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Whooping Cranes

Posted By: MJM

Whooping Cranes - 04/22/19 11:38 PM

I was about 8 miles south of the house yesterday and saw seven whooping cranes.
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Posted By: Osky

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/22/19 11:58 PM

That's really neat. I know some yea s back they said there was just a handful of those left. Great to see they are spreading out. It'd be crazy to see those cessnas coming in low to your snow spread.

Osky
Posted By: jtg

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 12:14 AM

They come to Texas every year. Another way trappers really help out. When I was a kid there was all kinds of small game. Between the coyotes, coons and red ants, aka fire ants there hard on anything that has eggs on the ground.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/whooper/
Posted By: MJM

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 12:16 AM

I see them more often in the fall. I would guess I have seen them the last 5-6 years straight. The Game and Fish tracks them, so I always report when and where I see them. The last I heard their population was growing. The Whooping Crane is the tallest bird in North America.
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Posted By: Northof50

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 12:28 AM

Can remember the day it was checked off my Life List. Was surprized when I heard of the 500 migrating birds now this spring.
Knew one of the Canadian bios that worked with them for his working period of 30 years.
Posted By: CoonsBane

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 01:15 AM

Are they good eating?
Posted By: Donnersurvivor

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 01:38 AM

Originally Posted by CoonsBane
Are they good eating?

No, taste like prison food.
Posted By: 52Carl

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 01:53 AM

Why are they so scarce? Evolutionary pigeonholed into a no-return extinction vortex? It happens.
Posted By: snowy

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 02:09 AM

Nice! Thanks for posting the picture.
Posted By: lee steinmeyer

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 02:14 AM

I remember in the late fiftys when there was only like twenty some of them left, and they went full tilt on protecting them. I think the number was twenty six, but could be wrong!
Posted By: lee steinmeyer

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 02:15 AM

Originally Posted by CoonsBane
Are they good eating?


Man starve to death trying to find any meat on those skinny legs! lol
Posted By: J.Morse

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 02:16 AM

Originally Posted by 52Carl
Why are they so scarce? Evolutionary pigeonholed into a no-return extinction vortex? It happens.


They were nearly wiped out because they had three things stacked against them.....one, they were tasty, two, they were unlucky enough to meet up with a bunch of trigger happy and hungry pioneers, three, they were never as populous as their cousins, the Sandhill Cranes. Oh, a forth thing against them....they were beautiful in an age when everyone, hungry or not, liked to blast all things pretty. In 1941 I believe the total world population was something like 21!
I was thrilled to see the single bird I did on April 3rd. It had been hanging around in Missaukee Co. for about a week at that time. A few days later it had moved up into the UP to Chippewa Co. It had even wandered over into Ontario for a short time. It has a GPS unit hooked to it's leg so the International Crane Foundation folks could keep tabs on it. It is part of the "Eastern Migratory" flock. Cool stuff. Really cool sighting Mark!
Posted By: MJM

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 02:17 AM

Originally Posted by 52Carl
Why are they so scarce? Evolutionary pigeonholed into a no-return extinction vortex? It happens.

I would guess it is global warming. smile
From what I have read there never were many.
For the first time since the late 1800s, there are more than 500 Whooping Cranes in the population that winters in south Texas.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service aerial surveys counted 505 cranes in and around the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in 2018 as a part of their annual winter survey, a 17 percent increase from the previous year. These cranes—which migrate to Aransas from breeding grounds in Canada’s Wood Buffalo National Park—comprise the largest of four populations of endangered Whooping Cranes left in North America. The Aransas–Wood Buffalo group is the only self-sustaining Whooping Crane population on the continent, meaning they breed and migrate without human assistance.

There were concerns for these cranes after Aransas took a direct hit from Hurricane Harvey in September 2017. But the refuge’s marshes weathered the storm just fine and continued to provide excellent habitat for Whooping Cranes, says Wade Harrell, U.S. Whooping Crane recovery coordinator for the USFWS.

