Then we went to see the crew in their camp. It was stil dark when we drove up, but right away we could see Bev waiting for us by her trailer. We were so excited and she was very nice. Eventually Nathan, Megan, Brooke and Brian joined her. They were all really nice, and just how I expected them to be. Bev and Nathan walked us over to an old van, and we all piled in to take a private tour of the refuge. As we drove, Nathan stopped to point out different birds to us. We saw hawks, deer, kingfishers, eagles, and my first wild Whooping Cranes!

When we got to the blind, it was not what I expected it to be. The blind was a small room, which looked like it was built into a hill. It had windows across one of the sides, with camouflaged paper over them so the birds could not see us. We watched Nathan put on the costume, and walk over the hill to the pens where the third cohort was kept. Then we went inside the blind. We could see Nathan open the gates of the pen, and #726 and #727 came out and they were trained for a while.