met its end on a 65 mph segment of State 10 near Fremont. The eagle swooped into the path of a moving pickup truck.

“He sees this flash of brown and, before he knows it, it was in his grille,” Department of Natural Resources warden Ted Dremel said of the driver.

It was about 6:30 a.m. Brian Baker of Pittsville was on his way to work in Appleton.

He saw the eagle fly north over the highway, but didn’t expect it to circle back.
The force of the collision smashed the grille and left the eagle embedded in the front of the truck – his head, wings and one leg snagged by the broken plastic.

“It’s not something you’re expecting,” Baker said.

The first act of caring was Baker stopping and calling the Waupaca County Sheriff’s Department for help. They, in turn, called out Dremel.