Wayne, The Whooping Crane you are referring to from 11-14-04 was indeed from the wild flock. The exact location was a playa east of Lindon, west of Anton, that is bisected by highway 36. There is an eBird hotspot named:
Lindon Pond Playa (Hwy. 36 & Washington Co. Rd. Z) The Whooping Crane was there one afternoon, stayed overnight, then flew. As you do recall, it was watched, observed, babysat overnight by someone (Wayne? others?) from the Fish and Wildlife Service, as legend has it. I am very interested in any details you can provide, as this is a neat story, one which I tell every time I drive by that playa to any passengers in my vehicle at the moment - aka "victims." With more detailed information, I can stretch this story from just east of Last Chance all the way to Cope, maybe even Joe's. This playa used to fill with water each spring and was a good place to see ducks and shorebirds by using a car as a blind. The playa had some shallow water and waterfowl in it, maybe 8-10 years ago, but none lately during our prolonged drought. I recall that it has been dry even this summer and early fall, when nearby parts of Washington County featured many, many wet playas; info on that is also requested. Could this playa have kind of "silted in" from runoff from the ag fields that surround it? If not silt, as least it seems to fill with a member of the spinach family, the common tumbleweed, (Salsola australis, among other species). Joe Roller, Denver PS A rule of thumb is that "wild flock" Whooping Cranes are seen east of the Front Range and the introduced flock from the San Luis Valley and counties north of there. Are there any valid records of introduced Whooping Cranes from east of the Front Range? On Tue, Oct 14, 2014 at 2:11 PM, 'Brandon' via Colorado Birds < [email protected]> wrote: > > To answer Wayne's question about Whooping Crane records in Colorado. > There are four accepted records of the wild flock that migrates from Canada > to Texas (I looked all this information up on the CBRC Website, which all > all that kind of info). > > Nov 3 1973 in Greeley, Weld County > Mar 10-26, 1995 Thurston Reservoir, Prowers County > Nov 14-14, 2004 West of Anton, Washington County > Nov 1, 2006 Nee Grande Reservoir, Kiowa County > > There might be more specimen records, that might be mentioned in Colorado > Birds by Andrews and Righter. If there have been other sightings, they > weren't accepted by the CBRC, or not written up, this is why people need to > document any very rare bird that they see/hear in Colorado. > > Brandon Percival > Pueblo West, CO > ------------------------------ > Hi Bill & All, > > Another question for my old fuzzy mind. There was one Whooping Crane that > showed up on the front range, as I recall somewhere a little east of Ft. > Collins or Loveland. I was still with FWS and made a trip out there to > check on it and the contingency plan that I recall was in place since I > believe it was in the fall in hunting season. But I don't remember if it > was from the Gray's Lake, Idaho experimental flock or the Wood Buffalo > flock that strayed a little further west than the usual migration route. > > Wayne Wathen > Highlands Ranch, CO > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Colorado Birds" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/1413317514.96064.YahooMailNeo%40web161002.mail.bf1.yahoo.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/1413317514.96064.YahooMailNeo%40web161002.mail.bf1.yahoo.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAJpZcUAShvRoEgHspTkBkoJcfta58qpx1NSusufgKGUJVN2MYw%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
