Preparing for the Season

After collecting records for more than ten years we can use them to make a few predictions. On average, our Whooping cranes have been 47.8 days old when they are transported from Patuxent to Wisconsin. Based on the first hatch date this year of May 14, we can expect to airlift them in early July, although that target may change if our last bird hatch date is delayed.

Prior to their arrival, the site must be prepared. The top net on the pen will need positioning and the electric fencer reinstalled. The grass on the runway will have to be cut and we might have to bring in a roller to smooth out the clump grasses that seem to grow in the sandy conditions.

White River Marsh State Wildlife Area has constructed a much better observation blind this year. It will accommodate more guests and have a better sight line. Closer to the date, we will post contact information so you can book your visit to watch the training and meet the crew.

New viewing blind at White River Marsh SWA

Thanks to the crew at Wisconsin DNR/White River Marsh SWA, visitors will have a new and vastly improved viewing blind from which to watch the young cranes go through their paces with our aircraft.

Once the cranes have been accommodated, we will have to set up our camp and relocate all of our trailers and motorhomes. Then we will have to unpack our aircraft and have them passed by an FAA approved inspector.

The other big item on the list is to set up the camera. Mike Deline of Adoni Networks has been reconditioning all the components. Each year he checks new technology to see how we can improve the experience for our audience. This season we are adding a new camera with infrared capabilities, which will allow us and viewers to spy on the cranes in the dark and we’re looking into ways to add a radio link so the pilot or the ground crew can provide a live commentary of the early morning training.

The more we can improve the broadcast, the more people we hope to attract. Wouldn’t it be fun to have multiple cameras and a method of switching back and forth? This way we could create an online, real time reality show featuring Whooping cranes, something that has never been done before.

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MORE – meet the Class of 2013!

We’re thrilled to introduce to you Whooping crane chicks 3-13 and 4-13!

Chick number 3-13 hatched on May 15th and while it appeared at first that he/she may have had a slight vertebral issue and splayed legs, this youngster is getting along just fine with tiny splints taped to each leg to help strengthen them and the vertebral issue turned out to be nothing – whew!

whooping crane chick with splints taped to legs.

Notice the splints taped to the the legs? this helps to keep them straight as the chick develops and will eventually be removed.

Number 4-13 hatched a day later on May 16th and is doing great. Both of these little fluff balls will be introduced to the wingless aircraft this morning, just as chicks 1-13 and 2-13 were a couple of days ago.

whooping crane chick sleeping

Pictured is crane chick number 4-13 mere hours after hatching, which is a very tiring process for the young chicks. Number 4-13 is sporting a tiny white legband which makes it easier for the crew to tell the chicks apart as they grow.

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WHOOPING CRANE ANCESTRY

I recently came across a great blog post on 10,000 Birds that I thought I’d share. If you’re not familiar with this site, I urge you to check it out regularly. These bloggers do a fabulous job of bringing the spotlight to various species and issues affecting the avian world.

In this particular entry, James Currie tells about his experience observing two resident Whooping cranes earlier this year in Osceola County, Florida. Afterwards, he spent some time investigating the ancestry of these two cranes.

CLICK to find out what he discovered.

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Wild Whooping Crane Chick Hatches in Wisconsin!

The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP) is celebrating another success in its efforts to reintroduce a wild migratory whooping crane population in eastern North America. A whooping crane chick hatched yesterday in Marathon County, Wis.

The chick, #W1-13 (W = wild hatched), is the offspring of the whooping crane pair consisting of a female #5-10 and male #28-08 from the ultralight-guided crane Classes of 2010 and 2008.

The pair nested in 2012 in Marathon County, Wis., however, after incubating past the anticipated hatch date, it was determined their single egg was infertile. This was likely  because the female was only two years old and had not yet reached breeding maturity.

This spring they nested again – this time producing two eggs – one of which hatched on May 21. WCEP is hopeful the second egg will hatch very soon.

“After losing 19 of 20 nests earlier this month, I was able to confirm yesterday that our single remaining nest has at least one chick,” said Eva Szyszkoski, Tracking Field Manager for WCEP and the International Crane Foundation. “During my morning survey flight on May 21, one crane was sitting on the nest in a brooding posture while the other preened nearby. Later that afternoon, one crane was still brooding while the other was off foraging in the wetland to the southeast of the nest. As the plane circled, I was able to get a visual on the tiny chick before it ducked back under the adult. The adult cranes produced two eggs this year, so hopefully we will have a little #W2-13 shortly.”

Whooping crane nest with egg and chick

W1-13 still on the nest with Mom or Dad and its sibling egg, which may or may not hatch

Thanks to the efforts of WCEP, there are now 106 whooping cranes in the eastern migratory population.  In addition to #5-10 and #28-08, at least three pairs are currently constructing nest platforms for what WCEP hopes will be re-nest attempts following the early May abandonment event in the core nesting area.

Including #W1-13, twenty-five chicks have hatched in this population since 2006.  Five of them have fledged and joined the wild population.

WCEP partners would like to thank Lighthawk, Windway Aviation and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for providing aircraft and pilots for aerial surveys.

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Update on Whooping crane #7-12

Last month we reported that Whooping cranes 4, 5 & 7-12 had finally turned up in Wisconsin after leaving the St. Marks NWR in March. Included in the report was news that it appeared number 7-12 had sustained an injury to her left foot.

