[TN-Bird] Whooping Cranes & Lapland Longspur at White County, Dec. 22


On Monday morning, Dec. 22 while on the White County CBC, 6 Whooping Cranes 
(including one juvenile) slowly flew low past me. Interestingly, 3 of the 
birds flew without their legs being visible, a rather strange sight. Since 
the cranes didn't look like they were migrating, I drove SW in their 
direction about ¾ mile and found them outstanding in a large corn stubble 
field about 300 yards in front of Gum Springs Baptist Church. This is about 
8 miles SW of Sparta on Frank's Ferry Road between Old Kentucky Rd (Rt. 136) 
and Glenn Rd. Doug Downs, the count compiler, "interrupted" his birding to 
come see them. We scoped and photographed them, but since they were each 
standing on only one leg, we could only record half of the band combination 
per bird. (While they were flying I couldn't see any bands on the three 
birds whose legs were visible.) Meanwhile a loose flock of 100 Horned Larks 
flew around us.



After I went back to birding again (since the Whooping Cranes aren't CBC 
countable here), two MORE Whooping Cranes flew south overhead, slowly 
gaining altitude. One of these was a juvenile, and one bird called several 
times rather loudly. To confirm that these birds were different, I drove the 
mile back to the church and found the original 6 birds there. The latter two 
birds could have seen the 6 birds, and I suspect that the 6 birds could have 
heard the calling bird.



Two happy endings (as if the beginning weren't happy enough): Later in the 
day I finally saw a Sandhill Crane fly over, for a CBC countable crane. Even 
better, I went back to the church in late afternoon to check on the cranes 
and because I wondered if a Lapland Longspur might have been with the larks. 
The Whooping Cranes had left, but among the Horned Larks that flew around, I 
heard the dry rattle call of a Lapland Longspur several times. For about 
10-20 seconds I found the bird flying and giving the calls, and I was able 
to at least confirm that it wasn't a Horned Lark (based on it not having the 
squarish tail with dark underside and it being slightly shorter and stockier 
than Horned Larks). I guess this single Lapland Longspur pales in comparison 
to the thousands they found at Reelfoot, but it's pretty nice for Middle TN.



I sent my Whooping Crane observations to Operation Migration, particularly 
asking why I was seeing juveniles away from the ultralights and if the 
cranes often fly with their legs tucked in. Note that it was about 12 
degrees F that morning. I hope Liz Condie of Operation Migration doesn't 
mind me posting her reply below.



Ed LeGrand

Cumberland County



Liz Condie wrote:

There is also the experimental Direct Autumn Release (DAR) program. This 
program releases a few juveniles each year onto the Necedah refuge in the 
hope they will associate with older, migration-experienced Whoopers and 
eventually follow them south - thus learning the migration route. This 
program has not met with a lot of success in the past, in fact last year was 
one of particularly poor performance with the juveniles having to be 
retrieved, crated and moved to other locations on several occasions. This 
year the youngsters seem to be doing better however.



Whooping cranes do not reach sexual maturity until around 4 or 5 years of 
age. So far only one mated pair has produced young, successfully reared it 
and led it south. The pair is birds 211 and 217, from the ultralight-led 
Class of 2002. Their offspring is Wild601 who continues to migrate 
successfully. She is now paired with a bird from the Class of 2003 but is 
still too young to breed of course.



The eggs for the DAR program also come from the captive population and are 
also hatched and reared by costumed handlers. (The costumes are not 'crane 
suits' and are not designed to make humans look like cranes. Rather, they 
are just big baggy outfits the purpose of which is to disguise the human 
form. The costumed handler carries a crane puppet on one arm and that is 
what the chicks/birds focus on.)



When it is very cold, they will tuck their legs up when they are flying. 
When they are roosting they often tuck one leg up too, and then switch out 
to the other, retaining warmth.

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