14th Annual CraneFest kicks off this weekend in Belleview

This special article by reporter Chris Killian announced CraneFest on Monday, October 6, 2008. Killian relates the details of our interview and upcoming crane festivities.

BELLEVUE - When a baby bird hatches, it latches on to the first thing it sees.

Larry Walkinshaw had a similar experience nearly 80 years ago.

While hiking through some wilderness areas in 1931, Walkinshaw came upon a pair of cranes and their nest. What he saw and experienced there changed him forever, said Lowell Schake, Walkinshaw’s son-in-law and author of a newly released book, “On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story.”

“The cranes he saw started scolding him for finding their nest,” Schake said from his home near Corpus Christi, Texas. “And at that moment, Walkinshaw was imprinted by cranes forever. The sight of them completely changed his life.”

Walkinshaw, who practiced dentistry in Battle Creek for decades, died in 1993 at the age of 88, but not before he became the world’s foremost finder of bird’s nests and traveling the world to document all 15 crane species, Schake said.

Walkinshaw was also a leader in the push for formation of the Baker Sanctuary in Bellevue, located in northern Calhoun County. The sanctuary is now one of the most populated sandhill crane destinations in the country.

Those who are enamored by cranes, or just curious about these creatures, will have a chance to see them up close October 11 and 12 at the 14th Annual Michigan Audubon Society’s CraneFest at the Battle Creek Kiwanis Youth Area, next to the Baker Sanctuary.

The majestic birds can reach 4 to 5 feet tall, with a wingspan of nearly 7 feet.

In the 1940s, DDT and other chemicals cut hard into the sandhill crane population in Michigan, with only 17 pairs documented in the state [by Walkinshaw in the mid-1930s] at that time, said Wendy Tatar of the Michigan Audubon Society.

Now, thanks to conservation and educational efforts, the population has soared to never before seen heights, with 16, 707 pairs documemted in the state and 8,528 pairs seen at Baker Sanctuary in November 2007 — a new record for cranes at one location.

The cranes gather at the location due to the high amounts of food — mostly frogs — that are located there, as well as the copious amounts of shelter present. The sanctuary serves as a kind of pit stop where the birds fatten and nest before migrating south for the winter.

People are taken aback by the cranes distinctive call, as well as their ability to fly extraordinairly high, Tater said. She said the Michigan Audubon Society is expecting nearly 5,000 people to attend the weekend event.

Schake, a retired Aniimal-Food science professor, will be at Baker Sanctuary October 7 to 11. He said he is hoping for a large turnout for the festival and that people who attend capture some of the same feelings for cranes that Walkinshaw did so many years ago.

“He saw extraordinary beauty in cranes,” he said of Walkinshaw. “They are truly remarkable birds.”
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Previous to CraneFest a Prefest dinner was held at 6:30 PM, Friday October 10 at Convis Township Hall. The event featured Lowell Schake’s discussion on his book, “On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story.”
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Hit www.cranefest.org for related events and opportunities.