A Sidewalk Going Nowhere

Fred

My Rural Southern Education

Sunset of the Cranes (SWF)
For the day's events leading to this sunset, please begin here.Sandhill Cranes at SunsetJasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife AreaMedaryville, IndianaSee more Skywatch here.

A Day with the Cranes
Paired for LifeFrom behind us, a rosy sun emerged above the stand of pines, glowing warmly on our backs and upon the breasts of the gathering birds, casting their gray feathers countless shades from icy white to slate blue, and lavender to silver. Growing steadily in size as more arrived from their overnight roosts in the marsh, the massing in the field stood around a shallow puddle, facing the

Sunrise of the Sandhill Crane
SunriseJasper-Pulaski Fish & Wildlife AreaMedaryville, IndianaWe drove alone in the dark, down the straight, narrow roads of a small, rural community in northern Indiana, its massive fields of shortly cropped corn still covered in wisps of early morning fog. Aside from small blinking lights on distant towers and a scattering of stars above, the clear sky in total black on this day in late

The hungry lake (SWF)
Twelve-mile Beach,Lake SuperiorWaves tugging at the sand beside the broad blue of Superior, with great effort she lifted herself-- each labored step, dragging her clumsy body a bit further, beyond their reach onto the otherwise empty, windblown edge of Michigan’s Twelve-mile Beach. Knocked off the breeze carrying her in carefree flight above its lapping waters by a long, curling tongue of this

In Hiawatha's Footsteps
Tahquamenon Falls, Michiganthe Upper Falls from the platformThe Tahquamenon River (rhymes with phenomenon) flows north into Lake Superior, after winding nearly 100 miles through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to empty into Whitefish Bay. From swamps lined with hemlock and spruce, their tannins having stained its rushing waters brown, it passes here, over the Upper Falls in Tahquamenon State Park,