On the path to the crane pen, the jasmine is in bloom. Its cheery yellow
trumpet flowers, cascading on vines tangled high in trees and shrubs, peek
through the flatwoods. It’s grey and cloudy and cool here, as has been the
story for several weeks. It is a penetrating bone-chilling cold. The sand
gnats, however, are biting, so I am reassured that I am still warm-blooded.
The evening is still, uneventful, unassuming. There is a steady breeze. This
time last year, the salt marsh was teeming with sound: Red-winged
blackbirds, Clapper rails, Barred owls. Not this night.
The cranes are grouped in the pen when we arrive. Their buddies, fifteen
immature White ibis, forage close by. They are changing clothes, from the
mottled dark brown of their youth to the sleek white plumage that will mark
them as breeding adults. On the cranes themselves, there is noticeably less
cinnamon. Only the head and upper neck show traces. The birds appear stately
in carriage now, and they are more uniform in size than they were a few
weeks ago.
Looking for all the world like backstreet bullies, four cranes stalk one
other. Two more join in the mob mentality, dictating retreat, and the other
crane obligingly backs up, stride-for-stride. The crane tango continues for
a few more steps, then, the dance tune changes and they are a unit again.
The Bald eagle, who sometimes watches the evening bedtime routine from a
tall snag at the edge of the marsh, is away on other business tonight. Young
eagles hatched in December are coming close to fledging: perhaps she has a
young one to tend.
A dark cloud layer broods over the salt marsh. Beneath its shadows, the
great white birds duck and bob and crane and duck some more. Wings spread,
they hop and dance, inciting others to do the same. A lone Clapper cacks in
the marsh. A few cranes saunter onto the oyster bar, and begin a contorted
ritual. They curve their necks into all sorts of tangles and endlessly preen
their feathers. On one leg, they balance without challenge.
All cranes but one are now on the oyster bar. A crow flies over enroute
to its evening roost, and all white crane heads cock skyward and freeze. The
last crane, perhaps one with a lower ‘rank’, now goes at dusk to feed. A
second one follows. Others continue to contort and preen. At last, all are
resting quietly in anticipation of nightfall.
No soft spring breeze yet tempts them. No primordial pull, beyond our
understanding, yet beckons them northward to the wild.
Date:
March 20, 2010 - Entry 3
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
CRANES HAVE RETURNED!
Location:
Main Office
The International Crane Foundation reports that the first Whooping crane in the Eastern Migratory Population was confirmed in Wisconsin on March 12th. Number 211, lost his mate last fall at the hands of somebody with a gun in Vermillion Co., IN and he spent the winter at that location.
Despite a reward of $10,000 being offered, there have been no leads in the
case - at least not that we're aware of.
As of yesterday, there are now a total of 10 Whooping cranes located on
or close to the reintroduction site at the Necedah NWR in Central WI.
CLICK to read the full report.
Date:
March 20, 2010 - Entry 2
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
MORTALITY OF NUMBER 501
Location:
Main Office
Dr Richard Urbanek, USFWS reports that
the remains of adult female whooping crane no.
501 were found yesterday south of the pensite on Chassahowitzka NWR, Citrus County, Florida. On the previous night, she had been killed by a bobcat on a tidal mudflat, dragged 40 meters, and buried in the edge of needlerush.
No. 501 and her mate no. 105 had been wintering at the Chassahowitzka NWR release site. The pair had roosted during the night with 9 juveniles on the partially flooded flat. Her death reduces the number of
extant confirmed breeding pairs (i.e., have produced eggs) in the population from 11 to 10.
The remains were transferred to Dr. Marilyn Spalding, University of Florida, for necropsy.
The estimated maximum size of the eastern migratory population of whooping cranes is now 103 birds (58 males, 45 females).
Date:
March 20, 2010
Reporter:
Joe Duff
Subject:
CAMERA
CHAT
Location:
Main Office
A while ago this message was posted on our chat line. For the un-initiated the crane camera chat is a fast paced narrative between viewers of the crane and trike cameras. The messages roll on as participants type in their comments. Older messages are deleted as new ones are added so
it's a fleeting conversation. I don't check often, especially now that the cameras are temporarily down but I did check last week and saw this message pertaining to the disappearance of 903 at Chassahowitzka.
“MSW: wonder again ... why does OM not post things like missing bird on FJ .. so we just speculate and get info second hand .. do they think we will not find out .. makes it bad to find out from other sources... FJ should be first place we see this kind of stuff... with correct info... instead of speculation... even if they do not know all the answers.”
I thought I would respond because it is an indication that people are unhappy with us and that needs to be addressed. I tend to get a little defensive in the face of criticism, especially when I know so many people are working very hard to ensure our website is as current and as accurate as we can make it.
If you have ever worked on a dairy farm you know that there are no exceptions to the rule. Even if the barn burns down the cows still have to be milked twice a day. Sometimes the Field Journal feels like that. The only difference is that milking cows is the dairy farmer’s primary job. For us, fulfilling our update quota is over and above the regular responsibility of working with the birds.
Liz does an amazing job of maintaining the Field Journal and Heather too when she takes the reins. But it consumes a good part of each day to pry updates from an overworked crew and to download whatever pictures you have coaxed them to take in addition to all the other stuff they have to do. Over this winter, Brooke, and whoever is helping him at the time, make 2 to 3 trips to the pen each day. The journey alone takes the better part of an hour each way and they spend an average of three hours out there. That’s a minimum ten hour day – every day.
We all take turns writing updates because we know how much you have come to depend on them for news. We have faithful readers who are the backbone of this organization and as much as we are dedicated to Whooping cranes we know that our supporters are the people who make it all possible. But none of us is Tom Brokaw and we don’t have a staff of researchers or experience at reporting the news or even a talent for writing it.
We didn’t post an update on 903 when we first heard the rumors because we would have been, as the chatter pointed out, speculating. We can’t give you the real answers if we don’t have them.
The birds at Chassahowitzka are monitored by a team from the International Crane
Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. When 903 didn’t return with the other birds in the morning they conducted a search on foot and in airboats and aircraft. No signal could be found meaning that the transmitter had been destroyed or the bird had left the area. Neither of those possibilities could be confirmed and the search was ongoing so they had their hands full.
Their priority was caring for the birds, as it should be, and reporting to the rest of the team had to wait. When Dr. Urbanek confirmed the missing bird and the circumstances, we passed that information on. Just like us, their first responsibility is looking after the birds not reporting on them.
Date:
March 19, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
HATS OFF TO MINNESOTA POWER!
Location:
Main Office
Developers of a new power line in western North Dakota are spending $500,000 to make sure whooping cranes don’t run into it.
Minnesota Power is building the 22-mile line in Morton and Oliver counties. It’s supposed to connect a new 75-megawatt wind farm to the Square Butte electric substation near Center.
North Dakota Public Service Commission Chairman Kevin Cramer said the project includes small “bird flight diverters” that will be attached to the line. He said they shimmer and flash when the sun hits them
to attract birds’ attention.
CLICK to see an example of the diverter and to read more about them.
Date:
March 18, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
WINTERING UPDATE
Location:
Main Office
Four cranes from the Class of 2009 are wearing Platform Terminal Transmitters, or PTT's and all are wearing
conventional transmitters which emit a VHF radio frequency. The PTT's emit an intermittent signal,
usually during the evening, and overnight hours, which is picked up by a reassigned communications satellite orbiting our planet.
This information is relayed to the
WCEP Tracking Team via
email, allowing them to know the whereabouts of the bird.
915 was fitted with her transmitters at the same time all the others were
but somehow she managed to snap the antenna on her PTT unit, rendering it
useless, so this past Monday, Richard Urbanek
(FWS) and Sara Zimorski (ICF) drove up from the Chassahowitzka area to
replace the antenna. Brooke reports that the swap went very well and
quickly, requiring her to be held for very little time.
Brooke also reports that one evening this week the St. Marks cranes took
an extra long flight, circling the area for an extended period before
eventually returning to the safety of the release pen. This is one of the
indicators that they're getting restless about returning north, so it could
be any day now.
Date:
March 17, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
WHOOPING
CRANE 903
Location:
Main Office
Last week we reported that number 903 had not returned to the Chassahowitzka release pen with his flockmates after roosting outside of it the previous night.
Unfortunately, we must now report the mortality of the juvenile male whooping crane was confirmed near a fresh/brackish water marsh on eastern Chassahowitzka NWR, Citrus County, Florida, on 16 March.
The radio signal of the missing bird was detected by Tim Dellinger, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission, during a search flight that morning, and the mortality site was later accessed by
ICF/FWS
Tracking Team staff on the ground.
Number 903 hatched at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center on May 4th
last year and was known for his love of the water from a very early age. He
arrived at the Necedah NWR with the rest of Cohort One on June 25th and by July 5th he was one of the first to get airborne.
By September, however, he had developed the habit of being the last one out
of the wet pen for morning training sessions and when he would come out, he
would often drop out into the marsh - must've been his love of the water.
During his southward ultralight-guided migration last fall this young
male flew all but 4 miles of the journey.
Date:
March 16,
2010
Reporter:
Liz Condie
Subject:
YEAR OF
THE BIRDS
Location:
St. Marks
The North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation has proclaimed 2010 as
"The Year of the Birds."
The state’s Division of Parks and Wildlife is
scheduling special programs and activities in state parks throughout North
Carolina this year to highlight the role birds play in our environment. This
effort is being carried out in partnership with Audubon North Carolina.
While many regard virtually EVERY year as "The Year of the Birds," a
state-wide public acknowledgment of the importance of birds is heartening.
Wouldn’t it be grand if other States and Provinces would do likewise,
emphasizing a year-long celebration on the environmental, educational, and
recreational aspects of birds in our lives?
Click here to read the story of North Carolina’s "Year
of the Birds."
A tremendous amount of time and other resources are expended in breeding,
hatching, rearing, training, and leading young Whooping cranes on migration.
All that effort would be wasted if they didn’t make it safely through their
first winter in Florida. Normally, their parents would lead them through
their first winter, protecting them from predators and teaching them to
forage in safe areas.
Our ultralight-led birds depend on human monitors and the open-top release
pen as substitutes for their parents. The parenting has to be done as
unobtrusively as possible, and as the winter goes on, the birds are weaned
off the costume handlers. They gradually find more of their own food and
don’t depend on the pellet food they have been raised on.
‘Minding’ these birds is no easy task, and for those of you who think
taking care of half of this year’s cohort of young whooping cranes equates
to a winter vacation- think again. To get to the pen is a task in itself,
first you drive 10 miles to a back entrance to the refuge. Then it is in and
out and in and out of the van as you open and close two locked gates. You
head down a dirt road for three miles, and walk the last ½ mile on a gravel
and oyster shell path through a marine forest that could have been the
setting for a Tarzan movie.
With the frequent and heavy rains in the area this winter, the dirt road
is often washed out and a Kubota RTV 4x4 becomes the only way to negotiate
the road short of walking. This trip takes place at least twice a day, and
sometimes more. Each trip consumes about 3 hours. With the rains, the walk
to the blind is often flooded deep enough to flow over knee-high boots. And
all this effort just gets you as far as the observation blind.
From the observation blind the trip to the release pen is another 200-300
yards through mud sticky enough to double as super glue. The walk out to the
pen is always made in costume and you can only imagine what a white costume
looks like after just one trip.
The winter monitoring crew tries to limit trips to the pen to once a day
and they try to do it when the birds are out of sight. The routine in the
pen is to clean up any spilt food in the feed shelters, remove wet food in
the feeders, and clean up the water fountains that provide fresh water when
the ponds are too salty for the birds to drink.
These trips are done in daylight, but If the birds have to be called into
the pen to roost when they don’t return on their own, an evening trip is
necessary. The costumed handler must stand waiting on the oyster bar that
the birds use for roosting until they are settled down for the evening. This
usually results in negotiating the pen and the mud flat in the dark - a real
challenge.
One of the benefits of all this effort is witnessing an amazing
transformation that takes place during the young Whooping cranes first
winter. When we start out with the young birds at Necedah the young birds
are still in juvenile plumage and cinnamon color. The juvenile plumage is
related to anti-predator camouflage during its earth bound flightless stage.
It molts most of its cinnamon colored feathers, and its entire body
gradually turns to white during the fall migration and the winter months. By
this time of year the only cinnamon left is on the head and upper neck.
By the time the young birds head back north in the spring they have
started to develop black face masks and a hint of red on their head. Full
adult plumage won’t occur until their summer molt, but there is no mistaking
this young bird for anything other than a Whooping crane as it moves around
the marsh. The OM migration team and their winter monitors get to see this
transformation and it is a delight to see each bird develop.
Another joy I have had while helping Brooke monitor and care for the 10
birds at St Marks is observing the other wildlife that is abundant on the
refuge. I have been here about a week, and make at least two trips to the
pen each day. The young whooping cranes are not the only white birds in the
wetlands and they are not even the only white birds in the release pen.
This morning, while watching the cranes from the observation blind, we
saw 14 Great white egrets, 9 Snowy egrets, 12 White ibis, and countless
others in their juvenile plumage. All 4 species were foraging in the same
area.
Among the other birds are red winged blackbirds, a barred owl, marsh
hawks, kestrels, clapper rails unseen but calling at dusk, turkey, several
species of puddle ducks, Great blue herons, and tri-colored herons. There
are also lots of shore birds too far away to identify, numerous song birds,
and even a bald eagle.
