Greetings all!

The following report is forwarded with permission from Tom Stehn, USFWS biologist and US Whooping Crane Coordinat

As spring migration gets underway, please be sure and report all whooping crane migrational sightings. Tom's email address is in his signature block below.

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October 24, 2007

Refuge staff reported this morning (October 24th) seeing at Aransas the first whooping crane of the season, located along the Intracoastal Waterway on Ayres Island. A strong Pacifc cold front brought NW winds of 20-30 mph on October 22 and 23, so I was expecting cranes to arrive. The single whooping crane presumably arrived on either October 22 or 23.

Many of the whooping cranes have departed the fall staging area in Saskatchewan and are currently migrating across the U.S. Recent sightings have been made in North Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Multiple whooping cranes should be arriving at Aransas in about 2 weeks. Forty chicks fledged on the nesting grounds this summer, which should result in a population increase. I'm hoping for a record population of 250+ birds this winter, an increase over the flock size of 236 in spring, 2007.

Tom Stehn
Whooping Crane Coordinator
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Aransas NWR
P.O. Box 100
Austwell, TX 77950
(361) 286-3559 Ext. 221
fax (361) 286-3722
E:mail: tom_stehn@fws.gov 

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Where applicable, CWS stands for Canadian Wildlife Service; USFWS is US Fish and Wildlife Service. Crane monitoring involves cooperative efforts and support by both countries, plus many volunteers and non-profit organizations along the way.

Anyone wanting to contact Tom about the report or the whooping crane projects can reach him via email at: tom_stehn@fws.gov. Other information, including archived copies of these reports, can be found at the Texas Whooping Crane web site at http://www.ccbirding.com/

Patty Waits Beasley
Corpus Christi, TX
email: patty@ccbirding.com
web: http://www.ccbirding.com/