Brooke visited with her a couple of times to acquire some good quality images, which we hoped would allow International Crane Foundation veterinarian Barry Hartup to have a good look at it and if necessary determine a plan of action. Barry’s advice was watch and wait and to not intervene, unless her condition deteriorated.

So while several ICF staff and Brooke visited her occasionally to watch and wait, her two flockmates decided to move on to nearby Dane County.

Thankfully, watching and waiting have paid off! ICF’s Hillary Thompson checked on 7-12 last Friday and reports that she was walking with no limp and appears to be doing just fine now. ::insert sigh of relief::

Whooping crane 7-12

Even though she had a swollen foot, 7-12 could still fly. Here she is just about to take off.

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REWARD offered in Louisiana Whooping crane death

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) Enforcement Division agents and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) officials are looking for leads regarding a whooping crane that was found shot to death in Red River Parish.

The whooping crane was found and recovered from the bank of the Red River about two miles northwest of Loggy Bayou on April 16.  After a necropsy of the crane, it was determined that the bird was shot with a 6.5mm/.264 caliber projectile.

Investigators believe the bird was shot between April 10 and 14.  The whooping crane was a part of LDWF’s whooping crane reintroduction program and was fitted with a GPS tracking device.  The last tracking point of the crane moving was on April 10 near where she was eventually found dead on April 16.  The last tracking point received was on April 14 at the location she was found.

This whooping crane was released in Louisiana on March 14, 2011.

LDWF’s Operation Game Thief program, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation and the USFWS are each offering up to $1,000 in rewards for a total of up to $3,000 in rewards for any information about this illegal shooting that leads to an arrest.  To report any information regarding this whooping crane shooting, please call 1-800-442-2511.

READ the full press release.

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Meet the Whooping crane Class of 2013!

Here are the first two Whooping crane chicks in the Class of 2013!

Crane number 1-13 hatched on May 14 in the early morning hours. He/she (yet to be determined) along with its slightly younger flockmate number 2-13 were introduced to the aircraft yesterday for the first time. Scroll down to watch a video clip showing this process.

1-13

The image below shows crane chick number 2-13 who hatched hours after #1-13 on May 14th.

2-13

Check back this week to meet the other cranes in the Class of 2013!

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Rare crane egg given 24-hour guard

The first Common crane egg laid in western Britain for more than 400 years has been given a round-the-clock guard, conservationists said.

The nesting pair that produced the egg are part of the Great Crane Project, which has been rearing cranes in captivity since 2010 and reintroducing them to the Somerset Levels and Moors where they would have been found centuries ago.

The egg laid at a nest at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust’s (WWT) Slimbridge Wetland Centre is the first known to be laid by the project’s cranes, which were hand-reared at the centre and the oldest of which only reached breeding age this year.

Like Whooping cranes (Grus americana), the Common crane (Grus grus) was driven close to extinction by hunting and habitat loss by 1600.

CLICK to read the full article in theguardian

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CALL FOR SILENT AUCTION ITEMS!

The second annual Whooping Crane Festival will be celebrated over the weekend of September 13-15 with activities in Berlin, Necedah, Baraboo and Green Lake, Wisconsin.

As a component of the celebration, we are holding a SILENT AUCTION which will be held both online and in person during Saturday’s lineup of events.

Last September your generosity in both contributed items and bidding generated over $5000.00, to support the Whooping crane project! We are hoping to exceed that amount this year.

At this time, we are reaching out with the hope that you will consider contributing an item for the auction. Your name will be prominently displayed at the event and all proceeds will help Operation Migration carry out our work in 2013.

If you have an item you would like to contribute please reach out by email to: Colleen(AT)operationmigration.org. Colleen Chase will be in touch with you immediately to arrange for shipping.

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WILD ONES

Jon Mooallem’s book Wild Ones launches today so be sure to get your copy!

Jon’s journey is framed by the stories of three modern-day endangered species: the polar bear, victimized by climate change and ogledWild Ones by tourists outside a remote northern town; the little-known Lange’s metalmark butterfly, foundering on a shred of industrialized land near San Francisco; and the whooping crane as it’s led on a months-long migration by costumed men in ultralight airplanes.

The wilderness that Wild Ones navigates is a scrappy, disorderly place where amateur conservationists do grueling, sometimes preposterous-looking work; where a marketer maneuvers to control the polar bear’s image while Martha Stewart turns up to film those beasts for her show on the Hallmark Channel. Our most comforting ideas about nature unravel. In their place, Mooallem forges a new and affirming vision of the human animal and the wild ones as kindred creatures on an imperfect planet.

“Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America,” is published by Penguin Press, New York.

Excerpts from the back cover…..

….Our most comforting ideas about nature unravel. In their place, Mooallem forges a new and affirming vision of the human animal and the wild ones as kindred creatures on an imperfect planet.
….With propulsive curiosity and searing wit, and without the easy moralizing and nature worship of environmental journalism’s older guard, Wild Ones merges reportage, science, and history into a humane and endearing meditation on what it means to live in, and bring a life into, a broken world.

More about the author: Jon has been a Contributing Writer to the New York Times Magazine since 2006 and also writer at large for Pop-Up Magazine, the live magazine, performed on stage, in San Francisco. He has contributed to This American Life, Harper’s, Wired, The New Yorker, Radiolab and lots of other magazines and radio shows.

Check out the video trailer below and the books website for more information, including where you can get your copy!

WILD ONES book trailer from Jon Mooallem on Vimeo.

 

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