Mammals I have seen this week include deer, possums, armadillo, wild
pigs, raccoons, coyote tracks, and tons of squirrels. There are also black
bear on the refuge, and last year they found and made casts of tracks found
on the path to the pen. Among the reptiles are alligator, gopher tortoises,
and a snapping turtle.
As they have for 30 years, Whooping Cranes have provided me with another
great adventure and wildlife experience, this time in the salt marshes of
Florida.
Date:
March 12, 2010 - Entry 2
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
GIVE A WHOOP!
Location:
Main Office
During our southward ultralight-guided migration last fall, our aircraft, followed by the twenty young Whooping cranes, which comprised the Class of 2009, flew quietly
past an invisible mile marker. Though neither our pilots or the birds could
see it, the pilots knew its significance. Crossing that mile meant that
since the first year of this reintroduction when we led the pioneering Class
of 2001 from Necedah, WI to the Chassahowitzka NWR, we had officially logged
a total of 10,000 airmiles guiding this incredible species.
Though there was little, if any, fanfare aloft that day, we celebrated
the achievement that evening, November 15th, along with many craniacs at a
Give A WHOOP! party, which our LaSalle County, IL migration hosts very
graciously allowed us to hold in his aircraft hangar.
At the beginning of April 2009 we launched the Give A WHOOP! campaign
with the hopes of collecting 10,000 WHOOPS - or one for each of the 10,000
miles. The campaign officially ends with our current fiscal year on March
31st and there are still 3,535 WHOOPS left to be sponsored.
For just $10 you can Give a
WHOOP! When you do we'll
add your name to the online
honor roll, which when complete will be sent to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
Show that YOU care about the future of this magnificent species and join our
worldwide WHOOP! We’ll also add your name into the drawing for a five day, all expense paid Backstage Visit with OM's Team at Necedah, WI. (Draw will take place on or before March 31, 2010). AND there are still dozens of limited editions I Give A WHOOP T-shirt draws to be made!
(See the current list of T-shirt
winners!)
If you, like many others have already WHOOP'd, perhaps you would help by
sharing this request with your friends...
Click to access this easy-to-share form and
email it to your contacts!
Date:
March 12, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
2010 STATE OF THE BIRDS REPORT ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Location:
Main Office
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar yesterday released the 2010 State of the Birds report, the first assessment of the vulnerability of our nation’s birds to climate change.
Just like the Canary in the coalmine, birds are indicators of the health of our environment and can illustrate how ecosystems are changing. If we listen, they have an important story to tell.
The seventh aerial census of the 2009-10 whooping crane season was conducted March 9th, 2010 in a Cessna 210 piloted by Gary Ritchey of Air Transit Solutions of Castroville, Texas with
USFWS observer Tom Stehn.
Sighted on the flight were 193 adults and 18 juveniles = 211 total whooping cranes. Fog rolling in off the Gulf in the late afternoon prevented completion of the census. No evidence of mortality was noted on the flight other than the one juvenile that had died earlier in the winter.
The flight again provided solid evidence of 20 family groups currently at Aransas. With one juvenile last seen in Oklahoma December 25th that apparently separated from its parents during migration and is presumably okay and wintering in an unknown location, and the S. Sundown Island chick that has died at Aransas, this accounts for 22 of the 22 juveniles found in Canada during the mid-August fledging surveys. With the one documented mortality this winter, the current flock size is estimated at 242 + 21=263.
March 9th - Recap of whooping cranes (211) found at Aransas:
Adults + Young
San Jose
52 + 5 = 57
Refuge
46 + 5 = 51
Lamar
16 + 1 = 17
Matagorda
60 + 4 = 64*
Welder Flats
20 + 2 = 22*
Hynes Bay
*
Total:
194 + 17 = 211*
* incomplete due to fog
Some cranes continue to leave their marsh territories and are searching for food on the uplands. Upland areas on the barrier islands are flooded, with numerous wet swales on the uplands up to the beach dunes. Overall habitat use documented on the flight included 27 cranes on unburned uplands (13%, or half of the previous flight’s total), 2 in open bays, 3 at a game feeder at Welder Flats, 0 on prescribed burns, and 179 (85%) in salt marsh. Low numbers of 2-3 inch blue crabs have moved into the marshes with recent high tides, and more foraging on crabs has been noted, although blue crab numbers are still low.
Flight Conditions: Winds were light and flight conditions were smooth. Visibility was challenging throughout the flight due to all the moisture in the air. Late afternoon sunshine was often shining in our faces so that it was only possibly to see cranes reliable heading away from the sun. Late afternoon fog rolling onto the barrier islands prevented us from completing the census. The largest group sizes observed were 9 birds seen in the marsh on San Jose and 7 on the uplands on Matagorda Island.
Spring Migration, 2010: The single white-plumaged whooping crane confirmed present at Salt Plains NWR in northern Oklahoma on February 24th and 26th apparently moved on to the Platte River in Nebraska where it was confirmed on March 5th. No other whooping cranes are believed to have left Aransas.
Many thanks to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge Whooping crane
coordinator Tom Stehn for submitting this latest aerial survey report.
Date:
March 10, 2010 - Entry 2
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
EXCITING NEWS FOR ANOTHER ENDANGERED BIRD!
Location:
Main Office
National Park Service Officials with the Pinnacles National Monument
announced yesterday that a pair of endangered California Condors have
constructed a nest and are incubating an egg inside the park boundaries!
At the end of the February 6th reporting period the size of the Eastern Migratory Population (EMP)
was 105 birds (59 males, 46 females).
Distribution at the end of the report period or last winter record included
22 birds in Florida (plus 20 juveniles at two release sites), 3 in Georgia,
2 in South Carolina, 6 in Alabama, 3-5 in Tennessee, 8 in Indiana, 27-29 on
spring migration, 5 not found during the winter, and 7 long-term missing.
In this update * = female, D = Direct Autumn Release, NFT =
non-functional transmitter
Current locations of the Eastern Migratory Population were as follows:
Florida:
- No. 101: Citrus County. His NFT was replaced on 25 February Nos. 105 &
501*: Chassahowitzka NWR pensite, Citrus County.
- Nos. 212 & 419*: Pasco County.
- Nos. 307 & 726* were last detected on Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park,
Alachua County, on 28 February and were no longer present by 4 March.
- Nos. 403 & 309* / 416 were last observed on Mallory Swamp WMA, Lafayette
County, on 16 February and were no longer present by 4 March.
- Nos. 402 & D746*: Lake County.
- Nos. 509 & D942* remained in Lake County, until they began spring
migration on 6 or 7 March.
- No. 514: Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, Alachua County.
- Nos. 709 & 717*: Hernando County.
- No. 712 was last reported with no. 829 and sandhills in Alachua County, on
16 December and had left that location by 21 December. His winter location
was not determined. He was next reported with non-migratory sandhills S of
Brooksville, Hernando County, on 2-6 March.
- No. 713: Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, Alachua County.
- No. 727* was last detected at Hixtown Swamp, Madison County, on 16
February and was no longer present by 4 March.
- No. 733 was in Polk County, on 15 February. He stayed in the area during
the remainder of the report period. His NFT was replaced on 26 February. No.
733 had last been reported on Jasper-Pulaski FWA, Indiana, on 6 December.
- Hatch Year 2008 nos. 4, 14, 18*, 24*, 27, and 30* remained in two groups
(nos. 4, 14, and 18 and nos. 24, 27, and 30) on Chassahowitzka NWR, Citrus
County, usually 1-1.5 miles east of the pensite. They occasionally visited
the pensite. Nonfunctional PTT's on nos. 18* and 24* were replaced with
previously salvaged PTT's on 4 and 7 March, respectively.
- No. 829: Alachua County.
South Carolina:
- Nos. 310 & W601* remained in Colleton County, but were no longer detected
after 1 March.
- Nos. 311 & 312*: Colleton County.
Alabama:
- Nos. 213 & 218* / 524 / D627 & D742*: Morgan County.
- No. 412 was found on his previous wintering territory in Cherokee County,
on 5 January. That area was not rechecked.
Mississippi:
- No. 813* was last reported with sandhills in Panola County, through at
least 20 February. Neither no. 813* nor the sandhills were present during
the next check on 25 February.
Tennessee:
- Five whooping cranes of unknown identity were reported on Armstrong Bend
on 22 February. These likely contained some of the following cranes which
wintered in the area: No. 107*, 316, 505 & 415*, D737 & 828. No. 828
remained at Hiwassee at least through 25 February. No. 107 was reported in
Rhea County (just north of Armstrong Bend) on 23 and 24 February and 6
March. No. 316 and nos. 505 & 415* were later confirmed migrating in Indiana
(see below).
- Nos. D831 and D838* remained in Colbert County, Alabama, through at least
24 February before PTT readings for no. 831 indicated they moved back to
Lawrence County, Tennessee, by the night of 5 March.
Kentucky:
- Nos. 506 and hatch year 2009 DAR cranes 932*, 934*, 935*, 936*, 937*, 940*
and 941 remained in Adair County, through at least 28 February. They were
reported back in Jefferson County the next day. They were later reported in
migration in Indiana (see below).
Indiana:
- No. 211: Vermillion County.
- Nos. 216 & 716*, 317 & 303*, 512 & 722*, & D938: in Knox County (at least
through last PTT reading for no. 722* on 5 March).
Spring Migration:
- No. 316 was reported in Jackson County, Indiana, on 26 and 28 February.
- Nos. 318 & 313* were reported in Greene County, Indiana, on 26 February
and stayed there for the remainder of the report period. They had wintered
on Chickamauga WMA, Bradley County, Tennessee, where they were last reported
on 13 February.
- Nos. 408 & 519* were detected in Meigs & Rhea Counties, Tennessee, on 25
February. They had last been observed on their wintering area on Paynes
Prairie Preserve State Park, Alachua County, Florida, on 16 February.
- Nos. 505 & 415 were reported in Lawrence County, Indiana, on 26 February -
2 March. They had wintered at Armstrong Bend, Meigs County, Tennessee.
- Nos. 506 and hatch year 2009 DAR cranes 932*, 934*, 935*, 936*, 937*, 940*
and 941 migrated from Jefferson County, Kentucky, to Muscatatuck NWR,
Jackson County, Indiana, on 5 March.
- No. D527* was reported with migrating sandhills in Gibson County, Indiana,
on 20 February, and she remained at this location through at least 2 March.
She had last been reported with migrating sandhills in Barren County,
Kentucky, on 7 February.
- No. D528* was reported with migrating sandhills in White County,
Tennessee, on 6 and 14 February. No subsequent reports.
- No. D533 was reported with migrating sandhills in Jackson County, Indiana,
on 25 February. A report of a whooping crane at this location on 23 February
was probably of this crane. She remained there through at least 6 March. She
had last been reported with migrating sandhills in Barren County, Kentucky,
on 6 February.
Location Undetermined:
- Nos. 401 & 508* were last recorded with nos. 514, 712, & 829 in Winnebago
County, Illinois, where they remained until 9 December. No subsequent
reports of the pair.
- Nos. 805 & 812 departed from Columbia County, Wisconsin, on 10 December.
No subsequent reports.
- No. D836 disappeared from Lawrence County, Tennessee, between 29 November
and 11 December. He had been in the group with nos. D831 & D838*. No
subsequent reports.
- Long-term Missing: Nos. 516 & D44-07* were not recorded in 2009. However,
these birds usually summered in Michigan and have a lower than average
probability of detection.
- No. 511was last detected on Necedah NWR on 11 May 2009.
- No. 520* was last reported in Jackson County, Wisconsin, on 16 June 2009.
- No. D628 was last detected on Necedah NWR on 23 June 2009.
- No. 706 was last detected south of Necedah NWR on 6 May 2009.
- No. 24-07 was last detected on Necedah NWR on 26 June 2009.
Water levels, roosting, and movements: Approximate water depths (inches) on the constructed oyster bar at dusk
on 21 February - 6 March ranged from 0 to 36” at the center and 3 to 42” at
the deep end. Salinity levels were recorded as 15-19 ppt during the report
period.
This report period was characterized by extensive
juvenile use of refuge areas not in the vicinity of the pensite. This
pattern was very different from that in previous winters. Ten chicks roosted
in the release pen on 21, 25, and 26 February; 5 chicks on 1 and 5 March;
and 2 chicks on 23 February. On the remaining 8 nights, no chicks roosted in
the pen, and most roosted in areas more than 1 mile away to the east or
south. Typically, chicks would be present at the pensite until dusk but then
fly to these distant roost sites as darkness fell. The adult pair, nos. 105
& 501*, was confined in the top-netted enclosure on 21-23 February and 6
March, but this action had little effect on the roosting behavior of the
juveniles. The pair roosted in the pen, usually on the constructed oyster
bar, on 24-28 February and 4-5 March, and outside of the pen on 2-3 March.
Two groups of 3 yearlings also remained on the refuge and sometimes visited
the pensite but were driven away by the adult pair when that pair was free.
The usual roost site of at least one of these groups was also used by the
juveniles.
On the morning of 7 March, no. 903 did not return
to the pensite after roosting at a distant site. A search by airboat on that
date and searches by tracking aircraft (Florida FWCC) and airboat on 8 March
were conducted, but he was not found. (Ed note: as of this posting we
have no further word on the whereabouts of 903)
Maturation: No. 924 attained his adult voice by the
end of the report period. Nos. 1*, 4*, 7*, and 29 had previously attained
their adult voices.
