Journey North - Whooping Crane Page

"Journey North engages students in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. K-12 students share their own field observations with classmates across North America. They track the coming of spring through the migration patterns of monarch butterflies, robins, hummingbirds, whooping cranes, gray whales, bald eagles— and other birds and mammals; the budding of plants; changing sunlight; and other natural events. Find migration maps, pictures, standards-based lesson plans, activities and information to help students make local observations and fit them into a global context. Widely considered a best-practices model for education, Journey North is the nation's premiere "citizen science" project for children." Journey North Website

The Great Crane Project - Eurasian Cranes

The Great Crane Project aims to re-establish a breeding population of cranes at a new wetland site in the UK, securing its future as a breeding species.

The project is a partnership between WWT, Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, the RSPB and supported by Jordans Cereals. A short-list of potential release sites is being drawn up, and techniques for rearing young cranes are being investigated.

Nictitating Membrane

Nictitating Membrane
Originally uploaded by Tori Spinoso

I took this photo in March 2002. It is from a female Siberian Crane female during breeding season. The nictitating membrane is a transparent or translucent third eyelid present in some animals that can be drawn across the eye for protection and to moisten the eye while also keeping visibility (Wikipedia definition).

Sandhill Cranes Spend 'Spring Break' in Colorado.

By MICHAEL MILBERGER

March 29, 2009

In the high mountain desert of southwest Colorado, the temperatures can still be bitterly cold when the first signs of spring appear.

Sandhill cranes feed in barley fields at the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge.

(Courtesy Lisa Rawinski)
More Photos

"The cranes arriving signify that spring is here," said Michael Blenden, project leader at the San Luis Valley National Wildlife Refuge. "The Rocky Mountain population of greater Sandhill cranes spend the winter in central New Mexico along the Rio Grande valley. And starting around mid-February they move north to the San Luis Valley here in Colorado. By mid-March to early April they will be departing for their breeding grounds in southern Montana, southeastern Idaho and Wyoming."

About 26,000 cranes flock to the San Luis Valley to take advantage of the food resources and wetland habitat available at the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge.

"The migration of the Sandhill crane is pretty unique. There aren't too many places where we see this concentration of cranes," said Scott Miller, Biologist at the San Luis Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

6th Annual Crane & Sheep Viewing Festival, May 8-10, 2009

Don't miss one of North America's most spectacular migrations!

Faro's 6th Annual Crane and Sheep Viewing Festival is quickly approaching and this year promises to be one of the best yet!

Students in grades K to 12 can submit Crane themed art to the International Crane Foundation's International Art Exchange.

Our ClustrMap Visitor Tags.....

Well, if you take a look at the large map you'll see that they look like the migration route if the Sandhills or Whoopers. I just thought that was a bit hilarious and had to share. Hopefully, we'll get a few more dots on that map soon!

Conserving Southern Africa for the future

"EWT’s dedicated staff coordinates over 90 projects throughout Southern Africa, focusing on specific issues and ecosystems, ranging from saving Humpback Dolphins from shark nets to raising orphaned Wattled Cranes, conserving wetlands and addressing the irresponsible use of poisons and agro-chemicals."

Three places to see sandhill cranes this spring

KEARNEY, Neb. — It's time for the annual migration of sandhill cranes and there are three places around the United States where you can see them.

A non-hunting area in Phatthalung puts the southern province on birdwatchers' must-go list

An interesting article about Bird watching in Talay Noi Non-Hunting Area. (Sarus cranes)

The Rivers are Alive!

Recent announcements in support of the ``refurbishment" of four, or even five, of the nation's major rivers in Korea which would likely negatively affect roosting hooded cranes.

Maryland Zoo Bird Spreads Its Wings At A City School

http://wjz.com/video/?id=52442@wjz.dayport.com

A West African crowned crane from the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore is taken to a school gym to teach students about cranes and their habitat!

Whooping cranes begin migration

The first four of seven young whooping cranes that have spent the last several months in the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge began their migration back to Wisconsin this week, officials at Operation Migration reported.

