its been a while

Hey all, sorry I haven't posted in so long. I've been working some extra hours lately and I just keep forgetting about this thing.
We have 12 whooping crane chicks that will be leaving for Necedah National Wildlife Refuge on July 21. Their names are Kohlrabi, Arugula, Yam, Chickpea, Parsnip, Rhubarb, Rutabaga, Fiddlehead, Cho-Cho, Tomatillo, Gobi, and Neep. They are all getting big so fast and they are super cute. Their ages range from about a week (only 1 of them) to slightly over a month old. Now that most of them are older they are more fun, because when we take them out for exercise they will do their own thing, instead of making you do all the work. The cutest is when they take baths - they look really funny. Today I had Arugula out and she made the cutest sounds while she drank. The chicks follow us pretty well but they like to go explore on their own too. The older ones are getting better at foraging on their own, so we don't have to pick/catch things for them as much. Today Arugula caught some baby grasshoppers, a small beetle, and a water strider on her own. Work has been pretty busy due to the chicks - we are all up there any time we can be. All of the chicks have to get exercised (taken out in the yards) twice a day. Some are going out for 1.5 hours, while others are going out for closer to 3 hours at a time. The three oldest can be left out on their own though so that is nice. There are also a few chicks that have to swim every day due to leg issues. There are morning and afternoon cleaning duties as well as a night check. We also constantly check temperatures in the chick runs to make sure they are in a decent range. I know some people have been wanting to see the infamous crane costume, so I got some pics today - hope you enjoy http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=6avavo35.bjds1jf9&x=0&y=-vjvc0p&localeid=en_US

photos

So apparently there is no way for me to post a general link for viewing my albums. I can post this, which will take you to a slideshow of all my albums thus far. I will go ahead and post it - some of the pics are new, some are old, and I still don't have all my old pics uploaded to the site yet. When I add new photos I will post a link to their slideshow. Hope this works! http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=6avavo35.am3891jd&x=0&y=-gg6ix2&localeid=en_US&cm_mmc=site_email-_-site_share-_-core-_-view_photos_album

Had a good weekend - Monday I went on a day trip with a couple girls from work. We went to Blue Mounds, WI first, where we visited Cave of the Mounds and Blue Mound State Park. We got a free tour of the cave via a reciprocal agreement with ICF. It was a lot of fun - the cave had a few neat speleothems, but nothing super amazing. It was still really cool to just see all those things I learned about in geology. I took some pictures, but they aren't the best since I was in a dark cave. One part of the tour that I really liked was when we were shown a phosphoric reaction on the rocks. We had to close our eyes while the guide flashed a really bright light on the wall, then it went out and we opened our eyes to see the wall glow-in-the-dark. It slowly faded back into darkness. Another part that I thought was cool was when we experienced total darkness. It was amazing how much darker it was than what I think of as dark. After the cave (and after getting rock candy - a must) we went to a nearby state park and hiked. From there we went to New Glarus, WI to tour the brewery. It wasn't quite what I expected, since it was an audio tour, but it was still fun.
I decided to change websites for posting my photos, because the one I was using will only show my most recent 200 pics. I am now using the Kodak site. I don't know if this link will get you there - if not, let me know. I am having a hard time finding any general link for my albums. I set it so you do not have to have an account to see the pictures. I am still working on uploading some of my older photos, but the ones from this weekend are on there. http://www.kodakgallery.com/AlbumMenu.jsp?view=1&sort_order=&

chicks!

It has been an exciting few days here. Last Monday our first whooping crane chick hatched. I didn't see him until yesterday - boy is he cute! Every year they chose a theme for whooping crane chick names and this year it is vegetables. The first chick is named Rutabaga. We have to be in crane costumes whenever whooping crane chicks can see us. I fed Rutabaga yesterday - he is doing really well, eating and drinking on his own, not needing much encouragement. I also took Rutabaga outside in the chick yard for some exercise yesterday. He followed me around as he walked, ran, and tripped. He went in the pond with me and swam for a minute, which was adorable. I fed him dandelion roots out in the yard, and he enjoyed pecking at dandelion tops. I wasn't able to get any pictures yesterday but some other interns have gotten a couple and I hopefully will soon. It is hard because we cannot let the chicks see the camera. Two nights ago two more whooping crane chicks hatched. The first out of those to hatch is named Fiddle Head. The second will be named tomorrow - we had to help him hatch because he was having trouble, and any time there is an assisted hatch we wait a couple days to name them just in case they don't make it.
I have been hanging out with girls from work . . . going hiking and birding, seeing movies, etc. This coming Monday I am planning on going bird banding with two girls from work. It is about an hour away and I believe they focus on warbler banding, so it should be pretty cool.

Last Sunday I went to Devil's Lake State Park with a guy that interns at the farm across from ICF. We visited a great blue heron rookery there, which was awesome. They nest up in the tree tops, which is a really amazing sight. We saw multiple nesting pairs and the trees continued farther than we could see. There was one chick in one of the nests that we could make out and Caylan got a nice picture of it (the one on this page). He got a good picture of one flying over as well (on this page).

Our first chick began the hatching process yesterday. He/she should hatch today or tomorrow. It was super cute yesterday because he was not only moving around but also peeping. It's really funny to hear noises coming out of an egg.

been a while

Sorry I haven't updated in forever!
A few days ago I held another crane - Berta, a sandhill - while she got a beak trim. A couple days ago I was watching some birds on live video (some of them have cameras in their yards) and saw two different female whooping cranes lay eggs. It was really cool to watch them go through labor - they circle and then hock-sit (sit on their "knee" - actually is ankle - joint called the hock) and they will open mouth breathe and wiggle around. That same day, I was switching around eggs with another girl and a red crowned crane attacked me, bit my hands some. He was not happy that we were taking his eggs - what a good dad.
Monday I went to Madison and went to Target and the Henry Vilas Zoo again. I took some pics at the zoo and still need to post them. Tuesday I got a state park pass and went to Devil's Lake State Park, which was really nice. I took a few pics there and need to post them as well. That night a group of us from ICF went bowling with a few interns at the Aldo Leopold Foundation (ALF). They seemed really nice, but we didn't really get to know them much.

Handling

Saturday I was taken out to learn crane handling. My first attempt didn't go great, but the second bird I tried (Razz - Brolga) went well. It is not easy holding a crane football-style under your arm, keeping them from getting away. I wasn't able to have anyone take a picture of me, but there hopefully will be more opportunities. Yesterday I found a Tree Swallow egg on the ground in Crane City. It is so small, but that's probably just in comparison because I keep seeing crane eggs. I took a couple pics so I'll probably post those on Flickr in the birding album.
The weather has been really nice the past couple of days, but it looks like there may be some rain tomorrow. Still going to be warm though.