Ultralight-led Juveniles at St. Marks NWR
Release Site: HY2009 nos. 6, 8*, 10, 11, 12, 14*, 15*, 18, 25*, and 26*
Water levels, roosting, and movements: Water levels varied less than 1 inch from 21 February to 1 March, rose 6
inches on 2 March, and then returned to previous levels on the following
day. Birds roosted on the constructed oyster bar each night without
intervention. Salinity was 4-6 ppt from 21 February to 1 March and 15-18 ppt
from 2 to 6 March.
Maturation: No. 908* attained adult voice by the end
of the report period. Nos. 6, 11, 14*, 15*, and 25* had previously attained
adult voices.
This update was compiled from data supplied by
WCEP winter monitoring and tracking team Richard Urbanek
(USFWS), and Sara Zimorski, Eva Szyszkoski
and Matt Strausser from ICF.
Date:
March 8, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
MIRRORED
GLASS A DEATHTRAP FOR SONGBIRDS
Location:
Main Office
Ecojustice (formerly the Sierra Legal Defense Fund) and Ontario Nature have initiated a
lawsuit against property managerMenkes under the Environmental Protection Act and the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act.
The property and buildings at the center of the lawsuit are referred to as Consilium Place, which is comprised of three 12 to 17 story structures; each resembling a tall, rectangular disco ball with its mirrored windows.
I used to regularly patrol Consilium Place each weekend during spring and fall songbird migration periods and rescued hundreds of tiny birds that had collided with the shiny mirrored windows. If rescued early, or soon after hitting the structure, many would survive following a brief period of captivity inside a brown paper lunch bag. Others would require medical attention from a licensed bird rehabber before being released but unfortunately, a lot simply died.
I will never forget one week in particular – it was the first week of September 2005. Ruby-throated hummingbirds were migrating en masse and we collected 114 that week alone from the sidewalks that surround Consilium Place. A few weeks later during Thanksgiving weekend I, along with several other
FLAP volunteers rescued and collected well over 500 birds – mostly warblers that literally fell victim to these buildings.
The fix for Consilium Place is a fairly easy one – reduce the reflectivity of the glass by placing a product called
CollidEscape over the windows on the first four-storeys. But Menkes has always rebuffed this option, claiming that it would detract from the esthetics of the building. In my opinion having hundreds of dead or dying songbirds is worse.
Click here to read the full article regarding the lawsuit as published in yesterday’s Toronto Star.
Date:
March 8,
2010
Reporter:
Brooke Pennypacker
Subject:
BIRTHDAYS
Location:
St. Marks, FL
“So how old are the birds anyway?” someone asks me at least once a day. “Not
quite a year old yet,” I reply. To which they invariably respond, “Wow! Not
even a year old?”
Birthdays are like that. When you tell folks how old you
are (not how old you feel!), they always look at you a little cross-eyed
because they thought you were either younger or older than you really are.
And they’re right…at least it feels that way. I know because today is my
birthday.
Our migration crew is made up of people who are no strangers to
birthdays. Last year, someone calculated the average age of our crew was 63
years old. Wow! Is this project really sponsored by AARP, the Social
/security Administration or what!?!?
Perhaps it’s time to trade our ultralights in on walkers and teach the
birds to migrate behind them. Shouldn’t be hard to talk the FAA into giving
us Pilots Licenses to fly them. Let’s see…15 hours dual instruction and 5
hours solo. Not bad. And walkers don’t seem like such a bad idea since it
would probably reduce the length of migration considerably and save a huge
amount of gas at the same time. And we could still have the TrikeCam…only
we’d call it the “WalkerCam."
But getting the birds safely through to their first birthday is a big
part of what this reintroduction project is all about. Just as getting me
through to my next birthday is a big part of mine. Hopefully, if luck is
with us and the stars line up just right, they’ll be opening their birthday
presents in Necedah this spring.
There is much more to be said about birthdays, but since I’m dictating
this update I have to stop.....I have to save some hot air to blow out the
candles.
Date:
March 7,
2010 - Entry 2
Reporter:
Liz Condie
Subject:
TN
COMMUNITY HAS COMMONALITY WITH WHOOPERS
Location:
St. Marks, FL
In a web article for the
Nashville News, journalist Liz Garrigan writes about documentary
filmmaker George Butler’s intent to, “…tell an iconic American story.”
Butler’s interest was aroused by a piece entitled, “The Farmer and the
Cranes,” that appeared in the New York Times. The farmer in the NY Times
piece being the gentleman from Bell’s Bend, TN whose land several Whooping
cranes in the Eastern Migratory Population favor.
Ms. Garrigan’s article mentions how, “The tallest Bird in North America…has
gradually been edged out of its habitat toward extinction,” and compares its
struggle to survive, to the “Bells Bend community’s struggle to fend off May
Town,” a proposed 500 acre new development. Garrigan says, “the article
suggested West [the farmer] has more in common with the regal birds than he
would like.
Our thanks to Craniac Fred Applegate for bringing this interesting read to
our attention. Click the link above to read the full article.
Interesting Read
You might find an article in support of bird and biodiversity conservation
by Canadian author and poet, Margaret Atwood, an interesting read. Atwood
and husband Graeme Gibson are Joint Honorary Presidents of BirdLife
International’s Rare Bird Club.
This posting continues the
March 3rd entry and explains another term we pilots sometimes use in our
Field Journal updates.
Prop-Washed - The fifty horsepower engines on our aircraft turn a
72 inch propeller and push enough air out the back to move us forward. That
air was just minding its own business until we came along to use up its
potential energy. We hit it with three propeller blades travelling at 1200
revolutions per minute, twist it into knots and force it out the back like a
mini tornado. It doesn’t take long before it returns to normal but there is
an area behind the aircraft that extends a couple of hundred yards known as
the wake turbulence zone.
Not every training flight or migration leg starts off smoothly. If the
birds are reluctant to leave, a choreographed aerial rodeo can ensue. With
safety as the first priority, each of us concentrates on where we are in
relation to the other three but it’s not uncommon to wander into that area
of tormented air. A weight-shift aircraft like a trike requires some muscle
to physically move the wing in the direction you want to fly, but the wake
from a fifty horse engine can overpower even the strongest pilot. Wrenched
from the calm air, you fight the wing for a couple of seconds trying to stop
an unintentional turn until you clear the turbulent zone and control is
instantly restored. Unless you are close to the ground or flying through the
trees it is not at all dangerous, but you definitely know you have been
prop-washed.
Note: During the early training before the birds have fledged, we taxi
up and down the grass runway to get them to follow us. Sometimes, at the end
of a run, the birds get preoccupied with chasing bugs or wandering off. One
of the tricks we have learned to do is to turn the aircraft around and use
the prop-wash to get their attention. As the breeze hits them their instinct
is to face the wind.
Date:
March 6,
2010
Reporter:
Liz Condie
Subject:
WOOD
BUFFALO-ARANSAS POPULATION UPDATE
Location:
St. Marks, FL
Here it is, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge Whooping crane coordinator Tom
Stehn's latest report on the Wood Buffalo- Aransas Population. After the
season’s 6th aerial census, Tom reported sighting 256 Whooping cranes on his
flight; 237 adults and 19 juveniles, including 20 family groups.
Stehn
said, “The one juvenile last seen in Oklahoma December 25th that apparently
separated from its parents during migration and is presumably okay and
wintering in an unknown location, and the S. Sundown Island chick that has
died at Aransas, accounts for all 22 juveniles found in Canada during the
mid-August fledging surveys. This is one more juvenile accounted for than on
previous survey flights this winter. With the one documented mortality this
winter, the current flock size is estimated at 263; 242 adults and 21
juveniles.”
Because many pairs have left the marsh to search for food on the uplands,
Tom said the territories of the adults cranes continue to be difficult to
figure out. He reported, “Upland areas on the barrier islands are flooded,
with numerous wet swales on the uplands up to the beach dunes with 3 cranes
on Matagorda Island in one of these flooded swales next to the dunes.”
Overall habitat use documented on this latest flight included an
unusually high 67 cranes on unburned uplands, 16 in open bays, two at a game
feeder, and 171 in salt marsh. With Blue crabs at low levels, although some
cranes continue to catch a few crabs, Tom said the cranes are having to look
for other sources of food. “ This is a stressful time of winter for the
Whooping cranes as evidenced by the numbers on uplands.”
Tom said he noted one thing on the flight he had never previously
observed. 20 Sandhill cranes on the southern end of the crane range on San
Jose Island flushed from the census aircraft and flew a very short distance
to stand in open bay habitat. Tom said he had never seen Sandhill cranes
before in open bay habitat.
In his post-flight update Tom noted that, “Food availability improved for
the cranes during the last week in February with more cranes observed
feeding on 2-3-inch blue crabs. Upland swales remained very wet and bay
salinities remained moderate at less than 10 parts per thousand.
Stehn’s 2010 Spring Migration Notes
“A single white-plumaged whooping crane was confirmed present at Salt Plains
NWR in northern Oklahoma on February 24th and 26th. Since no other
white-plumaged Whooping cranes were known to be in the Flyway this winter,
this must be a case of a whooper on the Texas coast getting influenced by
Sandhill cranes and starting the journey ahead of the normal time for
Whooping cranes. Except for birds that had a history of separating from
their parents as juveniles, I think this would be the earliest migration
start on record.”
Date:
March 5,
2010
Reporter:
Liz Condie
Subject:
ST. MARKS
PEN CAMERA and Outreach
Location:
St. Marks, FL
Seems a bit strange to be back here again early mornings. Heather, whose has
been posting the Field Journal updates while I engage in a giant game of
catch-up and work on the year end financials, is soaking up some Mexican
sunshine for a few days. Before she left she had started on a posting about
the CraneCam, which, I will now finish.
Heather wrote…“I’m fairly
certain that the St. Marks camera is possessed – controlled by some
supernatural power that dominates it. Controls it, and everyone that
attempts to get it functioning by throwing hurdles and roadblocks at them.
One thing after another has gone wrong; the location of the radios and
receivers, or the models of the equipment not being compatible with each
other. I would’ve thought that the company that supplied both units would
have known that they weren’t compatible when they shipped them, but
apparently not! But we’re getting close… so close I’m hopeful that we may
finally be able to keep the controlling, dominating powers at bay.”
Late Tuesday evening, I picked up Chris Gullikson at the Tallahassee
Airport and delivered him to the Sierra travel trailer where he would become
Brooke’s ‘house guest’ for a couple of nights. Early Wednesday morning he
and Tom and Craig were ‘on the case’, and by day’s end they had resolved
what is hoped will be last of the stumbling blocks to getting the St. Marks
pensite camera up and running. The next task on the list is the installation
of a DSL line, followed by configuring an encoder to allow video streaming.
With luck, all will be accomplished in the not too distant future.
When I dropped Chris G back at the airport he was headed for some holiday
time further south. Heather's vacationing in Mexico, and Chris Danilko is
off for a week of skiing in Northern Ontario. With me being at St. Marks in
Florida...maybe I'd better send Joe a roll of duct tape so he can hold
things at the office together. (snicker)
The weekly presentations at the St. Marks refuge on Whooping cranes and
the reintroduction project will continue through March. If you are in the
area, come on out and join me and/or Brooke at the Visitors Center Saturdays
from 1 to 2pm. At the same time, why not take advantage of the opportunity
to do some birding or tour the refuge? It's a fabulous place!
Date:
March 4,
2010
Reporter:
Christine Barnes
Subject:
HIERARCHY
Location:
St. Marks, FL
Early in the lives of this reintroduced population of Whooping Cranes,
social hierarchy is determined and adhered to within the cohort. The
established social order and behaviors may carry on throughout the life of
the birds, at least until they disperse into other social groups where their
status may change.
Social hierarchies and other social interactions are
also prevalent in other animals and birds. For example, Chickadees have a
social hierarchy, but they are such friendly types that observing such
structure is difficult, for they are never very long in one place. With the
Whooping Cranes in this project, the social structure is more visible.
One disclaimer here: it’s always tempting to anthropomorphize animal
behavior – we can draw some conclusions that are accurate, probably, but
most observations may be speculation, in reality. That said, here goes – you
be the judge. In the blind, we await the cranes’ dramatic procession to the
oyster bar for the evening roost. Social behaviors become obvious. For
example, cranes lower in the social hierarchy eat after more dominant birds.
The young cranes seem to tolerate small groups, and when one group finishes
feeding, then another group with apparently lower status gets a chance to
chow down.
Some seem playful: out in the pen, there’s an esoteric game underway.
There’s a lot of dancing and prancing, heads high, wings outstretched. Only
two or three cranes at a time are invited to play. It lasts only a minute.
Then the group disperses, and the crane game erupts elsewhere, among
different birds.
From time to time in the pen, the cranes demonstrate intimidating and
threatening behaviors to others in the cohort. Some seem like serious
challenges: we witness two cranes, beak-to-beak, locked in a stare-down. It
lasts for less than a minute, but we are riveted by the stand-off. Finally,
one bird lowers its head and neck and slinks along through some other cranes
whose bodies afford some protection. The dominant crane makes an aggressive
run at the retreating bird, as others scatter.