How farmlands can support bird life

N. Gopal Raj

Major study in the Gangetic plain finds amazing profusion of birds in farmed regions

Thiruvananthapuram: Is agriculture inevitably inimical to wild birds? Not necessarily so, according to a field survey that was recently carried out in Uttar Pradesh. It found that the vast, fertile Gangetic plain, one of the most densely populated and heavily farmed areas in the world, is nevertheless able to support an amazing profusion of bird life.

“Agriculture is the biggest threat to bird diversity worldwide,” said K.S. Gopi Sundar who is with the International Crane Foundation....

Whooper outlook concerns officials

Malnourishment may spur migration deaths

By Susan McFarland (Contact) March 23, 2009

CORPUS CHRISTI — After suffering the worst winter in 20 years, the flock of whooping cranes at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge soon will journey back to their summer home in Canada, but wildlife managers are concerned they have not had enough food to fatten them up for the 2,500-mile trip.................

TDA Secures Exemption To Repel Sandhill Cranes, Helping Texas Corn Producers

AUSTIN – The Texas Department of Agriculture has been granted approval by the Environmental Protection Agency to issue a Section 18 specific exemption allowing the use of anthraquinone (Avipel Liquid) to repel sandhill crane on corn seed........

Sandhill cranes make a stop in Othello

Haripura Water Park in Uttarakhand being developed - Affecting Siberian Cranes

Dineshpur (Uttarakhand), Mar 16 (ANI): Authorities in Uttarakhand are keen to develop the Haripura Water Park, frequented by bird watchers as a prominent tourist destination to spot Siberian cranes and other migratory birds.

A large variety of migratory birds make this region as their winter homes to breed and nest. And these number over 140 species of migratory birds.......

Birds breed again after 400 years

Cranes have been found breeding in the fens of East Anglia after 400 years.

The Suffolk wetland which the birds are nesting in was a carrot field until the RSPB turned it into Lakenheath Fen Nature Reserve 11 years ago. Large-scale drainage of fens for agriculture had led to the birds' disappearance in the 1600s.....

Rare cranes spotted in area

The Independent
By Sarah Schulz
sarah.schulz@theindependent.com
February 24, 2009

An albino sandhill crane and a juvenile whooping crane — both extremely rare — have been spotted in the area. On Sunday and Monday, bird-watchers spotted an albino sandhill crane near the Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust near Wood River, said Karine Gil, a researcher there........

Cranes to be reintroduced to UK

Cranes, that were hunted to extinction in the UK four centuries ago, are being reintroduced in Gloucestershire as part of a £700,000 conservation programme.

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
27 Feb 2009

A young crane eats from a litter picker disguised as an adult crane at Slimbridge Wetlands Centre in Gloucestershire

The metre high birds have only bred successfully a handful of times in the the UK since 1981 after being absent for 400 years.

Now the Great Crane Project, a partnership between the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), the RSPB and Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, aims to secure the future of the crane as a British breeding bird.

Funding secured for the project will go towards building a rearing facility for crane chicks at WWT Slimbridge, in Gloucestershire

Eggs brought over from Germany will be incubated, hatched and hand-reared at Slimbridge. Work is expected to start this summer and be complete by spring 2010. Once ready, the birds will be released into the wild on the Somerset Levels, where there is existing habitat suitable for them to nest and feed in..

Debbie Pain, WWT's director of conservation, said the breeding programme will help the birds to learn how to live in British wetlands again at "crane school" where the birds are taught how to adapt.

She said: "Cranes are magnificent birds driven from their wetland habitats and hunted to extinction long ago. Now we are determined to give them another chance at survival.

"Thanks to lessons learnt in crane school we now have the feathery-fingered skills to raise crane chicks. Roll on 2010 - we cannot wait to begin teaching these amazing birds how to live in British wetlands once again."

