Happy Poetry Friday! My class is studying the fall migration of the whooping cranes from Wisconsin to Florida. It's an incredible story as scientists try to establish a new Eastern flock of these endangered birds. To do so, they must teach the crane chicks the migration route by getting them to follow ultralight airplanes. You can imagine how cool this is to second graders! Find out more at Journey North and Operation Migration.
Many animals and insects are migrating now. In honor of their amazing journeys, here's a poem by Rachel Field.
Something Told the Wild Geese
Something told the wild geese
It was time to go.
Though the fields lay golden
Something whispered - "Snow."
Leaves were green and stirring,
Berries, luster-glossed,
But beneath warm feathers
Something cautioned - "Frost."
All the sagging orchards
Steamed with amber spice,
But each wild breast stiffened
At remembered ice.
Something told the wild geese
It was time to fly -
Summer sun was on their wings,
Winter in their cry.
Rachel Field
©1957
Taken from The 20th Century Children's Poetry Treasury, selected by Jack Prelutsky
Photo credit:Off to Canada by charlietyack