When the chips are down, though, these birds hang tight. They have a pack
mentality. If they perceive danger, they often gather together and move as a
group, curious, cautious, prepared to do battle. A couple of raccoons are
feeding in the rushes nearby. The cranes step boldly toward the edge of the
pen to investigate. There they watch for a while, and the next night, when
the masked bandits return, the cranes are far less concerned. They seem to
learn quickly which critters are good neighbors.
As in most social groups, it’s important to hold personal space as a
prize. At one end of the pen, one of the older cranes engages in an
independent display. There is a small rain pool at one end of the pen. The
crane is actively dancing by itself, around the pool, into the pool, then
out, pirouetting, dipping into the shallow water and flicking small feathers
from the water’s surface into the air. There’s almost a frenzied quality to
its dance, wings outstretched. The crane finds one final prize: a large
feather about 8 inches long. With the long white feather in its beak, the
dance continues. Groucho Marx comes to mind.
The light is growing thin, and the activity begins to subside. It’s time
for the oyster bar, and a good night’s sleep. However, as Jay said, “Nothing
is about the destination. It’s all about the journey.” On the way, the young
cranes eat. They play. They stare, dance, flap wings, stretch. They are
easily diverted from their mission by three raccoons – a mom and her two
little ones; three deer; and a wad of grass they spear and toss repeatedly,
while dancing and appearing brave in the face of its limp and soggy
challenge. Finally, finally, there is a slow and deliberate line toward the
oyster bar. There is resignation in every step. Gradually, the “Harley
kick”, then onto one leg as the chill of the night overtakes the salt marsh.
An outrageously gorgeous full moon shows up and sets the scene aglow.
If you perceive any similarity between the cranes’ behavior and the
middle schooler in your household, it may be a good reminder that we are not
as far removed from the animal kingdom as we would like to believe. Or, it
may be purely an accident. Your choice.
Date:
March 3, 2010
Reporter:
Joe Duff
Subject:
GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED BY OM
Location:
Main Office
One of the most daunting tasks in learning to fly is understanding all the acronyms. Some unwritten rule (UWR) seems to motivate the aviation community to condense every phrase or terminology to the minimum number of characters. No other industry works so hard at saving words by abbreviating just about every gadget, regulation or procedure. Even the computer world with its PDF’s and JPEG’s can’t hold a candle to the PIC of a 206 on an IFR plan inbound to MSN on a CAT2 ILS approach with ATC clearance.
In case you are interested that translates to the Pilot-in-Command of a Cessna 206 aircraft operating under Instrument-Flight-Rules about to land at the Madison Dane County Airport using a Category-Two Instrument-Landing-System with approval from the Air-Traffic-Controller.
The more endorsements a pilot accumulates and the more complex his aircraft, the more abbreviations he uses until he begins to sound like he’s speaking in tongues. We lowly ultralight pilots are on the other end of that scale and use more slang than acronyms. However, some of the jargon we have adopted or coined can be just as confusing to the non-pilot so we are developing a glossary of Operation Migration bird flying terms.
Initially, we will post it in the Field Journal but I’ll ask Heather to create a separate entry so readers can link to it when we have written an update and assumed you knew what a burble is or need a refresher on the complexities of ground speed versus air speed. This will be a work in progress and I’ll ask others to contribute. Maybe Chris can add some weather info, Brooke can list some bird slang and Richard can give us the definition of vortices.
Air pick up: During the migration the birds are penned in isolated areas out of sight of people and buildings. The lead pilot for the day will land next to the pen and give the handlers the cue to open the gates and release the birds. He begins his take-off roll as they come charging out.
If the field is wet or rough or the winds are coming from the wrong direction we will often conduct an air pick up. The pilot will fly low and slow past the pen and call for the release of the birds but timing is everything. If you call it too soon or the birds are quick at getting out they can stand confused while you make up the distance. If you have really missed it they can take off on their own in the wrong direction and an aerial rodeo ensues. But if you get it right it is a sight to behold as the birds launch all around the aircraft and you circle once to clear the trees and begin to climb as if you too had feathers.
Burble: A burble is a little wave in the air that causes the
aircraft to undulate. It’s not really a bump or a push but more of a gentle
interruption in the perfectly smooth air that is the desire of every
bird-leading ultralight pilot. Burbles can be a warning that the thermals
below are building and about to reach up to grab you or simply an
unexplained anomaly. A burble will cause the wing to move up slightly and
create a wave in the line of birds off the wingtip. A burble is just Mother
Nature passing wind in a Lady-like reminder that we shouldn’t be fooling
with her creatures.
Mechanicals: Mechanical turbulences are disturbances in the air flow as it spills over a ridge or is interrupted by some obstacle in its way. Depending on the wind speed mechanicals can be caused by buildings, forests or even small rolling hills. The worst mechanicals are caused as the air that has been pushed up a mountain ridge tumbles down the leeward side, resulting in trashy air and the requisite bum muscle flexing for the pilot.
On the wing:
In the wild Whooping cranes fly like hawks or eagles. They find rising
columns of warm air and ride these thermals up like an elevator. Using this
energy saving method they can fly for hours at a time covering hundreds of
miles when the conditions are right.
Our aircraft don’t have the soaring
capacity or the fuel range to fly that well or for that long. Instead we
fly in very calm air and our birds soon learn to surf on the wake or
vortices created by the large wings on our ultralights. Just like surfing on
the wake of a boat, they are carried along without much effort. This is
referred to as having them “on the wing” or “picking up” a bird that has
dropped out and is attempting to catch the lead aircraft again.
In late morning, once the winds pick
up, the air becomes rough and the wing begins to move around too much for
them to follow closely (See Trashy air). They must move away from the
aircraft in order to follow us and that requires flap-flying. Their wings
are very long and not designed to flap continually so they get tired
quickly. For that reason we can only fly for an hour or two in the morning
when the air is cool and calm. This is not as efficient as their natural
method of flying and requires ideal conditions. For this reason it takes us
2 to 3 months to lead them south and they can make the return trip alone in
just days.
Stay tuned for other definitions
including:
Ridge Lift
Stall
Thermals
Trashy Air
Battens and batten lines
Lapse rate
Dew point
Ground speed versus Air speed
Crabbing
Vocalizers
Prop wash
Vortices
Please use the guestbook if you have
any suggestions for other jargon you would like explained.
Date:
March 2, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
THE CAMERA
Location:
Main Office
I glanced at the calendar yesterday and realized that February ran out of days and that it was time to flip the page. I'm having a difficult time believing that it's March already. Where does the time go and how
do days turn into weeks turn into months so quickly?
By now or course we had hoped to have the camera located at the St. Marks
observation blind up and streaming. Rest assured that despite the fact that
the young, soon-to-turn-one-year-old cranes will very likely be departing in
a few short weeks to return to Wisconsin, we have NOT given up on the
camera.
In fact Chris Gullikson is scheduled to arrive in Tallahassee this
afternoon and will meet with Tom and Craig to go over a game plan, which we
HOPE will result in a fully operational camera by Thursday. If not, Chris
and I will be joining Tom and Craig when they flee the country.
In the meantime, I was able to log in remotely this morning and captured
the following still images, which show some of the St. Marks cranes hunkered
under the roof of the feed shelter while it poured rain.
Date:
March 1,
2010
Reporter:
Liz Condie
Subject:
ANOTHER DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Location:
St. Marks Florida
The thermometer read 36F when I stepped out into the 6:00am half dark.
Aiming a flashlight into one of the RV’s under compartments, I fished around
for my rubber boots. A shiver went through me as my warm feet slid into cold
rubber. I rolled up my jean pant legs, tugged my turtleneck a little higher,
pulled up the hood to my coat, and I was ready to head out. Shades of
migration.
Similarities aside, and while I was hoping to see a flyover of sorts,
this wasn’t a migration morning.
With Brooke behind the wheel of the tracking van, we toodled down the
highway to our destination a few miles away - the wintering pensite on the
St. Marks refuge. Two turns later, we were on a bumpy, curvy dirt road that
ended in a small clearing about a mile off the highway. This is where the
driving stopped and the trekking began.
The trail, carved through the Florida wilderness, is about half a mile
long and it winds past pines, palms, and ponds. My boots crunched over
oyster shells, and in the muddy sections they abraded my heels as the black
sludge tried to suck them off. It had been days since we’d had heavy rain,
but in spots there was still ankle deep standing water to wade through.
Over a little wooden bridge we went, where, I am told, a Cotton mouth
hangs his hat. (I’m ophidiophobic, so I gave a silent but fervent cheer for
cold temperatures. It was almost full light now, and our pace quickened as
the creatures whose home envelops us begin to voice their morning calls.
Up ahead it was brighter, signaling the thinning of the vegetation and
the open space of the marshland that lie beyond. And then, there it was; the
raised blind draped in camouflage netting and flanked by camo’d panels. At
the top of the stairs Brooke unlocked the blind door. Instantly we
discovered that the 10 Whooping crane juveniles were indeed ‘early birds’.
They had already flown out of the pen for their morning forage.
While Brooke readied his notebooks in preparation for recording the day’s
data, I dug for the binoculars and my camera. And just like on migration,
the hurry up was done and the wait began. Trying to minimize the time the
young cranes are exposed to the costume, Brooke does his bird/pen chores
while they out on the landscape. Although the pen is giant compared with our
travel pens, the tasks remain much the same. I watched as he started with
filling feeders and finished with a walk around the perimeter checking the
fence and the hot wire.
By the time Brooke was making his way back to the blind, the breeze had
picked up, my toes were whining, and I was wishing I could tuck them up my
coat sleeves where my hands and fingers had retreated. But there was still
another chore to be done. Brooke was to climb the tower that bears the
equipment and antennas for the ‘yet-to-get-functional’ St. Marks pen camera
and bring down the transmitter. (On Tuesday a professional climber will go
up the 400 foot tower that the receiver is on and retrieve it for an
on-the-ground alignment with the transmitter. 'True Grit' is how hard the
photo club fellas are working on what has undoubtedly been the frustration
of their lives.)
Like a child's tri-fold puzzle, I had a view of various parts of Brooke
as he climbed up the skinny tower. Head and shoulders, mid section, then
boots, paused outside the blind's side window as every few feet he cut the
tie wraps that secured the transmitter's cables to the struts. Skrunk and
skrawk sounds drifted down as wrenches loosened nuts, and bolts were drawn.
On his way back down long minutes later, he passed the assembly – cables and
all, through the blind window and he clamored down the last few yards
hand-free.
Okay, all the chores were done… and all done out of sight of the birds
too. But – where are they? Not far, because we can hear them now…just a few
calls. And right on cue they entered stage right. In a twinkling, ten sets
of powerfully stroking white wings whisked them from the treeline to the
pen. Their landing gear lowered as all 10 dropped into the pen and the
sights of a very familiar show began to play out.
Soaking up the view, storing it away against it being my last one of
them, the minutes ticked by quickly. Then we were back on the trail, leaving
the soon-to-be graduates from the Class of 2009 to their own devices.
Click each
image to view larger version on our
Flickr
site.
Top Left:
Feed pail in hand, Brooke makes his way from the blind to the pen to
do the morning chores.
Top Right: The 'St. Marks Ten' back in the pen after their
early morning jaunt. Not long after this was snapped they were going
at the feeders as if they hadn't just returned from breakfast in the
marsh.
Bottom Left: Brooke climbs the tower fully costumed in
case the cranes came back while he was disconnecting and retrieving
the transmitter.
Date:
February 27, 2010
Reporter:
Brooke Pennypacker
Subject:
THE NINES...cont.
Location:
St. Marks, FL
...And it’s not that the number 9 lacks a special significance in our culture. I mean, everyone knows that there are really supposed to be 9 days in a week and not 7 and that god rested on the 9th day. Union rules. And there are really 9 months in a year, proof being that any “Village Gossip” can count to 9 faster than to any other number. The real reason we’re stuck with 7 of so many things is because when god was typing out the script for the “Creation,” her typewriter was so worn out that the #9 looked like the #7. And besides that, she thought she was working on an episode of “Seinfeld” anyway so what did it matter.
Now, I’m not paranoid you understand but I really think it’s all 908’s fault. She’s the smallest bird in the group and the most easily influenced. So, when the other chicks see me climbing the steps up to the blind, they yell to her, “Quick! Here he comes! Hide behind #910!” and she immediately disappears from view.
Where did they learn this behavior you ask? I don’t know, except that I do remember a time on migration when I walked into the pen and found a copy of the children’s book, “Where’s Waldo” lying on the ground, and I also recall that it struck me as suspicious at the time that as I reached down to pick it up, all the chicks walked to the other side of the pen and pretended I wasn’t there. Now I’ve learned through the years that you can do a lot with a Whooping Crane…..like feed it, fly with it, walk with it and even share your inner most thoughts with it. But never, and I mean NEVER can you ever trust it. After all, it belongs to a species that has had tens of millions of years to develop the perfect practical joke.
This being said, I am a great believer in self help… perhaps the result of growing up and having to visit a doctor whose treatment for everything consisted solely of yelling “Patient… Heal thyself” at the top of his lungs, then sending the insurance company a bill. So I have found a local treatment program that virtually guarantees to cure me. Most folks take 12 steps to complete it. Me? I’ll do it in 9.
