FLOW Surveys near Soda Springs, Idaho

Yesterday, Morgan and I drove from Boise east towards Soda Springs, Idaho to start a week of Flammulated Owl surveys.  The weather was great last night, and we actually started off on our survey in t-shirts!  Unfortunately the warm weather brought out mosquitos and ticks, but we weren't complaining (ok we complained a little still).  The route gave us a few steep climbs, but we ran into a few Stellar's Jays and Dark-eyed Juncos along the way, and at least 2 Ruffed Grouse were drumming in the aspen.  We came across a freshly killed baby deer carcass, and at least 3 other piles of bones that must have been winter kills, including an elk.  The site is at 7000 feet elevation, so I am sure it was a rough winter.  Most of the snow was gone, but up a few nearby mountains at 8000 feet elevation, snow still covered a few areas.  Unfortunately we didn't hear any owls on the grid.  We ventured off to find some road points to survey, but most were inaccessible.  The streams are extremely high right now, and the county is in a flash flood watch.  One of our roads was completely caved-in over a culvert that couldn't handle the raging water that flowed around it.  We scoped out other survey areas today, and found the road to one grid still snowed in 10 kilometers from the point.  Hopefully in a few weeks the snow will be gone.  We have one more grid survey in the area and one accessible raod point, but we are holding off tonight due to forecasted high wind gusts and probable snow.  The weather forecast over the next few days looks great, and once we get done here in Soda Springs we will head north to Ashton, Idaho, where Alex and I ended surveys last week.

Our points were very close to Gray's Lake NWR, so we stopped and scoped the huge wetland/flooded field complex to check out what was there.  We found a pair of Long-billed Curlews, tons of  Franklin's Gulls, a few Willets, Redheads and Mallards, and of course a few pairs of Sandhill Cranes.  In the 1970's, Sandhill Cranes at Gray's Lake NWR were given Whooping Crane eggs to raise, but the reintroduction failed when the Whooping Cranes inprinted on the Sandhill Cranes. Whooping Cranes are clearly a challenging species to recover.  On a similar note, the current reintroduction in Wisconsin is still being dragged out despite a lack of success over a 10+ year period, mainly due to nest abandonments.   Reintroductions are soon planned at Horicon Marsh, and the established flock at Necedah seems like it is going to be abandoned. Lets all ask ourselves why a completely new effort is being started without fully understanding why a similar effort failed. And lets all question the current and future management of the Necedah flock, and keep our fingers crossed that those in power don't turn the Necedah pairs into a source for egg harvesting. 

Pathetic Fine given in Shooting of Whooping Crane 17-02

In the fall of 2009, Whooping Crane number 17-02 was shot and killed in Indiana while migrating with her mate.  A few delinquents were finally charged with the killing, but hardly given a slap on the wrist.  Read the entire story here-- Killers of Whooping Crane in Indiana Receive 1$ fine, Probation.   With the on-going investigation of the killing of 5 Whooping Cranes this past winter in Georgia and Alabama, this has set a pretty pathetic precedent, and I wouldn't be surprised if these individuals targetted Whooping Cranes again.  Unfortunately, the majority of the reintroduced flock of Whooping Cranes passes through this area, and in reality, these cranes aren't safe anywhere as long as the value of wildlife goes untaught in our public schools.

Click this link to email the Vermillion County Prosecutors Office with your disgust over this situation, after reading their Lame response to punishment, by Vermillion County Prosecutors Office

Whooping Crane Soap Opera

The following is a post written by my friend and former co-worker Eva-Szyszkoski of the International Crane Foundation.  Radio-transmitters on each bird in the flock allow for a very detailed history of each bird, including its relationships.  In this story, Eva fills us in on the break-up of a pair of Whooping Cranes (Yes, it does happen! Usually though, after a pair builds a nest and especially after a pair lays eggs, they have created such a strong pair bond that they will not break up).  With less than 100 birds in the Eastern Migratory Population of Whooping Cranes, it appears as though at least one crane did not find her true love in this flock, but instead in a member of the nonmigratory population in Florida. She left her original mate high and dry, and brought her new "non migratory boyfriend" north with her.  But don't feel bad for him, because her original mate has welcomed a Whooping Crane five years younger than him onto their former territory, a potential new mate!  Talk about a real Whooping Crane Soap Opera, not like that exagerated crap you read elsewhere on the web used to swindle people out of their money!  With so much negative news coming from this project in all directions that I wish I didn't have to hear, I'm happy to share a love story, of the bird kind. My favorite. 

