Speed Birding: Remaining Ten Whooping Cranes Arrive at Chassahowitzka NWR, Florida

Here is another update by International Crane Foundation Tracker, Eva Szyszkoski. This update will also be posted on the ICF website at Reintroduction Updates. You can join the ICF mailing by going to join mailing list, and clicking on the box to be added to the mailing list.

Eva, WCEP Tracking Field Manager, graduated in 2006 from Michigan Tech, in Houghton, with a Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences. She has been working for ICF for 2 years and 9 months. Sara Zimorski, ICF aviculturist and Tracking Team co-leader, graduated from the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, with a Bachelors degree in Biology. She has been working for ICF for almost 10 years. These two have extensive experience with radio-telemetry techniques, and are incredibly knowledgeable about crane behavior and biology. There is no substitute for field experience when it comes to knowing cranes, and Sara and Eva have spent uncountable hours with cranes. Here is Eva's account of her first experience meeting the 2009 ultra-light cohort at the Chassahowitzka pen site in Florida. It was a long day, but in the end well worth it, having the cranes safely at their winter home.

Remaining Ten Whooping Crane Chicks Arrive
at Chassahowitzka NWR
By Eva Szyszkoski, ICF

A week after ten of the Whooping Cranes of the Class of 2009 arrived at their wintering site on Florida's panhandle, the remaining ten have completed their migration to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Citrus County.

Myself and the rest of the tracking team, Sara Zimorski and intern Matt Strausser, of the International Crane Foundation and Dr. Richard Urbanek of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are responsible for monitoring the ten juveniles wintering at Chassahowitzka, so when Operation Migration leads them from their previous stop in Marion County to the refuge, we are the ones to call them down to the pen.

It began as an early morning. Operation Migration (OM) usually leaves as early in the morning as possible to avoid what they call 'trashy air.' As the sun rises and temperatures climb, columns of warm air (thermals) start forming, and these can cause problems for the ultralight aircraft. Normally cranes would prefer to ride the thermals, especially on migration. They are able to soar from thermal to thermal, using the rising air as a lift, and rarely having to flap their wings, conserving energy and allowing them to fly all day, sometimes up to 400 miles if the winds are in the right direction. Since OM leaves early, we had to get to the pen site even earlier to ensure that we were ready for the chicks and to be in the pen and look interesting enough so that they would land.

We launched our airboat from the boat ramp and began the eight minute ride to the pen site. There was no breeze to speak of, so the water was as smooth as glass, only interrupted by our boat and ripples of fish near the mostly submerged oyster bars as they zipped out of the way. The sun was still low, and it turned the sky orange and illuminated the mist rising from the water. Cormorants were out full force, groups of twenty plus seemingly everywhere, sitting low in the water then taking their long, running taxi's to launch themselves into the air. It was a beautiful morning to be out on the water, and a part of this job that I look forward to every year.

Once at the blind, we had to sit around for a bit while the ultralight pilots waited for the lingering fog to lift from Marion County, where our ten chicks were waiting in their pen. We had been equipped with a radio so that we could hear the pilots talking to each other and would know when they were getting close. When they were about 15 minutes out, we donned our costumes, grabbed the feeders and headed out to the pen where we discovered that the radio we had been given apparently had a low battery and was soon completely dead. Shortly after the radio failed, one, then two, then all four ultralights were visible, flying over the marsh towards us. Our excitement at finally getting our chicks began to build as we spotted them trailing off of the right wing of the lowest aircraft. Sara turned on the brood call over the megaphone and Matt and I stood near her, glancing up at the birds now flying directly over our heads, still following the plane. It took a loop or two before they broke off from the wing and began circling over the pen and surrounding marsh on their own. #29-09 was the first to land. He dropped out right next to us, exactly what we wanted them ALL to do, but the other nine continued their circling. #29 appeared to be getting anxious, peeping loudly and staring up at his still circling classmates. Matt and I tried distracting him with grapes, a favorite treat of the chicks, but he still seemed distressed at being separated from the group. When he began leaning forward in pre-flight stances, I moved to stand in front of him and block his path. This technique worked...briefly, but he eventually stretched his wings and took off, rejoining the group as the passed over our heads once again. They circled a few more times then landed just outside the pen.

It took a little while, but we were able to get them into the open pen and then into their temporary top-netted pen surprisingly easily. Already I could see personalities emerging. #3-09 and I had a mild disagreement as he challenged me for dominance, standing up tall and then jumping up high and raking forward with his nails, trying to get me to back down. During one of these jumps he was able to get high enough to rake the top of my puppet head which I was holding five and a half feet off of the ground. I decided enough was enough and chased him backwards until he eventually turned away, finally admitting he was not going to win THIS confrontation. I expect more scuffles with him as he continues to challenge the costume for dominance. #7-09 may prove to hold the title of “goof,” held last year by #19-08, and the year before by #33-07. Only time will tell, and soon all of us on the Winter Management Team down here at Chassahowitzka will know each individual crane and their unique personalities as we continue to care and monitor them until they begin their unassisted migration north and life on their own in early spring.

Cranes at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge are #'s 1-09, 3-09, 4-09, 5-09, 7-09, 13-09, 19-09, 24-09, 27-09 and 29-09. All photos by Eva Szyszkoski, ICF