Red-headed crane doctor (Sarus cranes)

Red-headed crane doctor VietNamNet Bridge Article

15/03/2009

VietNamNet Bridge – That is the nickname photographers in the Mekong Delta call doctor, photographer Doan Hong from Dong Thap province, who has a strange passion for red-headed cranes. Doan Hong (photo) is an amateur photographer who got involved in photography much later than most other cameramen who love taking photos of red-headed cranes like him. But Doan Hong is the one who has the largest number of photos of this species of birds. Because of his love for red-headed cranes, he has become virtually an expert on this species. As the Director of the Dong Thap Department of Health, Doctor Doan Hong is very busy so he doesn’t have much time for his avocation like professional photographers. But his passion for red-headed cranes has helped him overcome problems of time. Many years now, hearing that red-headed cranes have arrived in Tram Chim sanctuary, he leaves home on the first day of the lunar New Year to go to Tram Chim to take photos of birds. The road from his home to Tram Chim National Park is nearly one hundred kilometres so Doan Hong has to depart at 1am in the morning to capture red-headed cranes’ activities. He arrives home at 10 in the evening. For the past ten years, he has always spent his weekends with red-headed cranes whenever they returned to Tram Chim National Park. He has been injured at least three times while shooting photos of red-headed cranes. Thanks to his patience, Doan Hong has taken many nice photos of red-headed cranes, including one entitled “Cranes come to field”, which won the gold medal of a photo contest in Sri Lanka in 2000. “I was born in Dong Thap Muoi so I knew and loved red-headed cranes when I was a child,” Hong said. Over ten years ago, as scientists warned about the extinction of red-headed cranes, Hong was afraid that one day he wouldn’t see them anymore, so he decided to take photos of them for archives. He bought a camera and began taking photos. From a doctor, Doan Hong has become a photographer, thanks to red-headed cranes. His passion for red-headed cranes has helped the doctor have the largest collection and the most beautiful photos of red-headed cranes. He has won over 20 photographic prizes for photos of red-headed cranes. For him, a prize is not the goal, but the discovery of the life of this species of bird. He spent time and burnt hundreds of rolls of film to capture every move of red-headed cranes to help scientists have more materials. He has never held a solo exhibition, but annually presents hundreds of photos of red-headed cranes to research institutions and scientists. A photo that he presented to the International Crane Preservation Association is said to be worth $1,000. He said initially he used hundreds of rolls of film but didn’t get one good photo of red-headed cranes. After over ten years taking photos of red-headed cranes, Doan Hong’s knowledge of red-headed cranes can compare to experts’. He has written many articles to call for the preservation of this species of birds. “The Mekong Delta has less than 1,000 red-headed cranes. If each year 100 cranes are lost, we will not have a crane in 10 years,” he said.

First Whooping Crane Arrives in Wisconsin, March 11, 2009

See photos here

ICF Co-sponsors Wetlands Lecture - UW Madison Campus

On Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 4:00 p.m. Dr. Max Finlayson (Australia) will be presenting the lecture: “Wetland Conservation and Management: Worldwide Issues, Conflicts and Synergies, and Learning from Comparison and Collaboration."

This talk is co-sponsored by the following organizations:

• International Crane Foundation
• UW Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
• Wisconsin Wetlands Association
• UW Land Tenure Center
• UW Arboretum
• Madison Audubon

Dr. Finlayson is a professor of Ecology and Biodiversity and Director of the Institute of Land, Water & Society at Charles Sturt University, Australia.

The lecture will be held at 2650 Humanities Building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, 455 N. Park Street. This lecture is free and open to the public.

Seven Mississippi sandhill cranes dead

WAPT.com Article

GAUTIER, Miss. -- Seven of the 20 Mississippi sandhill cranes released in the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge in December have died.Refuge biologist Scott Hereford said another one of the cranes released in December was returned to the Audubon Center in New Orleans after suffering a shattered leg.Hereford said six of the cranes died in coyote attacks. He said another young crane is believed to have flown too low over Interstate 10 and collided with a vehicle.

The crane deaths occurred in January and February.The cranes were born and raised in captivity before being released in December into pens on the 20,000-acre refuge.Hereford said there are 112 to 115 Mississippi sandhill cranes surviving on the refuge.

The cranes are an endangered species.