Thanks for the update, Eva!!!


Whooping Crane Update
by Eva Szyszkoski of the International Crane Foundation

One of the Whooping Cranes most loveable traits is that they mate for life. But do they really? Do we just assume they mate for life because most of them do? If they mate for life, how can we explain the behaviors of two of our Eastern Migratory Population females, numbers 13-03 and 19-05?

Spring of 2010: A summer fling

May 16th started out normally enough and by mid-day I was tracking birds on the southern portion of the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. As I was arriving at Site 5, one of the ultra-light training sites, a single Whooping Crane was flying up from the south. It landed in the marsh just north of the road I was on it was female #13-03. Her mate, #18-03, was still off to the south. Pair #’s 13-03 and 18-03 had not only nested in 2010, but also during the previous two springs.

As I sat there waiting for my for my GPS to average out so I could get my data point, another lone crane flew in from the south to land by #13-03. Initially I thought it was her mate #18-03, but soon I realized it was single male #9-05 instead. Upon landing, #9-05 unison called alone and began parade walking (a kind of threat) up and down the dike while #13-03 ignored him and began foraging in the marsh. I could hear her mate calling from his southerly location, but #13-03 was oblivious to his distress. Eventually #9-05 gave up his threats and began to make pre-copulatory calls, a low purring common before mating. Still I didn’t think much of it. Single males on the refuge were always trying to get female companions, even if they were already paired. It wasn’t until five minutes later when the shocking part began…#13-03 began pre-copulatory calling to #9-05! I was amazed. To the south, #18-03 continued his alarm calling, lone unison calling and ‘where are you’ noises.

After about two minutes of pre-cop calling to each other, #13-03 opened her wings and turned her back to #9-05. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. She was soliciting him, the last action before mating! 9-05 began to slowly walking towards her, both still pre-cop calling, but instead of mating with her, he walked right by. 13-03 closed her wings but they continued to call to each other for another 15 minutes before settling down to forage together. #18-03 was now making desperate calls, but still #13-03 ignored him. Throughout the rest of the summer, #13-03 would only occasionally return to #18-03, but ultimately she chose to stay with him on migration and over the winter. Will she choose to stay with him through this nesting season? We’ll have to wait and see!

Winter 2010/2011: Recruiting from the outside

Pair #’s 8-04 and 19-05 had nested for previous three springs before this winter arrived. Everything was normal as they reached their now-normal wintering grounds at the Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park in Florida. Male #8-04’s transmitter battery was dead and observations of the cranes in this large marsh with limited public access was difficult, so mainly we relied on #19-05’s signal to let us know that all was well. Besides the seven migratory Whooping Cranes spending the winter here, there were also two Florida Non-Migratory birds, a male and a female (not paired). The winter passed by with no indication that something amazing was going on out on the prairie.

On March 3rd, #8-04 was reported alone at the pair’s only consistent migration stopover location in Indiana (his ID wasn’t confirmed until March 6th). Immediately I, and others, began thinking that something bad had happened to his mate. I dreaded having to try to find her body. Paynes Prairie is packed with alligators of all sizes, hiding in the marsh vegetation and lounging on the banks. Not somewhere you would want to go if you could avoid it; and this was all dependent on if and how I would be allowed on the marsh.

I headed up to Paynes Prairie to listen for #19-05’s signal (you can almost always tell is a crane is dead of not just by signal strength and orientation of a handheld antenna). As I drove past the prairie on Highway 441, I heard #19-05’s signal loud and clear. Weird. I stopped at both the little observation platform off of the highway and at the observation tower in the park itself and listened. The signal was still strong and clear. There was no way that it was a signal of a dead, possibly submerged transmitter. No way. But then what was going on?

