Defense and Cranes

I defended my thesis this past week... Impacts of Human Physical Disturbance on Benthic Communities in Tributaries of the Niobrara National Scenic River. I'm very relieved to have it over with and excited about it too. I still have some edits to make and then I will be able to print and have it bound. Yay!

Erik and I are getting ready to move back to Minnesota! We are so excited! We have piles of boxes around our apartment and today the packing bug hit Erik a little bit.

Yesterday we went out to Wood River to the Whooping Crane Trust to see the Sandhill Cranes. Definitely something to see when or if you are ever in Nebraska in the spring. We were able to go into a blind and watch thousands of cranes fly and land on the sandbars of the Platte River, where they spend the night. We saw about 10,000 sandhill cranes last night from the blind. We also saw snow geese, canadian geese, and lots of ducks and a few shorebirds.

I'm really glad I got to see and hear them. Their sound is really cool too! I didn't get pictures of the cranes like Michael Forsberg, but I got some neat shots. Hope you enjoy them!