Cranes, Cranes, Cranes, Everywhere

There are many varieties of cranes in this part of the country. We have Sandhill cranes, Whooping Cranes, Blue and Siberian cranes. Recently a new one has been discovered, called the Kramer crane. While the typical long legged crane hangs out near shallow water, using their long legs to get around, the Kramer crane dives hundreds of feet in search of whatever it is hunting.

The Kramer crane started of by being mounted on tracks so that it can climb onto or off of land or barges. Recently, one such bird was perched, actually I guess you could say it was roosting, on a barge hooked to a tugboat. Moored out on Cape Horn, near Bayview, the wind came up and set the whole rig adrift. The crew, showing up first thing in the morning for work, noticed the crane was no longer where they had left it.

Finally, it was spotted onshore at Lakeview, some five miles across Lake Pend Oreille. Nestled nearby was the tug that had become unattached during the stormy crossing. Still something just didn't seem right. Looking up, one crewman was heard to ask, *"Alright, whut did you do with the machine thingee." Denying culpability, they all shook their heads. It seems that during the wild ride across the storm tossed waves, the crane, like all others decided it was hungry and dove off.

Somewhere out there, is a tracked crane rated at forty tons, waving it's one arm to and fro hoping to snag something to eat. Perhaps a navy sonar towed array, maybe your fishing line with, or course your favorite can't miss lure attached. Such is the fate of an over ambitious bird. Another possibility is that overcome with grief after unintentionally being involved with injuring it's friends in the fish world, it committed suicide in remorse.

* (Quotes were made up by me. Sort of filling in the blanks, you see.)