Whooping Cranes

This past Sunday, I met my birding buddy & friend, Guy Wapple at Muskiki Lake for some Whooping Crane (Grus americana) viewing.

We were fortunate in that 4 of the reported 16-17 Whoopers were relatively close to the road into the area.  This is all private land; the farmers are indulgent of birders coming to look.  We stay on the road and try not to bother these fantastically beautiful and very endangered birds.

 
In total, we counted 16 adults and 1 juvenile.  The rest of the flock were farther away grazing around a small slough - good viewing with scope or bins, but too far for my camera lens.  Sad that there was only one young bird in this group.

These Whoopers are part of the only wild, self-sustaining flock that summers & breeds in Wood Buffalo National Park, which spans the Northern Alberta and North West Territories border.  Muskiki Lake is in South-Central Saskatchewan, about an hour's drive east of Saskatoon.  Depending on the weather, these birds might stay around the area for another week or so.  They will winter at Aransas NWR in Texas.

 
This day we were thrilled to watch the big white birds walk and graze; a few hopped and danced a little bit.  We also heard the 'whoops' and watched them in flight.  

Saskatchewan Birding at its Finest.

Operation Migration - Whooping Cranes

Live Crane Cam:  http://www.operationmigration.org/crane-cam.html

Operation Migration 



Click on the above  link for Live Crane Cam and for daily field notes as the 2010 class of Whooping Cranes (the Eastern non-wild flock) makes it's first flight from Michigan to Florida.  The Live Crane Cam (on the ultralites that lead the cranes) starts about 7:00 a.m. Eastern Central on flight days.

Whooping Cranes Revisited

I finally found the photo I took of three Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) two years ago, east of Weyburn.

Whooping Cranes

I went birding yesterday, because I always do on October 7 - it's my birthday!!!!

I left my house at 5:30 a.m.  The sun came up a bit later

I was on my way to Muskiki Lake - at least a five-hour drive - it's way up in central Sask, west of Humboldt, near the junction of Hwys #5 and #2

 It was sort of appropriate that I should run into this group of people - Saskatoon Nature Society, Golden-Eagle Division -  since yesterday I officially became an Old(er) Person! 

They offered to share their lunches

 We were all at this location because

There have been 35 Whooping Cranes counted at Muskiki Lake this year - the largest migrating flock known to date.  The birds have been there for about two weeks, grazing in the wheat fields and shallow salty lakes.  I personally counted 32. 

Three family groups of two adults and a juvenile were way hell and gone at a slough.  Good viewing through a scope.  However, I am no better at digiscoping than normal photography.

And some were in a relatively near-by field.  Still far away.

Here are a couple photos I lifted from the website  International Crane Foundation. to give a better idea of what these magnificent and highly-endangered beauties look like in case you haven't seen them before and/or up closer

and

For some info on identification, range map, audio recording of the whoop, etc, go to my favourite identification source:  All About Birds

Ontario birder Bruce DiLabio was out here a week or so ago.  He has some photos of these same birds on his blog.