´Jugo´ wind brings hundreds cranes to a stop at Korcula Island

Croatian Times Article

Bad weather can stop birds in the air as well as traffic on land and the sea.

That is exactly what happened on the southern Adriatic island of Korcula on Wednesday, according to "Hina'" news agency.

A Mediterranean wind called "Jugo" (south) accompanied by lightning and rain stopped around one hundred grey cranes flying to their northern summer location.

The birds stopped in the Lumbarda area on Korcula and surprised residents because it is unusual for cranes to stop there because of bad weather at this time of the year.

Local resident Drago Jurjevic said cranes sometimes stopped at Korcula for a rest at the end of March but had never before done so during the first week of the month.

Locals are caring for the birds to prevent poaching while they wait for better conditions in which to continue their flight.

Cranes are large, long-legged and long-necked birds of the species Gruiformes and the genus Gruidae that do not nest in Croatia.

Whooping crane deaths up

Victoria Advocate Article

AUSTWELL - Biologists found three more dead whooping cranes on Sunday, making this winter the deadliest on record in the past 20 years for the endangered species.

Twenty-one birds of a flock of 270 have been found dead at the whooping cranes' wintering home in and around the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, said whooping crane coordinator Tom Stehn via his flight report. Stehn, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, conducts regular aerial surveys to observe the cranes.

The second deadliest winter on record was when 11 cranes from a flock of 146 died in 1990.

Biologists also presume dead 34 cranes that failed to return from the nesting locale at Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada. That means that 55 whooping cranes or more than 20 percent of the flock died during the past year.

The cranes usually start migrating back to Canada at the end of March with most cranes leaving the first two weeks in April. Stehn doesn't know how the poor conditions of the cranes may affect the migration.

Crane cam captures Sandhill migration live

Thursday, March 12, 2009


GIBBON -- Each spring over a half-million Sandhill Cranes congregate on Nebraska's Platte River in one of the world's greatest migration spectacles. Audubon's Rowe Sanctuary invites nature enthusiasts, bird lovers, and photography buffs to witness migration via a live CraneCam. Images can be seen on Audubon's Rowe Sanctuary website at www.rowesanctuary.org

For over 30 years, people from all over have come to witness the Sandhill Crane migration. The arrival of the 4-foot-tall cranes on the Platte River signifies the beginning of spring. In addition to the visual spectacle, the call of the crane can be heard for up to a mile away. From March 7 through April 8, a camera placed on an island on the Platte River will provide outstanding views of Sandhill Cranes roosting by the thousands in the shallow water of the Platte. Nebraska Educational Service Unit #10, a Kearney-based broadcasting service, will provide the web-based services and expertise to bring this wild experience into homes around the world.


The best time to watch the cranes on the CraneCam is early morning, starting from first light to well after sunrise, and from late afternoon until dark. During the day, crane feed in local farm fields and wet meadows; they return to the river to spend the night on submerged sandbars in the river, where they are secure from predators.

The CraneCam will also feature 'Kids and Cranes' online educational programs, a fun and, innovative way for students, teachers and families to learn about cranes and to see them in action when they are not at the river. All six programs are available to view throughout the year.

In conjunction with the Sandhill Crane migration, the 39th Annual Rivers and Wildlife Celebration will take place March 20-22 in Kearney. The event, presented by Audubon Nebraska, Audubon's Rowe Sanctuary, and the Nebraska Partnership for All-Bird Conservation, is open to anyone but online registration is required.

Speakers include Pete Dunne director of Cape May Bird Observatory, founder of the World Series of Birding, and author of numerous birding books; Joel Sartore National Geographic photographer and frequent contributor to Audubon Magazine; and Felipe Chavez-Ramirez director of Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust.

Celebration highlights include sunset and sunrise visits to crane viewing blinds along the Platte River, day-long excursions to local wetlands and lakes, and the ever popular crane behavior class.

Rowe Sanctuary's staff and volunteers take visitors to the viewing blinds on the edge of the river where, hidden from the cranes, people can watch this dramatic scene unfold. Skilled guides accompany all visitors to answer questions.