Now you’d never thought the day would come.  That day when a bunch of cranes are standing right in front of you and you simply put your camera away.  That’s how things began when we were out riding on the 400 trail this weekend.  “Just more cranes”, I said.

As that first pair of cranes flew off and I pondered the fact that I didn’t even feel the urge to take their picture, I saw 4 more far up the trail in the distance.  4 together seemed a bit rare. Maybe they were young.  I wondered, if I could take advantage of that old “chick parent” call I learned back when I worked at the International Crane Foundation here in Baraboo. 

We road up on our bikes as close as I felt comfortable.  The cranes became wary and started to walk off the bike trail.  I put my hands together and did my best “mama crane” blurt… and they stopped.  They looked back, and after a moment, started walking back onto the trail.  I slowly walked closer.  They began to walk away again.  Again, I did my “mama crane”.  They again walked back onto the trail and watched me approach.  We repeated this process until I was closer to these guys than I probably should have been.  Cranes are pretty big up close by the way and more than able to defend themselves if the need arose. You don’t mess with cranes.

I stood my ground for a couple minutes.  The cranes watched me, but were relaxed enough to pick at the ground and occasionally would blurt in my direction.  Finally, it seems they just got board with me and suddenly in full ear-splitting crane volume they all cursed me off at once and rose into the air in a thundering rush of their massive wings. I listened to their calls fade off over a distant hill.  Soon the world became silent once more.  I put my camera away, hopped on my Trek and continued once again down the muddy trail.

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