| Dear
Journey North,
We have more new arrivals in Wisconsin: Crane #509 (April
15) and the UL (ultralight-led) group of 716, 717, 721,
724, and 726
(April 16).
- On
April 15, crane #706, 712, and 713 arrived in Waukesha County,
WI. But now they're lost, perhaps in Michigan.
- PTT
data for DAR 39-07, 44-07, and 46-07 indicate they finally
moved again and ended up in Michigan. We're trying to find out
if the group's other two DAR birds and #524
(see Sara's story) went
with them or
stayed behind. Stay tuned.
- Everyone
is still listening for #733's arrival, but his signal has not
been heard since April 8 near
rainy Chicago.
- Cranes
#707, 710 and 722 are in McHenry County, Illinois, and getting
close!
- Traveling
alone and often in difficult
weather conditions, #727 remains
in Sullivan County, Indiana this week and Anna tells her story.
- Male
#703 is a solo traveler, too, and Eva tracked him to Montgomery
County, IN on April 15. He continued to move April 16, says
Eva. "However, I lost his signal in the Chicago area (I believe
he was mostly
past it and to the east)
as I was beginning hour number 4 of searching."
The
most exciting news at Necedah NWR is SIX nests, the most number
of pairs on nests in a given year:
2005: 2 pairs incubated
2006: 5 pairs incubated
2007: 4 pairs incubated
2008: 6 pairs so far, and more possibilities!
Colleen explains, "Spring is a crazy time of year for Whooping
Cranes. Many of the adult pairs are building nests and starting
to incubate
their
eggs.
And the single adults are moving around a lot, looking for a good
place to spend the summer and maybe find a friend or two. I’ve
driven to many places on and off the refuge to confirm which birds
are back. Since we can’t
use signals to detect the birds with non-functional transmitters,
it’s important for us to see them so we know who is back
and which birds are together. For example, "
On April 8, I was listening to #312 signal, hoping to
see her and, especially, her mate, #311. He has a non-functional
transmitter. As I was driving along the road, I saw what looked
like a Whooping Crane, and then a second one. I took out my binoculars,
and sure enough, they were two Whooping Cranes. Then I used my
spotting scope to look at the leg bands. I was very excited to
confirm #311 and #312 and to see that they were still together
and safely
back at Necedah." Sara Zimorski, Aviculturalist
Eva Szyszkoski, Tracking Intern
Anna Fasoli, Tracking Crew Chief
Colleen
Wisinski
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