A Timeless Welcome

Sandhill Cranes of the Black River State Forest                 2 June 2013

Sandhill Crane, Black River State Forest, Wisconsin

Out of place, I have driven in the dark to a giant forest I only know vaguely from wanderings twenty years ago.  The landscape is familiar, but I know nothing of the wild community.   This will be a rich adventure in uncovering the little facts and treasures of its biodiversity.   The first birds I hear are Red Crossbills, amazing for this southerly latitude.  A Blue-headed Vireo slurs a melody and rings out a pleasant, boreal scold reminiscent of a caged canary or some Siberian chickadee.  While I am a bird expert, it is the arrangement of this community that already has me staring blankly with a grin forming.  Where on Earth am I?

Sandhill Cranes, Black River State Forest, Wisconsin

From a map, the Black River State Forest looks fairly small, but moving through its vast landscapes, I learn how truly massive and habitat-rich this place is.  A long finger of white pine, blueberry, and carpets of moss extend down, down, down from the sub-boreal, blending in a spectacular way with sand prairies, bogs and wet meadows.  Ravens yell out, and wolves and fishers spill south into latitudes normally reserved for foxes, deer, corn, and tamed lands softened by histories of calloused hands. 

A welcoming committee has assembled at the edge of a great sedge marsh. Two Sandhill Cranes have taken note of my presence.  They bugle in unison and walk closer, as if curious about what news my arrival brings.  I settle into the landscape, focus my camera, and attempt to absorb the moment.  The cranes are so close that I can hear them breathing as they push the giant sedges aside.  In this proximity, they promise me that my adventures here will be fulfilling and wealthy in meaning.  I take it as a good sign of things to come.  After all, who on Earth gets to hear a crane breathe and the gentle sounds of feathers sliding across last year's sedges. Away from the main roads, this place is big and wild.

Eastern Cottontail Rabbit, Black River State Forest, Wisconsin

All images were made with a Canon 40D and my older Canon 300mm f4L IS. Just months ago, this was my premier camera body, but it is now my bumpy road and dust-country "wolf camera" that accompanies me in the pack and tolerates my rough-and-tumble ways.