Whooping Cranes In Nebraska and Kansas

(photo taken in Texas)

From today's Lincoln Journal-Star

Nebraskans planning a weekend crane trip will have a good chance of glimpsing one of the rarest birds in North America.

As of Thursday, at least 11 whooping cranes had stopped in Nebraska during the spring migration, said Karine Gil, crane population ecologist with the Crane Trust near Alda. The birds belong to a flock of 247 wild whoopers that migrate from wintering grounds in Texas to breeding territory in northwestern Canada.

A check of the website of Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in cental Kansas shows that as of yesterday, there were 76 whooping cranes on the refuge.

In my meandering around the internet I found another interesting article in the Washington Post.

This year for the first time, the movements of a few birds are being monitored in real time through miniaturized leg-band Global Positioning System devices.

This research project took six years of meeting, discussing and permit-getting in two countries. It is finally underway, at a propitious time.

Lots of information in that article, it's well worth a read.

I tried to find out more about the monitoring, and have been unable to find anything. When I find it, I'll post it...

Sandhill Cranes

The Lincoln Journal-Star had a front page article about Sandhill cranes this morning.

NEAR GIBBON - Doing the crane thing required a serious commitment from Jim and Edna Huggett.

The Marshall, Wis., retirees drove nearly 600 miles, woke a couple of hours before sunrise and endured a chilling walk to arrive at a blind along the Platte River in central Nebraska.

At first, they and 26 other crane tourists could just barely make out gray avian shapes in the twilight. But as darkness retreated, a gauzy light revealed clusters of sandhill cranes up, down and across the wide, shallow channel of the Platte.

They numbered in the thousands.

A chorus of calls grew in volume with the gathering dawn. Then, without warning, a clutch of cranes upstream from the blind lifted off, peeling downstream birds with them like gift wrap. The chorus turned into a roar not dissimilar to the sound that follows a touchdown at perpetually sold-out Memorial Stadium.

Much more, plus some photos at the link above.

For more information about Sandhill crane viewing, see my post from earlier in the year.

New Sandhill Crane Web Site

From the Lincoln Journal Star

Every year about this time, small flocks of sandhill cranes begin arriving along the Platte River in central Nebraska.

Now there’s a Web site to tell you, by e-mail, when most of the birds show up.

NebraskaFlyway.com also provides: maps of key birding areas along the Platte River and the Rainwater Basin; how to sign up for blinds and guided tours; calendar of wildlife-related events; a gallery where you can share your crane photos; information on lodging and attractions; and a link to a “Crane Cam,” where you can watch cranes from your computer.

Before you click on the web site, turn off anything else you are listening to, because when the site opens you will hear the call of the Sandhill cranes. The sound of Sandhill cranes is very distinctive, and once you have heard it, you will immediately recognize it whenever you hear it again.

NebraskaFlyway.com

I've added the link in the sidebar.

UPDATE: See my March 1 post with more Sandhill crane viewing resources and here for the link to Crane Cam 2009

From the Local Paper

It takes a very special kind of person to do these good works.

Lois Moss first started rescuing wildlife about 18 years ago, after her husband had a stroke and she was looking for a new pastime he would enjoy.

He died not long after, but Moss continued taking in injured or orphaned animals every year.

From about March to October, she spends nearly every waking hour caring for primarily birds, occasionally other animals.

When baby birds start falling from nests in the spring, they bring them to this 80-year-old woman nicknamed The Bird Lady.

When a bird flies into a window and is too stunned to move, they bring it to The Bird Lady.

The newborns go on a heating pad in the spare bedroom. She uses a dropper to feed them a mixture of canned dog food, applesauce, eggs, turkey mash and vitamin powder. Every hour.

Birds eagerly open their mouths, and squirrels (which her daughter, Gail the Squirrel Lady, rescues) wrap their tiny paws around the dropper. Bunnies — they’re not so easy to feed.

Possum formula is much more complicated, and they’re not as grateful.

