Along the Wisconsin River

The call of Sandhill Cranes is quite a distinctive sound which I had not heard in many years.  We stayed by the very section of the river near the land that Aldo Leopold loved in "Sand County Almanac".  It is now an abundant area, so we easily watched bald eagles, bluebirds, goldfinches, cedar wax wings, flickers, red bellied woodpeckers, killdeer, kingfishers, osprey: the kind of place referred to as "up north", yet close enough to Baraboo to take my grandchildren to Circus World and the International Crane Foundation, and of course, "the shack" now visited by many through the Aldo Leopold Foundation.  The documentary Green Fire describes Leopold's amazing contributions to present understanding of ecological realities.

Aldo Leopold's place and two of my grandchildren. In the thirties this area was depleted.
Today it is quite verdant and remains an example of nature's resilience, because of the hard work, patience and the data kept by the Leopold family.