That day, we received a report through the online Whooping Crane observation reporting website of two birds seen off of the public trail, leg bands matching #19-05 and nearly eight year old non-migratory male #1343. Clearly #19-05 had ditched #8-04 for this new male and a non-migratory male at that! This was a first. We’ve had limited migratory and non-migratory interactions in the past, but they were never very strong. For the next few weeks, #19-05 remained at Paynes Prairie with #1343. The question we were now all asking was would the pull of migration take her back north and possibly back to her previous mate or would #1343 entice her to stay in Florida and nest with him? What actually happened was unexpected.

On April 5th, I checked Paynes Prairie one last time. #19-05 was gone. I figured she chose migration over the male. On April 6th, I received a report and photo of two birds in central Indiana. I scrolled down the email until the photo appeared and was speechless. #19-05 was migrating alright, but she was taking (previously) non-migratory male #1343 back with her! It will be interesting to see what will happen if she wants her old territory back, a territory that #8-04 is still on with young female #8-09 (who he has apparently wooed). The drama is sure to continue…

(photo by Billie Dodd, Indiana)

Reward for information on Whooping Crane Killings

In December, three DAR (Direct Autumn Relase) Whooping Cranes were shot in Georgia.  These birds were part of a reintroduction effort started by the International Crane Foundation, and were on migration between Wisconsin and Georgia, when they were found dead by hunters.  The cranes were thought to be shot sometime before December 30th.  If you have any information about this horrendous crime, please contact U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent Terry Hasting at 404-763-7959 and/or Georgia Department of Natural Resources 24hr. TIP  Hotline at 1-800-241-4113.  The reward for information is now up to $20,800.  Whooping Cranes are a critically endangered species, and less than 400 remain in existence. 

Donations in response to this crime are best channeled into the reward money, as it is very likely that someone knows who did this.

Eastern Migratory Whooping Crane Population Reintroduction Update, International Crane Foundation

Here is another update from Eva Szyszkoski of the International Crane Foundation, written a few days ago.  The St. Marks birds have migrated, and as an update to this article, have already arrived at Necedah NWR in central Wisconsin; apparently they really missed Wisconsin!  Somehow the migration start was missed and the cranes migrated all the way on their own, although I'm not sure how such an event was missed!  Usually before cranes migrate, they display in a frenzy of pre-flight calls to eachother, before taking flight and circling together, calling to those who haven't felt the natural trigger on their own.  They then proceed to fly circles around their former land home, while testing the air and wind.  If they can find a thermal, they quickly start to rise.  Otherwise, they fly low and take their time deciding where to break into the upper air currents, while quickly moving in the appropriate direction.  So many times as a crane tracker, I can recall watching this, literally yelling in my truck to "Go go go!" or "Don't do it, my truck isn't packed yet!"  Other times you can almost see the cranes making active decisions in the air.  I recall in November 2007, watching DAR birds (that I had just raised all summer) 36-07, 37-07, and 46-07, flying around the north half of the refuge.  They were exploring outside the refuge boundaries for the first time, and I watched one of them break off and start flying north, while the other two almost hovered and were clearly calling for break-away crane to come back.  It did, and the trio joined back up before exploring for another half hour, then returning to the refuge.  Later that day they made a late-day migration start on their own.

Some of the locations of the missing St. Marks birds were revealed through the satellite transmitters that they carry on their legs, and a faithful ICF volunteer in Indiana, Dan Kaiser, provided a photo of the group still together.  The cranes at Chassahowitzka NWR are still waiting for the perfect migration conditions, and will likely migrate soon.  Eva will be tracking them all the way north, while Matt will be tracking the remaining two birds at St. Marks all the way north.

As always, Eva's update can be read at the International Crane Foundation website at Reintroduction Updates

Nearly There
By Eva Szyszkoski, International Crane Foundation

The eight 2009 juveniles that began migration on March 24th from the St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge near Tallahassee, Florida are within a day’s flight from the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge!
Late on March 24th, Brooke Pennypacker (Operation Migration) contacted the tracking team to let us know that eight of the cranes he was caring for had been missing from the pen for over nine hours. While Brooke was away, a volunteer observed the birds starting their migration that morning with an impressive aerial display. With late notice, ICF tracker Matt Strausser was already a half day behind and therefore had no chance of catching up with them; they were on their own.

