Whooping Cranes

December 12, 2018

In 1941, there were only 16-21 whooping cranes alive in the entire world!!

Today, thanks to protection, captive breeding and release programs, they are coming back from the brink of extinction.

You can read some history about them here and here.

We saw some in the wild this morning!! Here at Goose Island State Park. This is where we are camping.

Donald and Audrah went for a drive down to the marsh this morning and came back to get the rest of us to see.

This was a parent pair with a juvenile.

There were Sandhill Cranes with them too. They are the gray ones.

We were told they are also seen in another area about 3 miles from where we were. It was near the big trees we climbed in the other day so we decided to return there.

We stopped to play in the park with the trees.

As you can tell, we cannot get enough of these trees. The kids can run and play in them for hours!! Jeshuah said that he walked from tree to tree (without touching the ground once) in ten different trees. Donald said that the best climbing tree he has ever been climbed was here.

There was even a bouncy branch.

 

 

Got mom to ride it.

 

Josiah is filming his submission video for American Ninja Warrior using the trees.

 

Donald took some neat photos.

A mushroom

 

A caterpillar

These trees’ roots have grown so close together that there is hardly any dirt in between….it’s almost solid wood.

Josiah found some leaf cutter ants.

 

 

Audrah and Jedidiah wanted to go fishing so Donald walked down the road to the water to help them fish.

We saw some more whooping cranes down by the water. It was so neat to see them as very few people will ever see them in the wild and we may never see them again in our lifetime.

 

Spotted some deer on our way into the campground.

Got to the motor home and had some vegetable beef soup.