By 1941, there were only 15 Whooping Cranes left in the wild, all of which wintered at Aransas. Whooping Cranes were charter members of the Endangered Species Act when it was signed in 1973, and for years the cranes’ recovery was slow but steady. But now the Aransas–Wood Buffalo flock (which contains about 80 percent of all wild Whooping Cranes) has doubled since 2010.
Posted By: Marty B

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 02:19 AM

Originally Posted by MJM
I was about 8 miles south of the house yesterday and saw seven whooping cranes.
[Linked Image]



I just saw my first ones ever - March 18.


I was all geeked up about it. I've scanned a pile of cranes over the years looking for the whoopers and never seen one.

Now the only thing left on my list is to hit the lottery and move to the keys.
Posted By: J.Morse

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 02:20 AM

Thanks for the info Mark. Looks like I was a little generous with my memory of the 1941 population.
Posted By: J.Morse

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 02:22 AM

Originally Posted by lee steinmeyer
Originally Posted by CoonsBane
Are they good eating?


Man starve to death trying to find any meat on those skinny legs! lol


But Lee, just think of how long those Drumsticks would be......
Posted By: Grandpa Trapper

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 02:27 AM

According to Wikipedia, there were 21 in the wild in 1941. Another site said 15 existed in 1941.
Posted By: lee steinmeyer

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 03:02 AM

Originally Posted by J.Morse
Originally Posted by lee steinmeyer


Man starve to death trying to find any meat on those skinny legs! lol


But Lee, just think of how long those Drumsticks would be......



Take a long frying pan to get em in too, I bet! grin Guess I was way off on my remembering how many there were! I'm old, I'm wrong a lot....just ask my wife!
Posted By: Northof50

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 04:07 AM

Interesting one of the preserved specimens for Manitoba came from West Shoal lake, it was a favourite collecting for the Chicago natural museums because it was an end of the line for the railways in the 1880's. A pair of Passenger pigeons are also preserved.

But with the legs you do end up with great tooth pick cleaner with the long tendons.
Posted By: nimzy

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/23/19 07:41 AM

Originally Posted by J.Morse
Originally Posted by 52Carl
Why are they so scarce? Evolutionary pigeonholed into a no-return extinction vortex? It happens.


They were nearly wiped out because they had three things stacked against them....


And they ain’t too clever. Horicon had a couple that stayed too long they figure one froze to death and the other got picked off by a coyote. Not terribly unusual to see here anymore. “Million dollar birds”
Posted By: bvrtrpr

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/24/19 02:03 AM

I think they were on the West side of Minot this morning. They were a ways away but I could see the black wingtips and there were 7 of them. My second sighting.
Posted By: charles

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/24/19 02:34 AM

A large bird rehab and breeding center in Scotland Neck, NC has one I think. I visited once and saw a hen turkey outside its pen. That crane sure was pretty to that turkey.
Posted By: BigBob

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/24/19 09:28 PM

When I was a Jr in HS, '65/66, my lab partner couldn't keep his mouth shut and had to do a running report on the Whooping Crane situation. They were nearly extinct at the time, due to over hunting and habitat destruction.. Google it.
Posted By: Northof50

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/25/19 01:08 AM

Well nimzy sure glad those ones got removed from the gene pool in wisc.
Years back always like watching the motorized small planes take off with them and fly them down to Florida and the up-dates.
when I was in the marsh today there was 8 pair of Sandhills all dancing and on territory, sure glad they have come back because they draw in the migrators in the fall.
Posted By: MikeC

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/25/19 11:47 AM

[Linked Image]

Had this on here before but never get tired of it. One of the wife's pictures. Mike
Posted By: Dirty D

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/25/19 01:03 PM

I worked for one of these evil rich Republican guys that did alot for the international crane foundation.

He used his private jet to fly crane and trumpeter swan eggs. We made special incubators that would work in his jet while transported.

I'll bet he spent in the hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars of his own money to help these endangered animals.

Money that the International Crane Foundation didn't have.

https://www.savingcranes.org/a-tribute-to-terry-and-mary-kohler/
Posted By: 1crazytrapper

Re: Whooping Cranes - 04/25/19 01:48 PM

Lucky dog! Nice Mark. I have only seen them once on the central Platte river. The sounds they make are even more impressive than their looks!
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