Monday, June 23, 2003
Lighthouse Rock Campground, Reedsburg, WI - June 15-July 14
This is our home for a month while we visit friends Fred & Linda Lanoue, who are workamping at nearby Wisc Dells, and volunteer some time at the International Crane Foundation (ICF) in Baraboo. We picked this cg, since it is located about 20 miles from most of the tourist attractions. As a result, it is more peaceful and also a good bit cheaper. It meets our needs well, but I wouldn't recommend it on anyone's "must visit" list.
However we would put the ICF (www.savingcranes.org) on that list. It is a wonderful place, dedicated to the worldwide conservation of cranes and the wetland, grassland and other ecosystems on which they depend. ICF was founded in 1973 and today operates programs in captive breeding, reintroduction, research, habitat protection and public education. Eleven of the world's 15 crane species are threatened with extinction. You can see all 15 species at ICF. Our volunteer work so far has consisted mainly of stuffing envelopes for mailings, some site maintenance (pulling nettles & watering planters) and some feather labeling (feathers found in the cages are saved & labeled to be used as educational props in the future). We will also be doing some data entry of data from the spring crane count and hopefully some substitute Chick Parenting.
The cats are doing well and all but Gracie seem to be happy here. Gracie seems to be going into one of her "down" periods again, where she doesn't eat much and gets sick a lot. She definitely does not like the humidity & heat here!!
A couple of interesting birding notes: we spotted a blue-winged warbler at Parfrey's Glen with Fred & Linda, and we have heard a northern saw-whet owl twice in the night. If we hear it again, we plan to go out and search for it. We're not sure how much success we can hope for, since they are quite small -- about 8 inches high according to our field guide. We haven't heard it since the cg got full of weekend visitors, but we are hoping it will call again when the cg is more quiet.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 8:26 PM 
