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Wintering Whoopers at Chassahowitzka NWR in Crystal
County, Florida
Week of January 2 - 8, 2005
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| As dusk falls three older Whooping cranes, or "white
birds" roost on the constructed oyster bar in the main portion
of the winter release pen, while the thirteen juvenile cranes spend
the night in the newly built top-netted pen area. |
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| Here the white birds appear to be standing guard outside the
youngsters pen area when in reality what they'd likely do is get
aggressive with them if they were released. |
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| Eleven youngsters take-off to stretch their wings during one
morning when no adults were present. |
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| The view from inside the monitoring blind - note the birds in the
enclosure off in the distance. |
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| Sara returns to the blind along the boardwalk, which is necessary
to keep from being sucked in by the thick black goopy mud. |
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| Sara Zimorski with the International Crane Foundation
records her observations inside the monitoring blind. |
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More play time.
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The juvenile cranes cavort in the open-topped section of the winter
pensite near to the constructed oyster bar. At times the tide is so
high that there is barely any grass visible above the water and the
oyster bar allows them to roost in the safety of water no matter how
much the tide levels change.
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