In addition to the good news on the Aransas--Wood Buffalo (Alberta)
population, 5 of the 10 young cranes following the ultralite airplanes made
it to their winter home at St. Mark's NWR (FL panhandle) this morning. The
other 5 birds will be led to their wintering home on the west coast of
Florida near Crystal Springs later this week, weather permitting. More
promising news later on the wild Wisconsin whoopers. Thanks to Operation
Migration for providing this summary.
Tom Stehn, Whooping Crane Coordinator at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
in Texas advises that the second aerial census
of the 2010/2011 season was completed December 9th. The census flight was
conducted in a Cessna 210 piloted by Gary Ritchey
of Air Transit Solutions out of Castroville, Texas with USFWS observers Tom
Stehn and Brad Strobel on board.
Tom said they sighted 223 adults and 45 juveniles on the flight for a total of
268 Whooping Cranes. He noted that this
represented an increase of 31 cranes since his previous flight of December
1st.
“Flight conditions and visibility were excellent throughout the flight,” Stehn
said. “A low pressure system that had brought
howling north winds on December 8th had moved off the coast, followed by clear
skies and moderate southeast winds. With
nearly complete flight coverage of the crane area, the 268 cranes counted
represents an accurate estimate of the number of
cranes present.”
In his report, Tom noted that one additional Whooping Crane was known to be
present in northern Oklahoma, so the population
numbers at least 269. He said that although there had been no additional
recent migration reports, it was hoped that as many
15-20 more cranes were still on migration.
Tom said, “Recent reports of Whooping Cranes at Aransas possibly not located
on this last flight include a group of 9 seen
flying over the refuge’s back gate road on December 7, and a single crane that
was observed roosting at Heron Flats Marsh on
December 1st and 6th and followed Sandhills to forage on pasture land and/or
farm fields north of the refuge.“
“To date, 45 of the 46 juveniles found in mid-August on the nesting grounds
have made it safely to Aransas. The 45 chicks at
Aransas include five sets of “twin” chicks, (adult pairs that have brought two
chicks each). Five pairs with two chicks each
had been sighted in Canada in August. This is the second highest total of
“twin” families at Aransas, exceeded only by the 7
sets of “twins” present at Aransas in the 2006 winter."
****************************************************************** Robert P. Russell Division of Migratory Birds, USFWS
