Whooping Cranes

The weather here at Aransas NWR has improved dramatically…..thank goodness! The first 3+ weeks we were here on the refuge it rained almost everyday and the clouds never cleared to let the sun shine.

Finally, just in time for Christmas, the sun is shining and the temperature is up to the high 60’s during the day but it is still chilly at night.

However, there is a really big draw-back to the sunshine and that is mosquitoes!!! As the refuge is mostly marshland, there are swarms of mosquitoes! One of the rangers said he felt like Pigpen (from the Peanuts cartoons) as he walks around outside with a “cloud” of mosquitoes around his head! No one even thinks about heading out the door without repellent in hand.

Other than the mosquitoes, all here is going well. We have settled into a routine of 3 days on duty and 4 days off. It has been very busy in the Visitor’s Center as the Whooping Cranes have arrived and birders as well as “winter Texans” are flocking in to see them.

The Whooping Crane has recovered from a low of 13 adults and 2 chicks in the winter of 1940-41. At that time everything about the birds was a mystery. When they left Aransas to breed, no one knew where they went…it was not until 1954 that the nesting ground was found by accident in the Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Canada. Since then the whooping cranes have been watched, cared for, and studied by professional biologists.

In 2006, 237 birds – 192 adults and teenagers and 45 juveniles – were members of the Aransas-Wood Buffalo flock and today there are 288 confirmed sightings.

A non-migratory flock established in Kissimmee, FL has 53 cranes. A migratory flock has been created that nests in Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin that consisted of 83 birds at the end of 2006 including the first “wild” hatched chick. Because they have no “migratory memory” they are led to Florida by an ultra-light aircraft! More than 145 cranes are in captive flocks in Maryland, Wisconsin, Calgary, Canada, and various zoos. The total number of whooping cranes in the world have now reached almost 600.

Whooping Cranes reach five feet in height - the tallest birds in North America – and have a wingspan of up to 7-1/2 feet. Their favorite food is blue crab and can eat from 25 to 75 crabs per day. They also eat clams, shrimp, crayfish, worms, acorns, wolfberries, and insects. Their lifespan is about 25 years in the wild and they mate for life. They do not flock like other birds but live in their own family groups which is usually the male, female and a chick or juvenile.

So far I have not been able to get a good close picture of the whooping cranes as they are very shy and elusive, but I’m sure I will before we leave here in April. I will definitely post it for you all to see.

As I mentioned in an earlier posting we have no internet or cell phone service here on the refuge, so my posting will only be about once a week when we go to town for groceries.

Thanks for tuning in ……………..Just Us Kids