Date:
February 26, 2010
Reporter:
Brooke Pennypacker
Subject:
THE NINES
Location:
St. Marks, FL
Winter monitoring of 10 whooping crane chicks would seem at first to be a fairly benign undertaking, free from the danger of mental and physical harm and the farthest thing from an “X-Game” one can imagine, but as with most “first seeming’s,” this is not the case. Case in point: I have recently developed a syndrome new to the science of medicine called, for lack of a better name, a “Case of the Nines.” The affliction is as sudden as it is debilitating and sadly, there does not appear to be a cure on the horizon.
What exactly is this, you ask? Well, the Physicians’ Desk Reference, known to those of us who frequent hospitals as the “PDR” defines it as “the inability of a bird handler to see or count more than 9 birds in a pen, when he or she is actually looking at 10.“ It goes on to say, “the symptoms present most often during bird checks when the handler stares through any magnifying optical device to count the birds in a pen, subjecting the handler to waves of anxiety, stress and even panic followed by heart palpitations, profuse sweating and language consisting largely of four letter words.”
“I only count nine!” I declare in alarm to Scott, or Scott or Jay from Disney or Gordon or Christine from camp, and they always smile knowingly and reply with reassuring understanding, “No Brooke. All ten chicks are safely in the pen.” Clearly they all worked at K Mart at some point in their careers manning the Lost Children Counter.
Not that counting to 10 isn’t without its challenges under the best of circumstances. I mean all men are created equal but they just don’t stay that way -- and not all of us have 10 fingers to count with due to experiencing an attack of “Dumb Ass” sometime in our lives, which resulted in the subsequent kidnapping of a finger, casting us forever into the subcategory of the “Digitally Challenged.” Yet no “Handicapped Parking Sticker” for us and NO RESPECT! We just have to grin and bear it and make up dumb stories about how it happened… ”I jumped into a pool of white sharks to save a little girl who had fallen in and…”
But even before my digital makeover… like way back in the first grade, I had a tough time getting to 10 without a quick finger roll call, and getting to 20 without removing my shoes and socks was impossible. It was then I learned that the first digital calculator was more anatomical than electrical and because we were poor, we never had to make change for anything bigger than a twenty anyway. Then, when everybody got rich, we started using an abacus, which until then was nothing more than a musical instrument in the rhythm section of a garage band called, “The Camel Jockeys.” Whatever the reason, I just can’t get past the number 9.
TO BE CONTINUED IN MY NEXT UPDATE TOMORROW...
Date:
February 25, 2010
Reporter:
Joe Duff
Subject:
LAWN ORNAMENTS
Location:
Main Office
Pictured here is the latest craze in lawn ornaments. Guaranteed to be a bigger hit than pink flamingos, these plastic Whooping cranes are mounted on a single wire that you simply push into your grass to decorate your front yard.
Seven of the 2009 Direct Autumn Release birds are in the Company of Ultralight bird number 506. This lone 5 year-old male stands among them like a single parent of too many offspring.
The Tracking Team reported that they all were in Jefferson County, Kentucky but recently moved to Adair County.
Eddie and Jennifer Huber called with a status report when the birds were in the Louisville area and we thought we would share his picture of eight one-legged birds. Seems it was cold in Jefferson County and every last one of them was standing on one foot with the other tucked into their feathers to keep warm.
Date:
February 24, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
EASTERN MIGRATORY POPULATION UPDATE
Location:
Main Office
At the end of the February 6th reporting period the size of the Eastern Migratory Population (EMP) was 105 birds (59 males, 46 females). Distribution at the end of the report period included 30 birds in Florida (plus 20 juveniles at two release sites), 3 in Georgia, 4 in South Carolina, 8 in Alabama, 1 in Mississippi, 8-9 in Tennessee, 10 in Kentucky, 8 in Indiana, 5-6 at undetermined locations, and 7 long-term missing.
In this update * = female, D = Direct Autumn Release, NFT =
Non-functional transmitter. Current locations of the EMP were as follows:
Florida:
Nos. 101, 105 & 501*: Citrus County.
Nos. 212 & 419*: Pasco County.
Nos. 307 & 726*, 408 & 519*, 514, 713, 829: Alachua County.
Nos. 403 & 309*, 416: Lafayette County.
Nos. 402 & D746*, 509 & D942*: Lake County.
Nos. 709 & 717*: Hernando County.
No. 727*: Madison County.
No. 712 was last reported with no. 829 and sandhills in Alachua County, on 16 December and had left that location by 21 December. There were no subsequent reports.
No. 733 was reported with non-migratory sandhills in Polk County, on 15 February. He stayed there during the remainder of the report period. His transmitter was confirmed nonfunctional.
No. 733 had last been reported on Jasper-Pulaski FWA, Indiana, on 6 December.
Nos. 804, 814, 818*, 824*, 827, and 830* remained on Chassahowitzka NWR, Citrus County, 1-1.5 miles E of the release pensite.
Alabama:
Nos. 213 & 218*, 524 & D627, D742*: Morgan County.
No. 412: Cherokee County.
Nos. D831 & D838* remained in Lawrence County, Tennessee, early in the report period. According to PTT readings for no. 831, they subsequently returned to Lauderdale County in northwestern Alabama by the night of 13 February, and Colbert County, by the night of 18 February.
Mississippi:
No. 813* remained with sandhills in Panola County.
Tennessee:
Whooping cranes integrated with sandhills began migration with sandhill cranes during the report period. Five whooping cranes of unknown identity were reported on Hiwassee WR/Armstrong Bend on 12 February. These likely contained some of the following cranes which wintered in the area: No. 107*, 316, 505, 415*, D737, & 828.
Nos. 318 & 313*: Bradley County.
No. D528* was reported with migrating sandhills in White County, on 6 and 14 February. She had wintered on Hiwassee WR and Armstrong Bend, Meigs County.
Kentucky:
Nos. 506 & D932*, 934*, 935*, 936*, 937*, 940* & 941 moved South from Jefferson County, to Adair County, on 12 or 13 February.
No. D527* was reported with migrating sandhills in Barren County, on 7 February. She had wintered on Hiwassee WR and Armstrong Bend, Meigs County, Tennessee.
No. D533* was reported with migrating sandhills in Barren County, on 6 February. She had wintered on Hiwassee WR and Armstrong Bend, Meigs County, Tennessee.
Location Undetermined:
Nos. 401 & 508* were last recorded with nos. 514, 712 & 829 in Winnebago County, Illinois, where they remained until 9 December. No subsequent reports of the pair.
Nos. 805 & 812 departed from Columbia County, Wisconsin, on 10 December. No subsequent reports.
No. D836 disappeared from Lawrence County, Tennessee between 29 November and 11 December. He had been in the group with nos. D831 & D838*. No subsequent reports.
Long-term Missing:
Nos. 516 & D744* were not recorded in 2009. However, these birds usually summered in Michigan and have a lower than average probability of detection.
No. 511 was last detected on Necedah NWR on 11 May 2009.
No. 520* was last reported in Jackson County, Wisconsin, on 16 June 2009.
No. D628 was last detected on Necedah NWR on 23 June 2009.
No. 706 was last detected South of Necedah NWR on 6 May 2009.
No. 724 was last detected on Necedah NWR on 26 June 2009.
Approximate water depths on the constructed oyster bar at dusk on 7-20 February, fluctuated between 0 to 21 inches at the center and 3 to 27 inches at the deep end.
Caretakers used several methods to manage the adult pair (105 & 501) at the pen to ensure that juveniles were feeding adequately and minimally disturbed by the older birds.
Maturation: No. 929 attained his adult voice by the end of the report period. Nos. 901*, 904*, & 907* had previously attained adult voice.
Salinity was 12-17 ppt during the period.
Ultralight-led Juveniles at St. Marks NWR Release Site: HY2009 nos. 6, 8*, 10, 11, 12, 14*, 15*, 18, 25*, and 26*
Water levels varied less than 2 inches during the report period. Birds roosted on the constructed oyster bar each night except 12 February, when 4 roosted in a pond 30 m from the pen. Six birds were led into the pen by costumed caretakers to roost on the oyster bar on that night.
Maturation: Nos. 911 and 925* attained adult voices by the end of the report period. Nos. 906, 914*, & 915* had previously attained adult voices.
Salinity was 3-6 ppt during the report period.
This update was compiled from data supplied by
WCEP Trackers Richard Urbanek,
Eva Szyszkoski, Sara Zimorski, and M. Strausser.
Date:
February 23,
2010
Reporter:
Liz Condie
Subject:
SHAKE IT
OFF
Location:
St. Marks, FL
Joe’s recent Field Journal posting briefly summarizing the discussions at
the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership's winter meetings has prompted
several of our web audience to write. Most messages expressed interest in
one topic or another, or looked for further details. What surprised me were
the couple of messages wondering why, given repeated nest abandonments, we
didn’t just give it up as a lost cause.
At one time or another, just about
everything - from ideas to inventions, from programs to projects – attracts
naysayers. These prognosticators of doom and gloom seem to gain satisfaction
if not take great glee in raining their negativity on their target parade.
To these individuals every bump in the road is a mountain, every quandary an
insurmountable hurdle, and they exploit the dilemma du jour to dispute the
efficacy of the whole concept.
The hope of reintroducing Whooping cranes to eastern North America went
from having no way to train captive-reared birds to migrate, to successfully
teaching nine generations a migration route. And along the way, project
partners developed and refined protocols and techniques to mitigate if not
overcome a multitude of challenges.
The most recent predicament facing this unique wildlife endeavor has been
the nest abandonments. And while without doubt it is likely the most
critical issue that has faced the reintroduction project since it’s
inception, in my view at least, it is not reason to throw in the towel.
Albeit a big one, it is just one more bump in a long road that, since we
departed on this journey, has never been smooth.
The following fable captures, I think, the essence of what needs to be
done to surmount the newest obstacle to the Eastern Migratory flock
achieving a self-sustaining population.
One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The poor animal cried
piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally,
the farmer decided that as the animal was old and the well needed to be
covered up anyway, it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey. He asked
his neighbors to bring shovels and come over and help him. They all began to
shovel dirt into the well. At first, when the donkey realized what was
happening, he cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement, he quieted
down.
A few shovel loads later, the farmer looked down the well and was
astonished at what he saw. When each shovelful of dirt hit the donkey’s back
he shook it off and took a step up. Pretty soon, to everyone’s amazement,
the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!
The moral of the story? Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of
dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a
step up. We can get out of the deepest well by just not stopping - never
giving up.
Using this maxim as a model, what we need to do is to not stop, to not give
up, but to shake it off and take as many steps as necessary to help the
Whooping crane out of the well.
There are many apropos sayings, such as, “When the going gets tough, the
tough get going.” But the one I like best is, “Anyone can give up. It’s the
easiest thing in the world to do.” Might as well throw one more cliché in
here. “Where there is a will, there is a way.”
Date:
February 22, 2010
Reporter:
Christine Barnes
Subject:
EVENING ROOST CHECK
Location:
St. Marks, FL
February 20: It’s the first warm(ish) day since December, so maybe winter’s grip is finally slipping.. We needed only a couple of layers of clothes this evening. And there were clearly some other ‘firsts’ – if not for the cranes, then for me. For example:
The cranes were in the pen in the late afternoon when we arrived. All ten of them. They seemed so wonderfully relaxed and mellow – just pooching around, poking at things, preening. Calm. No sparring, a rare wing-flap just to make sure the hydraulics still worked, maybe. It was only 5:30 pm, plenty of time to make trouble. But they didn’t. They just kept on loafing and enjoying the warmth.
Another ‘first’ was their unperturbed acceptance of interlopers into the pen. The small flock of immature White Ibis that riled the cranes all up a few weeks ago, now flew in like old chums and proceed to snack around the edges of the ponds, then lifted off in a flurry of disorganized wings and long, curvy bills, and left the salt marsh for their evening roost. No panic from our favorite youngsters. Just business as usual.
And another: several yards to the north as that wonderful golden glow grew over the marsh, twin fawns, complete with spots, grazed with their mom and a friend. They, too, seemed at ease, perhaps grateful for a day less harsh, less demanding on them. Occasionally, one head would appear over the tops of the grasses, then another, and they’d all freeze – but after a minute of reassurance, back to grazing.
Still another: not 20 yards from the deer, there was a snag – a leafless branched stick standing about three feet taller than the grasses. On it was, for me, a true harbinger of spring: a Red Winged Blackbird, called and called in full-throated “kon-ka-rheee”. Even the Clapper Rails were more generous with their applause this evening.
Then: as the light began to fade, several of the cranes gathered at the edge of the pool and began to drink. Time and again, they dipped in, then raised their heads high so the water flowed down and down and down that long, snaky neck. The salinity in the pool must be greatly reduced from all the rainfall.
Finally, just as we could barely see them through the falling darkness, one by one, the cranes lined up on the oyster bar, seemingly totally content with what might be the closest thing to spring we have seen to date.
As we left the blind, a half-moon reflected in the standing water along the path. Mars glowed orange in the night sky. For the first time this year, hundreds of spider eyes shone emerald green on the moist ground along the way. A loud chorus of tree frogs sang bell-like evening music as we left. Promises, promises.
Date:
February 20, 2010
Reporter:
Joe Duff
Subject:
ODD
WEATHER
Location:
Main Office
Eighty-nine days to complete a 1250 mile migration; no snow for the winter Olympics in Vancouver but over 4 feet of it at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. Without getting into the global warming debate there does appear to be something odd going on.
