Dear
Journey North,
 |
Cranes
in Kansas: Which is the juvenile?
Click for a closer look as the feathers.
Kyle McDonald, wildlife
biologist with
the Kansas Department of Willdife and Parks took
the photos.
|
If weather lets me fly next week, I would
expect to find between 0 and 4 cranes at Aransas. (Mechanical problems
with the plane and a forecast of thunderstorms meant Tom's May
10 flight was cancelled.)
Whooping Cranes in Kansas
A group of four Whooping
Cranes had been seen near Mullinville, Kansas. After a strong mid-April
blizzard hit, one white-plumaged crane and one juvenile were
still
there.
It's possible that the original
four consisted of 2 parents, a juvenile
and
a subadult. The
parents of
the
chick may
have
resumed
migration,
leaving the subadult
and juvenile
behind. The subadult and juvenile were still near
Mullinville early on May 4th. That night,
a tornado
leveled Greensburg, Kansas, fewer than 10 miles to the east of
Mullinville. A supercell thunderstorm produced the wedge-shaped
tornado in Kiowa County, Kansas and continued to spawn tornadoes
for four hours and nearly 100 miles (see
map). It is believed
that the two cranes continued migration with the strong south winds
(20-30 mph) late in the morning — escaping just in time!
I am assuming for now that the two cranes were out of harm's way,
and
we
are all deeply
saddened
for the human suffering caused by these tornadoes.
Five Traveling Eggs For Fall's Ultralight-led
Migration!
We're bringing in 4 live eggs from Calgary to Patuxent
today (May 10) for the next ultralight class. There will also be
a handover of one whooping crane egg outside
the terminal at O'Hare Airport in Chicago early this afternoon.
That single egg is the one surviving egg from the two picked
up from wild
Whooping Crane nests in Wisconsin. Kelly Maguire of ICF will
drive it down and hand the egg to Dwight Knapik, who will fly
in with 4 eggs from the Calgary Zoo, get inspected by Customs,
USDA,
and
USFWS, and then walk outside at curbside to meet Kelly and the
egg. Then Dwight will get his connecting flight to Baltimore
Washington International, where Brian Clauss from Patuxent Wildlife
Research Center will pick him up — AND the 5 valuable eggs.
An hour or two later, those 5 eggs will safely
be
in an
incubator
at
Patuxent. The new chicks are meant for the coming fall ultralight-led
migration. That's GREAT news to end another season of reporting.
Have
a safe and wonderful summer! |
