[TN-Bird] Whooping Cranes & Lapland Longspur at White County, Dec. 22
- From: "LeGrand Family" <elegrand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:15:00 -0600
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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