WCEP’s Eastern Migratory Population (EMP) location report by tracker, Eva Szyszkoski came in yesterday. Eva said, “Estimated distribution at the end of the report period or last record included 40 whooping cranes in Indiana, 17 in Florida, 16 in Alabama, 11 in Tennessee, 10 in Illinois, 3 in Kentucky, 3 in Georgia, 8 at unknown locations, 2 not recently reported, and 4 long term missing.”
The mortality of #3-07 is suspected. He was last observed December 7 on his wintering territory in Lowndes County, GA. This puts the maximum number of Whooping cranes in the EMP as of January 4 at 114; 58 males and 56 females.
Long Term Missing are: Legend: * = female; D = Direct Autumn Release
27-07* since March 2011. Last reported in Kosciusko County, IN
13-08* since April 2011. Last detected in Juneau County, WI
D13-11 since November 2011. Last detected migrating over IL
3-10* since February 2012. Last detected in Marion County, FL
3-07 was last positively and photographed on December 17th not the 7th and we are checking into whether or not he was on the field after.
But I personally did see him and photographed from with a 500mm ens on the 17th. Inclement weather kept me from observing him directly after that. When I returned on the 29th, again, it was too dark to see clearly and on the 39th I received a report of his being MIA. Repeated attempts to locate him to date have failed picking up his signal and a possible air search may ensue.