By Paul Noeldner
Wild Warner

Ten thousand years ago humans probably would have been sitting around the Warner Park senior lunch tables cutting sandwiches with Clovis-point stone spearheads and pointing at wooly mammoths and Sandhill cranes wandering through Warner marsh when the Ice Age receded. As a senior citizen myself, I find that, as I get older, 10,000 years doesn’t seem so long ago. Consider that for every 100 years there was a grandparent, parent and grandchild who shared stories. That means a chain of only 300 relatives could take us back to the Ice Age.

The Sandhill cranes that visit the Nature Nook bird feeders outside the senior lunch meeting room windows have a history in Warner Park one thousand times older than that. One fossil found in Nebraska is about 10 million years old, making cranes one of the oldest bird species on earth. Amazingly, these ancient cranes are still around. The stories today’s grandparents and grandchildren share about them still connect us with each other and with our natural world.

I was visiting the senior lunch group to ask for their favorite stories about Warner Park cranes and other birds. They all mentioned the magic of seeing the 5-foot-tall Sandhill crane pair that often come right up to the meeting room windows. In fact, these youthful seniors humorously call themselves the “Crane Cult.”

Etta’s favorite crane story was watching one peck at the window trying to catch a fly, but the fly was on the inside. Etta has lived on the Northside since 1959 and her daughter grew up fishing in Warner Park and the creek. Walter fondly remembered seeing one of the cranes raise its head straight up and trumpet loud and long at what looked like nothing but an empty sky. After walking outside, Walter spotted a flock of circling cranes trumpeting back from far overhead, perhaps waiting for their friend.

Many of the seniors had other favorite birds, too. Walter’s likes the goldfinch and cedar waxwing. Mary favors the Badger-red cardinals. The beautifully spotted mourning doves that visit the heated bird bath and the colorful downy woodpecker at the Nature Nook suet feeder are popular winter visitors with Gwen and others. Dean has lived on the Northside 37 years and is very happy Warner Park is a bird sanctuary, especially for bluebirds. Valerie has lived nearby for more than 30 years and most enjoys seeing the cranes and foxes.

Warner Beach was a popular swimming spot for Priscilla and other seniors. They remembered the awe of seeing immense flocks of waterfowl. Some of that wonder is coming back today as our lakes improve. More than 1,000 Tundra swans and other migrating birds are again visiting the Warner Park lakeshore. Helen picked the robin, Wisconsin’s state bird, and on this cold winter day, the spring robin song we played on the DVD was especially lovely. Even the scrappy house sparrows trying to make a living in the bluebird box and pecking at the bird feeder are special friends.

The Harrisons were celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary, and their favorite is the crane, but they enjoyed sharing crow stories, too. (By the way, their secret to a long marriage is to “ignore the noisy crows and stay in bed every Saturday morning until 11.”)

Seeing wild birds that can fly free come up close and visit us touches everyone. Be sure to take a look at the Warner Park Nature Nook area outside the big meeting room windows the next time you visit. Also check out the new Nature Center area photos of the Warner Park crane family. These Northside senior citizens have discovered that enjoying birds and nature helps keeps us young at heart.

One last question lingered, what do these 10-million-year-old cranes think of us newcomers?