Just over a week ago we were in Florida experiencing colder mornings than we had at home in Ontario and attending the WCEP winter meetings. I spoke with John French who is the head of Research for the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. In fact I was only able to talk to him between frantic text messages from his team in Maryland. They were trying desperately to dig out from under almost 30 inches of snow with another 18 yet to come.
Already I can hear my countrymen objecting to the notion that 30 inches of snow should cause a problem. But before we bask in our northern superiority let me remind you that here we have the infrastructure in place to deal with that kind of dump.
In the same way as we are ill prepared to deal with prolonged summer temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit they can’t handle 4 feet of snow. Before we roll our eyes just remember that when they head outside to clear the driveway they don’t find a parka and isolated boots in the front closet. When they open the garage the only shovel available was designed for digging in the garden and they don’t have the array of assorted scrapers, scoops and maybe even snow blowers that we find. Their cars don’t have plug in heaters, snow tires, winter wipers or even antifreeze in the windshield washers. When they leave home the plows haven’t been working all night and the streets haven’t been sanded.
So before we puff out our chests, remember the look of superiority from the locals after we sunburned ourselves to a crisp on the first day of a winter vacation. We were out of our element then so maybe have a little sympathy.
John reported yesterday that he and the crane crew just completed a first pass at damage inventory and all the birds are fine. About 16 pens with nets need replacement and another ~20 can possibly be repaired. There was also some scattered damage to fencing, but not too much, and some feed shelters collapsed. He suspects these numbers will rise as they must wait for the snow to melt to see much of the netting.
John promised to report in a few days with better estimates on how long the repairs will take and what kind of impact it might have on the breeding season.
We wish them good luck.
Date:
February 18, 2010
Reporter:
Brooke Pennypacker
Subject:
CRABBY
APPLETON
Location:
St. Marks, FL
“I’m Crabby Appleton and I’m rotten to the core!” the nasty old Saturday morning cartoon curmudgeon of my early youth used to proudly proclaim, and so began my first introduction to “crabs.” But, as with everything else in life, I was soon to learn that there are crabs and then there are crabs and not all of them walk on two legs.
Yesterday morning, we introduced the birds to the other kind… the kind that inhabit the sea and make you scream “Ouch, Gosh Darn It” and other cool things when you step on them and they pinch your little toe and transform it into a giant blood blister.
The kind that constitutes an important staple in the diet of the Aransas flock of Whoopers.
But at Aransas the parents make the introductions. Here, it’s up to us. So
yesterday morning, Scott Terrell from Disney and I presented our one half of the Class of 2009 with seven of the prettiest little scuttling, pinching, eye-popping blue clawed crabs that ever made the mistake of getting trapped and winding up in a bucket, compliments of Jack and Anne Rudloe of
Gulf Specimen Lab in nearby Panacea, FL.
At first it was a standoff as we emptied the bucket at the edge of the pen pond and the score stood at 0-0. Both teams eyed each other with curiosity, wonder and suspicion for a minute or two until #910, his beak, as always, the hair trigger, began jack hammering against the back of the first crab. “Knock, knock. It’s just little old me #910”
The crab went into backup mode with the first concussion as the thought balloon rose into the air above #910’s head, “This sucker is HARD!” Then #906 took aim at another crab, beaked its leg and shook it and all that was attached to it back and forth, using the resistance of the water for leverage, as first one leg then another separated and became food. Soon the rest of the chicks joined in, pulling and pounding, shaking and baking - attacking each crab with laser-like focus, precision and frenzy. #911 and #918 tag-teamed one crab while #914 flipped another, body slamming it on the bank and pounding his beak through it shell, thus discovering the weakness in the crab’s considerable defenses and the best technique to arrive at the mother lode of meat.
The score was now Birds 7, Crabs 0 as the massacre continued and the visiting team was morphed unceremoniously into a muddy collage of shell fragments. Some days, it just doesn’t pay to be a crab. But education has a price and tuition in nature is not always cheap. We can only hope that today’s lesson will bring closer the day when our chicks will achieve the competence to wander the earth wild and free, independent of their costumed handlers.
As Scott and I slogged through the muck to our place of exit, I looked back at our little white huddle of chicks, still working intently on the spoils of their sport, and I could swear I heard one of them yell out to us in a voice made exuberant by victory, “Crabby Appleton….Make My Day!!!!”
Click each image to view fullsize in our
Flickr Library
Date:
February 16, 2010
Reporter:
Joe Duff
Subject:
WCEP
MEETINGS
Location:
Main Office
One of the most physically demanding aspects of this project has little to do with freezing temperatures at 1000 feet or rushing to set up a travel pen in record time. It’s not about sore arms from working the control bar of the aircraft in rough air or an aching back from cranking up the hitch on the 30 feet trailer. In fact the muscle that gets fatigued the most is the gluteus-maximus from sitting on your butt for four solid days while attending the
WCEP winter meetings in Florida. For Liz and me that exercise followed a 22 hour drive from our home base in Ontario.
The meetings were hosted by the team from St Marks National Wildlife
Refuge. We started in the early mornings and worked a full day with side meetings during lunch and continued well into the evening - but it was all worth it because a lot was accomplished.
Rich King is the biologist at the Necedah National Wildlife
Refuge. He developed the nesting study conducted last year and proposed a more aggressive plan for 2010. HD cameras will be placed near some nests. They will function for at least 30 days unattended and be of high enough quality so that we can record black fly numbers at the nest sites and the behaviour of the birds.
Last year a hands-off approach was adopted to ensure we were not collecting eggs too soon after they were abandoned. The idea was to give the birds an opportunity to return to incubation. That meant that fewer eggs could be salvaged so the egg collection protocol has been changed to allow earlier retrieval from abandoned nests.
Eggs collected in this way would be added to the WCEP population but it also gives us an opportunity to substitute a dummy egg so the birds have something to sit on if they do return. We could also add a data-logger to that decoy to measure things like temperature, moisture levels and movement. If in fact the parents did resume incubation it might be possible to return the egg.
All of this is in the proposal stage yet and will be discussed several times before this spring.
Operation Migration will conduct aerial surveys during the breeding season to monitors nests that are not visible from the ground due to high vegetation or isolation. Because all of the birds at Necedah are familiar with our ultralights we shouldn’t cause undue disturbance. It would be like another bird flying overhead which will likely not cause any more reaction than a threat call to stay clear.
BTi is a relatively innocuous bacterium that is used extensively to control Black flies and mosquitoes. It has to be introduced at the exact time in the life cycle of the insects. It produces a crystal that perforates the digestive tract of the larva and if it is done right you can achieve a 95% kill rate. There have been extensive studies done on its affects on other life forms but it seems to be species specific. The trick is to get it into the right water systems at the right time and at the right temperature.
There are roughly 110 miles of ditches, streams and waterways in and around Necedah and these pests can travel up to 15 kms to feed. The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership is working with Clemson University to develop a plan of action this spring but because of all the variables only a pilot study will be attempted. A small section of the Yellow River will be treated so that a more successful application can be performed next year.
In the meantime Black fly populations will be measured at Necedah and Horicon
NWR, which is the most likely place to relocate the project if we can’t control them.
In the nine years that the WCEP Health Team has been conducting pre-migration examinations of the birds they have not found anything they didn’t already know about. The birds are only held for 10 minutes but it is enough of an affront to make them wary of us for at least a few days while they recover. As well they often struggle and it’s difficult to restrain them without generating too much force. Birds have been lost to
the project during the health checks so the Health Team is recommending that the fall examination be eliminated. We still need to fit radio transmitters on them but we are now using snap on units which take only a minute to attach.
Infectious Bursal Disease has been found to affect cranes and the USGS National Wildlife
Health Center is planning a study to determine the extent of the threat. To do that they need to test some birds so any Whooping crane that is removed from the project this year will be used for testing unless it is a genetically rare
bird.
Roughly a year ago a volunteer committee was formed to conduct an in-depth evaluation of the WCEP techniques, science, structure, outreach and overall success. The five members represent all disciplines of biology from fieldwork to analysis. Combined they have accumulated 159 years of experience. They presented a PowerPoint presentation with their initial finding. Their final document contains 160 pages and will be ready in March. At that point we will let you know what they recommend... until then there is lots to think about.
Date:
February 15, 2010
Reporter:
Christine Barnes
Subject:
EVENING ROOST CHECK
Location:
St. Marks, FL
February 13: Upon reaching the blind, one glance across the wetland where the pen is located took my breath away. There, 50 yards off the western side of the pen, foraged 10 gorgeous white birds, feathers on head and tail still lightly kissed with cinnamon. The vision is how it should be. It is right, and good.
As the shadows lengthened on the edge of the salt marsh, the cranes made their way toward the pen.
The birds were strung out along the outside of the fence, foraging and occasionally, sparring with each other, dancing high into the air with wings spread and slashing feet. The wide path leading to the blind was under water from recent rains. It was a source of interest to the cranes: more critters accessible in the mud, easy exploring. The birds took their time, snacking along the way. Two laggards near the edge of the pen took wing and a chorus of loud calls filled the golden marsh as the two crashed the hors d’oeuvres party.
As the novelty wore off, the entourage slowly turned and sauntered back toward the pen. Then, all 10 birds launched and flew east, did a half-lap, and landed in the pen. It’s always a relief when the young cranes follow the safety rule book.
The light was rapidly yielding to twilight. Clapper Rails offered polite applause to the thin winter sun as the day’s last fragile warmth disappeared over the edge of the salt marsh. The cold of the night fell fast. What looked to be an easy bedtime this evening slowly became a circus of sorts. Nine birds lined up along-side the surrogate on the oyster bar. The remaining recalcitrant youth moseyed over to the kitchen for a crane chow bedtime snack. Two others thought that looked like a great idea, and also walked off the oyster bar.
Soon it was full blown crane mutiny as all but three abandoned the watery roost and joined the others at the snack bar. More sparring, more bedtime shenanigans ensued. In the enveloping cold of the night, with barely enough light to see the pen from the blind, the salt marsh was eerily silent. No Redwings, no Rails, no Barred Owls called. Sensibly, but painfully slowly, the young birds returned to the oyster bar. Once again they settled. Then one lone bird walked off, over the high ground and into the next pond. Its ghost-like form was barely visible, but its independent statement clear: I’ll pick my own hotel.
All is well.
Date:
February 13, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
A VISIT TO THE ST. MARKS BLIND
Location:
Main Office
During the WCEP meetings held at St. Marks NWR last week, a few
partnership members visited the observation blind located several hundred feet from the release pen. One visitor was USFWS External Affairs representative Ashley Spratt
Ashley wrote about her visit and has graciously allowed us to
link to her story - Thanks Ashley for sharing your experience with us!
Date:
February 12, 2010
Reporter:
The OM Team
Subject:
THANK YOU!!!
Location:
Various Locations
It is with our sincerest appreciation that we're thrilled to announce the 2009
MileMaker Campaign is now FULLY FUNDED!
During the 2009/10 ultralight-guided southward migration, we traveled 1285 airmiles, covering seven states
during 89 days, before eventually delivering 10 juvenile Whooping cranes to the
St. Marks NWR in Wakulla County, FL and the remaining 10 chicks to the
Chassahowitzka NWR in Citrus County, FL.
We could not have accomplished this without your support - THANK YOU!
Date:
February 11, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
NEWS FROM CHASSAHOWITZKA WINTER SITE
Location:
Main Office
The Chassahowitzka release pen is getting to be a busy wintering spot! Not only are the ten Class of 2009 birds wintering there but several 2008 cranes AND a couple from previous years.
This update from Eva Szyszkoski, ICF
Tracking Field Manager discusses how many and exactly which 'white birds'
are now frequenting the winter release pen.
Date:
February 10, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
GIVE A WHOOP!
Location:
Main Office
There are still 3647 WHOOPS left to go before we can call this celebration complete. For just $10 you can Give a
WHOOP! When you do we'll
add your name to the online
honor roll, which when complete will be sent to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
Show that YOU care about the future of this magnificent species and join our
worldwide WHOOP! We’ll also add your name into the drawing for a five day, all expense paid Backstage Visit with OM's Team at Necedah, WI. (Draw will take place on or before March 31, 2010). AND there are still dozens of limited editions I Give A WHOOP T-shirt draws to be made!
(See the current list of T-shirt
winners!)
With Valentine's Day just around the corner this would make an ideal gift
for a loved one, and each and every $10
WHOOP automatically enters you into these draws.
Date:
February 9, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
IMAGES
Location:
Main Office
As most of you know, those that work fulltime with Operation Migration wear many, many hats and while not all of them fit properly, we try to make do with our limited resources. One of the hats I wear
is that of Image Librarian. That is that I try to keep track of all of our images in
a catalogued system. This requires that I go through each and every image,
as time permits and file them in the appropriate
folder according to date, but not before assigning keywords so that if we receive a request for a specific type of image, I can locate them quickly.
I've just had an opportunity to begin sorting images captured during the 2009 field season and southward migration and thought I'd share these lovelies capture by pilot Chris Gullikson. Click on each image to see the larger version on our
Flickr page.
At the end of the February 6th reporting period the size of the Eastern Migratory Population (EMP)
was 105 birds (59 males, 46 females). In this update * = female, D = Direct Autumn Release, NFT = Non-functional transmitter. Current locations of the EMP
were as follows:
Florida:
No. 1-01: Citrus County.
Nos. 105 & 501: appeared at the Chassahowitzka NWR pensite on 3 February and
stayed during the remainder of the report period. The pair had last been
confirmed on Hiwassee WR, Meigs County, Tennessee, on 16 January.
