Finally, the Whooping Cranes!

I promised this post over a week ago, but we have been "flying" across the Southeast, too busy (and tired) to post.  By flying, I mean we spent two days in Houston, two days in Baton Rouge, and just yesterday we arrived on Perdido Key, Florida.  We plan to stay here a full week, for Rest & Relaxation : )

Anyway, on to the whooping cranes.  Whooping cranes are the rarest cranes in the world, and one of the best known symbols of all the endangered species.  During the winter of 1941-42, only 16 were known to exist.  Today, there are about 300 in the only self-sustaining flock, descendants of the original 16.  These birds winter in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge just north of Corpus Christi, Texas, and like their ancestors they migrate to and nest in Wood Buffalo National Park in northwest Canada each spring and summer.

There have been human attempts to start additional flocks, with varied success.  Initial efforts were unsuccessful, but we humans are slowly learning from our (many) mistakes, and mortality rates have gradually improved, although these populations are not yet sustainable by any means.  Each year for the last few years, youngsters from a flock at the St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge in Florida have been taught to migrate by following ultralight aircraft.  You may remember the documentary about this remarkable feat filmed a few years ago.

Lee and I made two trips to the Aransas refuge, one by car and the second by boat.  It was on the second trip that we got the best look at the whooping cranes.  I counted 29, or 10% of the flock.  All were paired, each pair in its own territory.  Two or three of the pairs were accompanied by youngsters.  The boat guide, who really knew his birds (of all kinds), told us it was the first time this season that the tide allowed us to get as close to the cranes as we did.  This is not necessarily a good thing.  Getting too accustomed to humans can be dangerous, even fatal, to a crane.  But it did allow Lee to get some good photographs.

First, the boat.  The Skimmer was comfortable, not too big, not too small, with a very shallow draft:

Now, for the main star of the show.  Whooping cranes are the largest of the American cranes.  An adult stands five feet tall, and has a wingspan of seven feet.

 
When looking across a wetlands area filled with egrets, herons, and cranes, the cranes can be identified due to 1) size; and 2) they tend to stand with their bodies in a horizontal orientation.  Herons and egrets stand more upright.

The head has a red patch of skin on top, which flushes more red when the crane is experiencing an elevated emotion, like fear or excitement.  The patch of gray feathers behind the red skin sometimes stands up.  The eyes are positioned to see small animals when it looks down.  We watched a crane catch and swallow a crab.  A whooping crane's favorite meal is the blue crab, although these cranes will eat insects and other kinds of crabs and smaller animals as well.

Do you see the crab?  Yum!

We were told the crane population has remained steady the last few years, but has not grown.  This is due, it is believed, to the current drought conditions in Texas.  The wetlands are not as extensive as usual, so the food supply has lessened.

Look at the leg and foot.  To us it looks as if the crane is walking funny, because the deep bend is actually its ankle, not its knee.  This is true of all birds, but is readily apparent in the long-legged crane.

Most of the cranes were outfitted with identification bands and transmitters.  These can be seen in the photo below.  The transmitter looks especially cumbersome to me.  They transmit for about three years and eventually fall off.  Not all of the cranes are banded, and not all have transmitters.

I mentioned that the adult cranes are paired.  Whooping cranes mate for life.  Below is one elegant couple, foraging as they do for most of the day.

I mentioned there were a couple of youngsters.  In the photo below is a parent with its chick.  The younger bird has brown feathers on its neck and head, and is slightly smaller than the adult.

Because there are so few of these birds in the wild, not many people have actually seen them.  I feel honored and privileged to be counted in those few.  I even bought a whooping crane t-shirt to commemorate the occasion!  They are magnificent creatures, but fragile in many ways.  One natural disaster at the wrong time could wipe out this flock, which is why the USFWS, in collaboration with other groups, is trying to establish flocks in other locales.  Progress is very slow, with high mortality rates, but will hopefully be successful.  These birds are (scarily) on the edge of extinction.

You can really see the gray crest in the photo below, just above the red crown.

Lee took hundreds of photos of these cranes.  Thank you, Lee, for your efforts and the beautiful results!

The next post will be on other animals of the wildlife refuge, including...... alligators!