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Show Majestic whooping crane visits in Ashley Valley by Steve Cranney Northeastern Region Nongame Manager This past week, marsh and wet pastureland near Jensen was the site of a brief stopover of two of the world's rarest and most majectic birds. Two whooping cranes, one adult and one immature, im-mature, were sighted in company with a large flock of sandhill cranes near Stewart Lake. Numbering less than 60 now existing in the wild, the whooping crane is a breathtaking sight as its white plumage stands out in sharp contrast to its smaller, grey relative, the sandhill crane. The whooping crane is the tallest American bird, standing 4V'2 feet with black-topped wings spanning seven feet. The chance to see a whooper here in our valley is one thing that wasn't better bet-ter in the "good old days." Up until eight years ago the only remaining wild population of whooping cranes, numbering number-ing at one time less than 15 birds, migrated annually between their nesting grounds in Canada and their wintering grounds on the Texas coast, a distance of 2600 miles. Canada and the United States have worked together to help the once numerous whooper survive and increase in numbers. Strict laws have been passed pass-ed to protect the big white birds and are . strictly enforced. In addition every attempt at-tempt is made to safeguard the cranes on their long and hazardous fall flights between wintering and nesting areas. These efforts have resulted in the present numbers of nearly 50 birds in the eastern flocks. Now back to "our" whooper and how they got here. Crane biologists reasoned reason-ed that a second wild flock with a different dif-ferent migration route would add to the survival chances of the whooper. In 1975, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Canadian Wildlife Service and other cooperating agencies began a project designed to fool Mother Nature. During the nesting season in Canada the whooping whoop-ing crane usually lays two eggs. Usually Usual-ly only one chick survives and biologists have been removing the "extra" egg to create a captive breeding flock at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. A six year study of a flock of sandhill cranes in Idaho led biologists to believe that sandhill cranes could hatch the extra ex-tra eggs from Canada and serve as foster parents for the whoopers, teaching them the sandhill migration route to wintering grounds in southern New Mexico. The shorter migration route was felt to be much safer and more easily monitored. Begun in 1975 and added to each year the western whooper population now numbers at least 10 birds, in spite of drought conditions at the breeding grounds at Gray's Lake, Idaho in the early ear-ly years which greatly impacted survival of these young foster cranes. Because of the success of foster programs pro-grams there is hope that the expression "gone the way of the whooping crane," will become meaningless. All of us along the migration routes can help assure the survival of the cranes by reporting any sightings to the nearest office of the State Division of Wildlife Resources or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The timing of the migration in the Vernal proximately Oct. 1 in thean 1, in the spring. Ial1 ami Apij : Those that have seen the , whooper can only agree with tionist Aldo Leopold" Wo? hear his call we hear no meJN 15 the symbfouruntama N |
