[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Sad, a short maple season! (Have you tried freezing the sap and removing the ice? Does it work?)

A flock of 6 or 7 robins were on my lawn a week ago. My Daughter's cat was outside and made a run at them and they flew away! I saw a sandhill crane the day of a trip to Menards. (I think it was a sand hill crane. The new couch in the living room looks great!

(Sometime around 1997 we visited a friend in Whitewater WI. We were driving through the Kettle Moraine area when we came on a flock of about 20 cranes walking in a field next to a lake. I got out of the car with middle daughter and we walked into the field for a better look. (But not too close!) I certainly remember it, although she might not.)

(Thanks for the reports and all the great info Diana!)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The greater Kettle Moraine stretches from Kewanee County south through Walworth County. (WI) It was created when the Green Bay and Lake Michigan “lobes” of the Wisconsin Glacier (it had six lobes all together) retreated some 10,000 years ago. The retreating glacier left behind geological indentations, known as Kettles, and deposited debris—silt, rocks, and boulders—that produced topographical accumulations called Moraines. The Kettles later became bodies of water varying in size from large puddles to lakes. Portions of this area became Kettle Moraine State Forest, one of Wisconsin’s most popular outdoor attractions. The Northern Kettle Interlobate Moraine is also one of the world’s best examples of this type of glacial land formation. Some notable features in Kettle Moraine, recognized by shape, include “eskers,” or level-topped ridges, “kames,” which are conical hills created by water movement, and “drumlins,” which one source describes as “teardrop-shaped hill[s].”

A 'Moraine' (tree-covered hill) on your left, a 'Kettle' (lake) in the far-center distance.

I don't know WHY you all don't move here! Wisconsin has it all! :)