Nos. 212 & 419*: Pasco County.
Nos. 307 & 726* / Nos. 408 & 519* / 514 / 713 / 829: Alachua County.
Nos. 403 & 309* were found in Lafayette County, with no. 416 during an
aerial survey flight on 20 January. The pair had last been recorded when
they began migration from Necedah NWR, Juneau County, Wisconsin, on 7
December. 416 had last been observed during migration in Jackson County, IN
on 30 December.
Nos. 402 & D746* / 509 & D942*: Lake County.
Nos. 709 & 171*: Hernando County.
No. 712 was last reported with no. 829 and Sandhills in Alachua County, on
16 December and had left that location by 21 December. There were no
subsequent reports.
No. 727* was reported with Sandhills in Madison County, on 24 and 25 January
and was confirmed during a survey flight on 29 January. She had last been
reported in Brown County, Indiana, on 12 December.
Nos. 804, 814, 818*, 824*, 827, and 830* remained mainly in non-tidal
brackish marsh on Chassahowitzka NWR, Citrus County, 1.5 miles E of the
pensite, during the report period. They periodically returned to the
pensite.
Georgia: Nos. 3-07 / and the pair 707 & D739*: Lowndes County.
Location Undetermined:
Nos. 401 & 508* were last recorded with nos. 514, 712 and 829 in
Winnebago County, Illinois, where they remained until 9 December. No
subsequent reports of the pair.
No. 733 was last reported on Jasper-Pulaski FWA, Indiana, on 6 December. No
subsequent reports.
Nos. 805 and 812 departed from Columbia County, Wisconsin, on 10 December.
No subsequent reports.
No. D836 disappeared from Lawrence County, Tennessee, between 29 November
and 11 December. He had been in the group with nos. D831 & D838*. No
subsequent reports.
Long-term Missing:
Nos. 516 & D744* were not recorded in 2009. However, these birds usually
summered in Michigan and have a lower than average probability of detection.
No. 511 was last detected on Necedah NWR on 11 May 2009.
No. 520* was last reported in Jackson County, Wisconsin on 16 June 2009.
No. D628 was last detected on Necedah NWR on 23 June 2009.
No. 706 was last detected South of Necedah NWR on 6 May 2009.
No. 724 was last detected on Necedah NWR on 26 June 2009.
Ultralight-led Juveniles
at Chassahowitzka NWR Release Site: 901*, 903, 904*, 905*, 907*, 913,
919, 924, 927 & 929: Migration was
completed to Chassahowitzka NWR, Citrus County, on 20 January. Bands and
transmitters with permanent color identification codes were attached on 24
January. They were released from their temporary top-netted acclimation
enclosure on 28 January.
No. 901* had her adult voice upon arrival on
Chassahowitzka. Nos. 904* and 907* had attained their adult voice by the end
of the report period.
Ultralight-led Juveniles
at St. Marks NWR Release Site: 906, 908*, 910, 911, 912, 914*, 915*,
918, 925*, & 926*: Migration was completed
to St. Marks NWR, Wakulla County, Florida, on 13 January. Bands and
transmitters with permanent color identification codes were attached on 15
January. The birds were released from their temporary top-netted
acclimation enclosure on 25 January.
Nos. 906, 914*, & 915* had attained their
adult voices by the end of the report period.
This update was compiled from data supplied by
WCEP Trackers Richard
Urbanek, Eva Szyszkoski, Sara Zimorski, and M. Strausser.
Date:
February 6, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
A DIFFICULT WINTER PREDICTED FOR ARANSAS FLOCK
Location:
Main Office
After losing 23 birds last winter due to a food shortage, officials are concerned that this will be another precarious winter season for the Wood Buffalo/Aransas population. Here are two recent
news reports, which discuss the issues.
The first is a radio
interview from CBC Edmonton and the
second is from
The Aransas Project,
an alliance of organizations, communities, families and citizens whose immediate goal seeks to correct the mismanagement of the Guadalupe River Basin, especially its impact on reducing inflows to the
bays and estuaries—winter habitat for the endangered whooping crane.
Date:
February 5, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
FREE-FLYING CRANES!
Location:
Main Office
Camera issues continue to plague Craig and Tom at St. Marks NWR, however Craig shot the following video with a handheld video camera and was kind enough to share it with us. Clearly the young cranes
are having fun exploring the area around their release pen!
I'd also like to remind you that tomorrow the Refuge Association will be hosting the WILDLIFE HERITAGE & OUTDOORS FESTIVAL at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (1255 Lighthouse Rd. St. Marks FL).
There will be lots of activities and booths to visit including those of some
of the members of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership. Operation
Migration will be represented there, as well as the International Crane
Foundation, and USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. Others planning to
be present that are involved in the Whooping crane reintroduction project
include the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, and of course, the St. Marks
Refuge Association and the St. Marks Photo Club.
Click
to see a pdf document
detailing the events and exhibitors.
Date:
February 4, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
WHO LET THE CRANES OUT!?
Location:
Main Office
Once the young-of-year cranes have been delivered to their new winter home; be it at the
St. Marks NWR or the
Chassahowitzka NWR, they are temporarily held
top-netted enclosure. This is so that they can acclimate slowly to their new
surroundings, and to ensure time to carry out the necessary health checks
and apply their new legbands.
Both sets of cranes have now been released from the top-netted enclosure
and are now free to roam and explore the areas around their release pen. To
read how this procedure was carried out for the Chass-Ten on January 28th,
click to read ICF tracker, Matt
Strausser's update.
Date:
February 3, 2010
Reporter:
Christine Barnes
Subject:
MATURATION
Location:
St. Marks, Florida
The maturing process of Whooping Cranes is amazing to observe. The chicks hatch, and in what seems like a heartbeat, they are expected to fly 1200 miles. They still look like large size, wide-eyed, cinnamon-colored kids.
The birds in the Class of 2009 hatched between late May and mid June. An August visit to the crane pen in Necedah, Wisconsin was enlightening. Among the young birds, the gap between the early birds and the slow pokes was notable. They all shared an extraordinary presence at such an young age: they seemed equally brave, curious and strong. But the size difference was significant.
Although this discrepancy seemed like a handicap of sorts, all the young cranes were in “flight training” with the ultralights on a daily basis. When the handlers entered the gates in advance of the training release, the continuous sweet, soft whistle-like peeps from the eager chicks were audible throughout the cohort. All were eager to fly and pushed through the open gates enthusiastically. After all, in fewer than 100 days, they would be expected to fly 1200 miles to their winter homes.
Initially, the flight training was an extension of the work done at the
USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research
Center, where the fluffy young chicks, inside a small pen, followed the puppet extension from the pilot in an ultralight. At Necedah, the birds continued acclimating to the trike by following the ultralight up and down the runway. The more mature ones flew before the younger ones, of course, and the cohort became divided by maturity for a while. As summer waned and fall descended upon the sand prairie, more and more birds strengthened their wings by increasing their flight time daily, until in mid-October, migration began.
After the cranes’ arrival at St. Marks
NWR in January, a visit to the pen revealed some changes. Most notable was the size difference: all the birds were significantly larger, but the discrepancy between the youngest and the oldest was still evident. As the days passed, there were signs that things were changing. Here and there, a cinnamon-colored feather lay on the ground. On one or two of the larger birds, signs of red were emerging in the crown and the malar.
One day last week, two of the cranes sounded different. No longer the soft high peeping sound, now a rich, guttural “chuuurrrr” came from their throats, the sound of mature cranes in conversation. In the pen, one crane danced in circles, wings outstretched, apparently in rapture over some hapless critter he discovered in the pond. Nearby, several others foraged in the salt marsh for whatever
delectables they might discover for snacks. Occasionally, a few lifted off and flew around the marsh just for kicks. More and more, they are demonstrating confidence and asserting their independence. Today, several went out of sight of the pen for the first time.
Crane contact with white-costumed handlers is less frequent. The birds set their own schedule: on crane time, they fly out of the pen in the morning to forage. The handlers slip in, complete their chores, and fade away. Only the safe haven of the oyster bar in the evening remains part of their direct instruction in crane school.
Date:
February 2, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
REMEMBERING THE CLASS OF 2006
Location:
Main Office
It has been exactly 3 years since severe storms ravaged Central Florida, killing 17 of the 18 still-juvenile Whooping cranes, which had been wintering at the Chassahowitzka NWR in Citrus County.
The severe weather warning came well
after midnight, and the swath of destruction that cut through central
Florida also killed 20 people and was described as the second worst storm of
its type to hit the state.
While we don't like to dwell on the negative we would like to acknowledge
the contribution that the Class of 2006 made to their species. Thousands of
media stories generated as a result of this catastrophic loss brought to
light the plight of the Whooping crane, and other endangered species.
Mark Chenoweth, producer of a regular podcast titled
Whoopers Happening published
this episode looking back at event.
Date:
February 1, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
CHECKING ON THE CHICKS
Location:
Main Office
Camera issues continue at the St. Marks release pen and Craig and Tom
have almost completed their disguises in preparation of their departure to
an undisclosed location.
They were able to mount the outdoor receiver 100ft up the radio tower on
Saturday but unfortunately, they're having difficulties convincing the
transmitting unit to talk with the receiving unit and are awaiting some
technical support from the manufacturer.
In the meantime, I was able to log in directly to their camera for a
short time this morning and captured the following screen grabs, which
clearly show the St. Marks Ten inside the release pen and without the top
net. (please click each image for a larger version)
Date:
January 31, 2010
Reporter:
Liz Condie
Subject:
WINTER WEATHER GOT YOU DOWN?
Location:
Main Office
If you are thinking you’d like to escape the grip of Old Man Winter, this generous offer might interest you. The Ruth Irvin family will discount the cost of a vacation stay in its Florida rental property, Pelicans Beach House, for any MileMaker sponsor who has given at least one WHOOP! How big a discount? - an amount equivalent to your total MileMaker sponsorship and Give a WHOOP! contribution(s) up to a maximum of US$800.
The Irvin family recently donated a week’s stay at Pelican’s Beach House to Operation Migration. It was used as a Give a WHOOP! thank you gift and the lucky recipient’s name (Patricia O’Brien-Giglia) was drawn at the Give a WHOOP! event held
November 15th in Illinois when we celebrated chalking up our 10,000th mile leading Whooping cranes south on migration.
Pelicans Beach House is located at Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Click the
link below if you are interested in trading in some wintery weather for some Florida sunshine and helping OM at the same time!
(we are still looking for 27 Milemaker
sponsors and
3755
WHOOPS!)
Here is a link to information and photos of
Pelicans Beach House so you can check it out.
Date:
January 30, 2010
Reporter:
Joe Duff
Subject:
TENSIONS OF A NEW BREEDING SEASON
Location:
Main Office
If you are a layman like me you likely think that just about everything you would want to know has, by now been documented. With advanced technology and 6 billion of us poking around an ever shrinking earth you would think that no stone had been left unturned and that somewhere there is a research paper to give us all the details about everything. But that is not the case.
When you research any obscure topic you find out two things quickly. You soon realize that not everything has been documented and that a research paper is only as good and the fieldwork that preceded it.
Lately I have been reading everything available on Black flies and the most common thread seems to be contradiction. One paper reports that they produce one generation per year while others say they breed three or four times a season. They can migrate from the breeding area to their feeding grounds up to 4 miles or 40 depending on which chronicle you read and the adult life span, when they bite, lasts 2 to 3 weeks or seven months. Some papers suggest that only the females bite but other say both genders can attack and control strategies range from DEET to vanilla extract.
So much depends on this upcoming breeding season. Last year we suffered 100% nest failure and that includes a few pairs that laid a second clutch. Another year like that and we may lose the support of the International Recovery Team whose members set the direction for all recovery efforts.
At the upcoming Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership winter meetings in St. Marks, Florida plans will be discussed for an application of BTi to control the flies during the spring. That may be a full blown application or a pilot study designed to test the effectiveness. In the interim new reintroductions sites will be evaluated.
The pressure is on because the Recovery Team is exploring the possibility of a new resident population in Louisiana and some feel that would be a better use of birds than placing them into a population that has little hope of becoming self-sustaining.
We, of course, feel that after ten years of struggle to get them this far the Black fly problem is only one more challenge that needs to be met. Based on the time, effort and public support that went into this project we need to be certain that it is not working before we pull the plug. A good breeding season, with or without a successful BTi application would definitely help.
The upcoming breeding season in the captive flock is also critical. We are hoping for a full compliment of birds for the ultralight technique plus enough to carry on with the Direct Autumn Release study. There is a proposal to conduct a parent-reared study this season where birds will be raised by their parents at Patuxent before being released at Necedah to follow older birds. The Recovery Team hopes to have birds for the Louisiana reintroduction plus a few genetically surplus birds are needed to test the impact of infectious Bursal disease. On top of all that, up to 6 birds will be held back to maintain the viability of the captive flock.
There will be more to report after the winter meetings but either way it will be an anxious spring and we tend to count our eggs before they are hatched.
Date:
January 29, 2010
Reporter:
Heather Ray
Subject:
PATIENCE
Location:
Main Office
I've been told patience is a virtue... and I know firsthand that when
dealing with cameras in remote situations that buckets of patience are
required. We've been inundated with inquiries about the camera at the St.
Marks release pen since the conclusion of the 09/10 southward migration.
