Zugunruhe!
We are at Crex Meadows, near Grantsburg, WI, on November 8, 2025, almost exactly 48 years from the time Ron Crete and John Toepfer were anxiously preparing for their epic trip. It is freezing outside. A cold front had come through Northwestern Wisconsin and temperatures dropped to about 30 degrees, considering windchill.
Near sunset, groups of a hundred or more cranes began flying into their roosting area around Phantom Lake, eventually numbering several thousand. They were highly restless. We’d watched them countless times before, same time, same spot. They would fly in, bugle to each other, and quickly settle down. Not this time. When each group landed, there was a flurry of activity – hopping, flying up, circling around. Big flocks would take off, circle the marsh, then return.
There’s a term for that: Zugunruhe. It’s a German word that means migratory restlessness and refers to the “intense, instinctive activity migratory birds display before and during migration.” Even birds who are in captivity may exhibit increased activity and anxiousness when the quality and length of the light changes.
Zugunruhe is a perfect name for that restlessness we sometimes feel when we know we need to make a change, or we’re in a transition to something undefined. We can’t explain it, but we feel it strongly.
Ron and John are anxious, too…
We asked Ron Crete what he was experiencing in 1977 when he and John Toepfor were ready to follow the Crex Meadows cranes to Florida using rudimentary radio telemetry. This trip had never been attempted, and some of their colleagues didn’t think it was possible.
In Ron’s words: “I was living in Gerald Hedlund’s deer hunting cabin, and John was living in Erickson’s spare bedroom north of Grantsburg. We had cranes coming in from MN – a couple were radio-tagged – so we were tracking them as well as closing out our residences. My wife and children were in St. Cloud, so I went home to say goodbye to them. There was much last-minute cargo checking, gear testing, and personal packing. We were eyes to the sky and listening to weather reports which were far more unpredictable then. We had to stay close to the main staging area where we were checking radios each hour and watching for northerly air and kettling flocks to know when one of those flocks had a few of our birds in it. On November 11th, two departing flocks of cranes spiraled upward with radio-tagged cranes and left Crex; John took off in his 1962 Chevy II. I stayed and anxiously waited a week until two more flocks took off with and then I was on my way, too. I followed them in my 1966 Ford station wagon, equipped with a roof-mounted antenna.”
Sandhills at Crex, Then and Now…
In 1977, Crete and Toepfer documented a peak fall population of at least 166 cranes at Crex Meadows wildlife refuge. After just seeing thousands of cranes at Crex, this seemed impossibly low. We checked in with Lauren Finch, Wisconsin DNR Wildlife Educator at Crex Meadows who confirmed their findings: “That sounds right. My dad grew up in this area and he said he just didn’t see sandhill cranes back then.” Lauren has kept records for years and reported that peak migration of sandhill cranes in 2025 was over 12,000. In some years peak migration has been over 20,000.”
In 1978, Crex Meadows was already known as the largest known breeding and stop-over area for sandhill cranes in northwestern Wisconsin. Crex is one of the breeding areas where sandhill cranes originated during the research period.
Visit Crex, and Learn More
Located in scenic northwest Wisconsin, Crex Meadows has 30,000 acres of restored wetland and brush prairie intensively managed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources-Bureau of Wildlife Management. With more than 280 species of birds, 720 species of plants and over 96 species of butterfly as well as a wide variety of reptiles, amphibians and insects, it’s no wonder why more than 100,00 people visit Crex Meadows every year.
You can hear more from Lauren as she talks about sandhill crane migration and Crex Meadows on “Live! from North Woods and Waters of the St. Croix Heritage Area.”
Visit Crex, and Learn More
Located in scenic northwest Wisconsin, Crex Meadows has 30,000 acres of restored wetland and brush prairie intensively managed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources-Bureau of Wildlife Management. With more than 280 species of birds, 720 species of plants and over 96 species of butterfly as well as a wide variety of reptiles, amphibians and insects, it’s no wonder why more than 100,00 people visit Crex Meadows every year.
You can hear more from Lauren as she talks about sandhill crane migration and Crex Meadows on “Live! from North Woods and Waters of the St. Croix Heritage Area.”