“Even when they’re little, they’ll open their mouth and hiss at you,” Gail says.

The older birds go in a cage in the garage until they’re ready to be released into the wild.

During the quiet before the storms that will bring birds to Lois’s modest little ranch home, the only sound in her living room is the kitchen clock that chimes bird sounds, and the one tenant, a ringneck dove, softly cooing in the basement.

Lois and Gail are part of the nonprofit volunteer Wildlife Rescue Team, which takes squirrels, bunnies, possums, raccoons, minks, bobcats, wolves, foxes, beavers, woodchucks —- even a hedgehog.

Over the years, Lois has had ducks, turkeys, geese, pheasant, crows — all kinds of birds. She takes in hundreds every year; she’s liable to have 30 to 40 on any given day during the busy season.

The Local Paper

Presented in it's entirety from the Opinion Page of the Lincoln Journal Star

A spectacular success for the Platte River

Wednesday, Nov 14, 2007 - 12:13:28 am CST
Wildlife lovers in Nebraska have good reason to celebrate these days.

Efforts to restore habitat on the Platte River have provided an immediate and spectacular payoff.

Last year a 200-acre, mile-long stretch of the Platte River next to the Audubon Society’s Rowe Sanctuary near Gibbon was restored to its pre-dam condition.

Trees and other invasive plants were removed, river channels were reshaped and several bare nesting islands were created.

The work had been completed for only several weeks when three migrating whooping cranes roosted at the site, according to the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

This summer the stretch scored another important success when 10 pairs of least terns and two pairs of piping plovers nested on the islands. Least terns are an endangered species. Piping plovers are listed as threatened.

The two species had been squeezed out of their natural nesting grounds when low water flow allowed trees and vegetation to take root on the sand islands where they previously nested.

Wildlife officials said the nesting was the first in the central Platte in the past decade.

Another cause for elation this fall was the sighting of five whooping cranes on the Niobrara River. The group is one of the 250 whoopers that migrate from their breeding grounds in Canada to wintering grounds on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Whooping cranes are part of one of the world’s most spectacular wildlife events, the seasonal migration of hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes and other water fowl that draws thousands of tourists to Nebraska in the spring and fall.

One of the key stops on this journey is the central Platte River. A map of the central flyway migratory route looks like an hour glass, with the Platte River at the narrow part of the hour glass.

The restoration project used by the whoopers, least terns and piping plovers was part of the Nebraska Natural Legacy Project, which draws together a diverse group including farmers, hunters, birdwatchers in support of preserving the Platte River as a biologically unique landscape.

The project is funded by both private and public money, and covers last owned by nonprofit wildlife groups and private landowners.

“There’s not many examples nationally where you can take this federal money, match it with state and private money and boom, you’ve got a measurable result,” said Mark Humpert of the Game and Parks Commission.

Nebraskans can take pride at the recent victories in preserving the crucial Platte River stopping point for migrating birds. The success will be appreciated internationally.

Sunday Paper

On the sidebar of one of the sections of the paper today there was an article entitled "Lady Bird's Wildflower Legacy In Nebraska". The article doesn't seem to be in the online version of the paper.

According to the article, Nebraska "started planting native grasses in the mid-1960's and wildflowers in 1971". They are planted on new projects or whenever a highway is widened. The species being planted can be found here.

The article cites the following roadways as the best for viewing wildflowers:

Nebraska 2 from Grand Island to Alliance

US 20 from Valentine to Chadron

US 83 from McCook to Valentine

US 6 from Imperial to McCook

Nebraska 8 from Falls City to Fairbury

Nebraska 11 from Scotia through Burwell to Butte in Boyd County

Nebraska 61 from Ogallala to Merriman

Nebraska 71 from Gering to Crawford

Nebraska 12 from Ponca to Valentine

Sunday Paper

Today's Lincoln Journal Star has an article about boating, and a smidge about fishing at Branched Oak and Pawnee Lakes. Nary a word about birds though.