Roadside Cranes

From the Indiana Turnpike, Kenn writes: So yes, we just got home from New Jersey yesterday, but today we’re on our way to Chicago. And right there in a field next to the Indiana Turnpike, as big as life, were two Sandhill Cranes. A few years ago, this would have been big news. Now it’s just a big satisfaction to see these big birds along our route. The midwestern population of Sandhill Cranes has been growing over the last 20 years or more, with huge increases in Wisconsin and Michigan and scattered pairs starting to nest in Indiana and Ohio. Now we can hope to see these gangly birds, hear their guttural trumpeting calls, almost anywhere.