A local wildlife photographer has been documenting the “feathered soap opera” as it unfolds at a Madison, Wis., pond
NEED TO KNOW
- A baby Canada goose abandoned as an egg found an “unexpected family” with a pair of Sandhill cranes in Madison, Wis.
- The family of four (the two Sandhill cranes, their colt, and the gosling) formed in the spring of 2025 and is still going strong
- Madison-based photographer Alan Ginsberg has been documenting the bird family and sharing their story on Facebook
At a Wisconsin pond, a pair of cranes is raising an abandoned goose as their own.
The unlikely family formed in Madison, Wis., and resident Alan Ginsberg has been documenting the whole “feathered soap opera” on the Facebook group Wisconsin In Pictures.
The cross-species clan first formed when a pair of sandhill cranes — a fixture at the Madison pond — returned to the area this spring with their “newly hatched” colt — the term for a baby sandhill crane — only to discover that their nesting spot had flooded, according to Ginsberg, a retired teacher and photographer…