The International Crane Foundation -- Baraboo, Wisconsin
Of all the things that Aldo Leopold wrote about, I was most interested in his observations about birds. He is possibly most well-known for the things he wrote about Cranes. In my previous article on our visit to the Aldo Leopold Center I quoted Leopold's famous Marshland Elegy about Sandhill Cranes. We saw a few of these amazing birds on our way to the Center that day. But a day later we saw all fifteen Crane species in one place!
It is no coincidence that the International Crane Foundation is located less than seven miles from Aldo Leopold's famous shack. The two founders met at Cornell and one of them grew up birding on Leopold's property. The Foundation breeds cranes in captivity to repopulate the species, especially the whooping crane, which at one point was down to 22 birds in the wild. They also work with Operation Migration to reintroduce migrating flocks to Florida.
Here are some pictures we took when we visited back in September, 2011.
[Photos coming soon!]