Crane, Water, Change

• Main Author: Byl, Christine
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Cornell University Press 2020
• Subjects: Athabascan; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501750915.003.0008

This chapter reflects on how the author witnessed the migration of sandhill cranes. The author's neighborhood is a rural subdivision; pocketed with wetlands, it is also a home for birds. The chapter then discusses three things that the author has learned about cranes. First, the birds that migrate over the town of Healy are lesser sandhill cranes, of fifteen crane species worldwide, the only one that breeds in Alaska. Second, cranes, like most creatures, have multiple calls. Third, the Athabascan word for crane is dildoola , lilting the onomatopoeia of their song, and the word for cranberry is dildoola baba , meaning “crane's food.” The author also argues that one cannot write about sandhill cranes without writing about wetlands.