Initially we had hoped to relocate our camera trailer to monitor the
cranes over the winter but after reviewing the location available and the
fluctuating tides and salt water/air conditions, the decision was made to
not subject the monster to such adverse weather conditions for such an
extended period. Instead the St. Marks Refuge Association agreed to allow us
to capture the live feed from their camera.
The two gentlemen in charge of the camera at St. Marks are Tom and Craig
(last names withheld to protect their identity). These two have been pulling
their hair out for the past couple of months attempting to get the setup
running and are also fielding daily questions about the status of the
camera.
Tomorrow a licensed climber will scale a very tall radio tower to mount a
small yagi antenna and receiver, which we hope will allow them to receive
the video signal from the camera and yagi mounted on the blind near the
pensite. So, we hope, very soon, to be able to bring you a video feed from
the St. Marks release pen... If not, Tom and Craig will likely never been
seen nor heard from again as they're planning on fleeing the country.
Date:
January 28,
2010 - Entry 2
Reporter:
Liz Condie
Subject:
A
DISAPPEARING ACT
Location:
Main Office
Dear Craniacs and Field Journal readers, I am about to do a disappearing
act. This will be my last regular posting for a while as I try to dig myself
out from under the mountain of work - threatening to become a landslide -
that has accumulated over the three plus months of the migration.
I’m
still well over 200 emails responses behind, and have the production
deadline for the spring issue of our magazine, INformation, looming.
Our Board of Directors are patiently waiting for me to catch up on several
sets of meeting minutes, and, with the fiscal year end approaching,
financials and budgets are screaming for attention so loudly that my ears
hurt. And these represent just the tip of Everest.
So, as of tomorrow, Heather Ray will take over the postings to the Field
Journal. I have no doubt you can count on being both well informed and
entertained.
In eight (eek) short days from now I will be back on the road to Florida.
Joe and I will be driving down to St. Marks for the Whooping Crane Eastern
Partnership (WCEP) winter meetings. WCEP, the coalition of government
agencies and non-profits that together are effecting the reintroduction of
the Eastern Migratory Population, meets twice a year; once in the fall at
the Necedah NWR in Wisconsin, and, once post-migration. Until this year, the
winter meetings were usually held near the Chassahowitzka NWR. This will be
our first time meeting at St. Marks.
Among other items, on the agenda for the winter meetings are: reports
from the Communications and Outreach, Health, Migration, and Winter
Management Teams; reports on 2009 nesting research, and spring monitoring
and nest management plans; updates from captive propagation centers; and,
discussion regarding Bti implementation and a parent rearing/release
proposal. The Project Review Panel will also be presenting their findings
and recommendations to WCEP.
With the 2009 migration now history, all the crucial behind the scenes
work that directs and sustains this project gears up for the coming year and
the WCEP winter meetings are where it starts. The same goes for Operation
Migration itself, as staffers Joe Duff, Heather Ray, Chris Danilko, and
myself, focus our attention on the myriad of tasks vital to keeping the
entity that is OM operating.
Date:
January 28,
2010 - Entry 1
Reporter:
Liz Condie
Subject:
PROSPECTS
FOR WOOD BUFFALO-ARANSAS CRANES GRIM
Location:
Main Office
“Officials fear another Whooping crane die-off” was the headline of an
Associated Press article published on the internet yesterday.
The words,
captioning an accompanying photo of a beautiful adult Whooping crane, read,
“The world's last remaining natural flock of endangered whooping cranes,
which suffered a record number of deaths last year, will probably see
another die-off because of scarce food supplies at its Texas nesting grounds
this winter, wildlife managers said.”
If you’re within driving distance, you’ll want to set aside Saturday,
February 6th for the WILDLIFE HERITAGE & OUTDOORS FESTIVAL at the St. Marks
National Wildlife Refuge (1255 Lighthouse Rd. St. Marks FL).
The
Festival’s mission is… to excite visitors to reconnect with nature and
wildlife through a community celebration of nature’s diversity and our local
heritage with scheduled exhibits and programs.
Count on a fun, entertaining, and educational day. There will be lots of
activities and booths to visit including those of some of the members of the
Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership. Operation Migration will be represented
there, as well as the International Crane Foundation, and USGS Patuxent
Wildlife Research Center. Others planning to be present that are involved in
the Whooping crane reintroduction project include the Disney Worldwide
Conservation Fund, and of course, the terrific St. Marks Refuge Association
and the St. Marks Photo Club.
If you’re interested in archery you’ll want to visit the Target Smashers
exhibit. See a hunting dog demonstration. Love fishing? Talk to the folks in
the Florida Big Bend Fly Fishers booth. Bring the kids and grandkids and let
them spend some time in the St. Marks NWR Kids Discovery Area.
There’s lots and lots more…virtually something for everyone…so mark
February 6th on your calendar now. And be sure to plan on stopping by OM’s
booth to say ‘hello’.
It her article she says, "More questions
than answers persist in early efforts to bring climate change into all
decisions at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency that
manages the nation's wildlife refuges and many of its protected species."
Leber quotes FWS Director Sam Hamilton as saying many factors will force
tough decisions at his agency. "We don't have the policies in place at this
point to really dive into these issues," he said. "When do you decide, for
example, that you can no longer protect something in the wild?"
To read the full article, click on the link above.
Date:
January 26,
2010 - Entry 3
Reporter:
Christine Barnes
Subject:
THE
'GENTLE RELEASE' PHASE UNDERWAY
Location:
St. Marks, FL
(Note: Trained at Necedah NWR last summer, volunteer Christine Barnes is
a member of the team headed by OM's Brooke Pennypacker that is caring for
and monitoring the 10 juvenile Whooping cranes wintering at the St. Marks
National Wildlife Refuge.)
After their health checks, the young cranes
are usually skittish around any white-costumed ‘intruders’ into their pen
space. Handlers must re-establish trust. To win forgiveness for all the
poking and prodding the young birds endured, we've been giving the cranes
lip-smacking treats of shrimp, minnows and crabs, the cranes’ favorite
foods.
Due to weather, Sunday's hoped for release from the top-netted pen had to
be delayed. Wind, rain, floods, more wind, more rain – all led to unsafe
conditions for a release. Although the cranes continued to thrive in their
new home, it was feared that a premature release in windy conditions could
tempt the birds to wander. No one wanted to risk having to track them down
through miles of coastal mashes.
At the St. Marks NWR Whooping Crane pen, there is a blind used for
observation, monitoring, and performing data collection on the recently
arrived ten juvenile birds. This is where I was sequestered to observe the
release of the cranes from their top-netted enclosure. Raised well above an
imaginary high water line, the blind has two wide openings which afford
visual access to the pen. The openings, covered with heavy camouflage
netting, together with the distance to the open three-acre pen about three
football fields away, made for challenging viewing.
Release day, January 25th, the sky was bright and the winds were down. In
the late afternoon, the light was compromised inside the blind. At the close
of day, the descending sun shed a golden glow across the salt marsh. The
blue of the bay beyond gave the sense of an endless horizon. Two
white-costumed figures could be seen slopping around inside the flooded pen.
At approximately 4:30pm, the wetland was silent and still, the light
soft. One white-clad figure moved toward the top-netted enclosure and slowly
pulled open the gate. Out streamed the eager young cranes, and quickly, they
were in the air, circling, circling, flying out toward the bay and back over
the pen, circling to the west, then the east, back and forth. For several
heart-stopping minutes they seemed intent to challenge the careful planning
of Operation Migration staff as it appeared they might never relinquish
their welcome, hard-won moment of freedom.
Then, three birds dropped their landing gear and returned to the area
just outside the pen. One handler was present with tempting treats and a lot
of patience. Seven cranes continued to circle, play the jailbreak for all it
was worth. A few more circles. Four landed inside, and three more joined
their buddies outside the pen. Gradually, with all the time in the world, it
would seem, one handler coaxed each of the individual birds back into the
pen. Gates closed.
So what? No top-net!
A flock of about 25 immature White Ibis swung by and buzzed the pen. Like
kids at the local county fair heading to the next crazy ride, four cranes
re-launched and cavorted among the Ibis for a couple of laps. The Ibis moved
on, and the cranes dropped back into the pen.
In one of the two ponds inside the pen, there is a raised area just below
the water’s surface. On this 'oyster bar’ fabricated by refuge staff a year
ago, two, then three, then four cranes discovered a suitable bathing
experience. A surrogate crane figure stands stiffly at the end of the bar as
an effective model for the cranes.
Following their baths, a handler moved onto the bar. The remaining cranes
followed and claimed their night’s roosting space. This was their first
lesson in the safe practice of using in the water as a defense. Should a
predator approach, it must do so through the liquid alarm system surrounding
the roosting site.
It was nearly dark. The handler waited for the 'Harley kick', when each
crane jerks its leg as though starting a motorcycle, then tucks the leg up
and goes to sleep. Then, ever so slowly, quietly, the handler slipped away
leaving the young cranes to the light of the half-moon, and their first
night under the stars. With this, their final reintroduction steps into the
wild have begun. Over the next weeks and months costumed intervention and
interaction will decrease, and come late March to April, the cranes will
initiate their return migration, making their way north on their own.
Operation Migration and St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge are making
every effort to isolate the cranes from human contact so that the young
birds may meet the mission for full recovery in the wild. All partners in
the reintroduction project appreciate the public’s cooperation in respecting
the cranes’ seclusion.
Date:
January 26,
2010 - Entry 2
Reporter:
Liz Condie
Subject:
POST
MIGRATION HEALTH CHECKS
Location:
Main Office
Following their arrival in Florida, the Class of 2009 is held in a
top-netted enclosure inside the release pen on their respective wintering
grounds until they receive their post migration health checks.
Disney Animal Kingdom's veterinarian, Dr. Scott Terrell, emailed to let
us know that the Health Team had finished the post-migration health checks
of both groups of young cranes in the Class of 2009. The examination of the
St. Marks' Ten was conducted on January 15th, and on the Chassahowitzaka Ten
on January 24th.
They had beautiful weather on both exam dates; cool and sunny at St.
Marks, and while warmer at Chass, they had a wonderful breeze to keep the
bugs away.
Dr. Scott said, "The birds got a physical exam and blood and fecal
samples were collected. Each exam took about five to seven minutes to
complete before they were turned over to Dr. Richard Urbanek to get their
shiny new leg bands and transmitters affixed. Everything went very well, and
we are now waiting for the litany of diagnostic test results to come back
for interpretation."
Date:
January 26,
2010 - Entry 1
Reporter:
Liz Condie
Subject:
EASTERN
MIGRATORY POPULATION UPDATE
Location:
Main Office
At the end of the January 23rd reporting period the size of the Eastern
Migratory Population (EMP) remained unchanged at 85 Whooping Cranes; 48
males and 37 females. In this update * = female, D = Direct Autumn Release,
NFT = Non-functional transmitter. Current locations of the EMP were as
follows.
INDIANA - 7
Knox Co.
216 & 716*, 317 & 303*,
512 & 722*, D938
KENTUCKY - 7
Jefferson Co.
506, D932*, 934*, 935*,
936*, 937*, 940* (migrated to Muscatatuck NWR with 307 & 726* and
713 before moving to Hamilton County, TN and then flying back north
to Jefferson County, KY
307 & 726*, 408 & 519*,
514 (last located Dec. 15 in Greene Co. TN)
713, 829
Lafayette Co.
403 & 309* (last located
Dec. 7 in Juneau County, WI)
416 (last located Dec.
30 in Jackson County, IN)
Lake Co.
402 & D746*, 509, D942
Hernando Co.
709 & 717*
LOCATION UNKNOWN - 11
ID #
Last Recorded
Date/Location
712
Dec. 16 in Alachua Co.
FL
316
Jan.
7 in Meigs Co. TN
211
Jan.
8 in Vermillion County, IN
412
Jan.
5 in Cherokee County, AL
401 & 508*
Dec.
9 in Winnebago County, IL
727*
Dec.
12 in Brown County, IN
733
Dec.
6 on Jasper-Pulaski FWA, IN
805, 812
Dec. 10 in Columbia
County, WI
D836
~Nov. 29 – Dec 11 in
Lawrence County, TN
LONG TERM MISSING – 7
(more than 90 days)
ID #
Last Recorded
Date/Location
D744
Nov. 18, 2008 in
Paulding Co. OH
516
Dec 22, 2008 in Marion
County, FL
706
May 6 south of Necedah
NWR
511
May 11 on Necedah NWR
520*
Jun. 16 in Jackson
County, WI
D628
Jun. 23 on Necedah NWR
724
June 26 on Necedah NWR
CLASS OF 2009
At St. Marks NWR are: 906, 908*, 910, 911, 912, 914*, 915*, 918, 925*, and
926*.
At the Chassahowitzka NWR are: 901*, 903, 904*, 905*, 907*, 913, 919, 924,
927, and 929.
The ultralight-led migration of the St. Marks Ten was successfully completed
on January 13th and that of the Chassahowitzka Ten on January 20th. All
received their permanent bands and transmitters during their post-migration
health checks done on January 15th and January 24th respectively. Prior to
their release, both groups are held in a top-netted enclosure for a brief
period of acclimation. (NOTE: The Class of the Year are not added to the
numbers in the EMP until their release.)
This update was compiled from data supplied by WCEP Trackers Richard
Urbanek, Eva Szyszkoski, Sara Zimorski, and M. Strausser.