According to satellite readings from two of the birds, their first stop was Shelby County, Alabama, where they stayed until continuing migration on the 27th. They then moved nearly 400 miles north to Monroe County, Indiana, and we were able to get confirmation that all eight birds were still traveling together. Two days of short flights followed and, as of last night, they are in Fountain County, Indiana, and only a little over 300 miles from the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, a one-day flight if the winds and conditions are favorable. This group is composed of cranes #’s 8-09, 10-09, 11-09, 14-09, 15-09, 18-09, 25-09, and 26-09.

Numbers 6-09 and 12-09 at the St. Mark’s NWR, the nine juveniles, plus three 2008 sub-adults at the Chassahowitzka NWR have yet to begin their journey north. The forecasts for Thursday and Friday look very favorable for migration, so they will likely leave on one of those two days.

Thank you to Dan Kaiser for letting us share his fabulous picture of the eight juveniles at their Monroe County stopover.

5-01: A Blessing in Disguise? International Crane Foundation Update by Eva Szyszkoski

Here is Eva Szyszkoski's latest update on the 2008 chicks staying at the Chassahowitzka NWR pensite. She talks about the pair of cranes including 5-01 and 1-05, and the drama they bring to the EMP. This pair is an essential and important breeding/nesting pair in the spring time, but they exhibit less than ideal behavior when in Florida. As you will read, 5-01 has become familiar with a local wildlife park, not very far inland from the pensite. I really can't blame him for visiting it; the ultralights fly almost right over the wildlife park on their first trip out to the pensite, so it is in their line of travel. His initial reason for going there was to visit "Peepers," an eligible female (captive) whooping crane that resides there. In time, she was given a captive mate, but 5-01 had eyes for no other. For two years he visited her in the winter, and my winter in Florida entailed tracking him when near the wildlife park, and hauling him out with Richard Urbanek when he did evetually "visit." That year (in 2007), Sara and I then drove him 7 hours to Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in TN, where he did find a temporary replacement for Peepers. The following summer, he found 1-05, his apparent soul mate, who he has been with ever since. Unfortunately, he took her to the park last year. Now, the park is in his imaginary "list" of locations he has visited, and cranes can be very faithful to sites they have chosen previously, visiting them over and over again, year after year. This is why most cranes re-visit the pensite the following winter after living there; as far as they are concerned, this is their wintering territory. Eva, Richard, and Sara, though, have found a temporary solution to the pairs bad behavior, which seems to be benifitting everyone.


International Crane Foundation Update
By Eva Szyszkoski

Contrary to the ending of the last update (Chassahowitzka Crane Release: Who Let the Chicks Out?) the six 2008 birds that have decided to winter near the pen site at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge have been frequenting the pen. At the time that update was written (a couple of days after we released the chicks) they hadn't returned, but as we all know, things can change in a hurry.

Since the six 2008 adults had started coming around again, we had been raising the feeders up high so they could not get any of the food meant for the chicks. This obviously meant that we had to spend more time at the blind and in the pen in order to let the chicks get food. We typically would go out early in the morning, once in the afternoon (depending on how long we remained at the pen in the morning) and once at night for roost check, each time lowering the feeders and keeping the adults at bay while the chicks ate their fill.

On the night of February 3rd, Richard Urbanek, US Fish and Wildlife Service Senior Project Biologist and Winter Management co-leader, and I headed out to the pen site about half an hour before sunset to let the chicks eat and make sure they were in the open-topped pen for the night. When we arrived at the blind, all 10 chicks were on the outside of the pen, along with three adults. Two adults were near the food shelter set up on the inside. We donned our costumes and headed out to the pen to chase the adults from the feeding area and let the chicks get their last meal before bed time. The two adults we were chasing started unison calling non-stop and I got a good look at the leg bands and recorded the combinations in my phone to write into the notes later on. I knew immediately that these were two NEW birds and not members of last year's cohort. As soon as I could, I whispered to Richard that we had some unexpected guests. Because the transmitter color combinations are all the same for one specific year (for example, all 2008 birds have a radio transmitter with red on top and white on bottom) we were able to slowly eliminate birds that we knew it could not be. Our conclusions on their identities were not reassuring. It was male #5-01 and his mate #1-05, previously recorded at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in Tennessee. They had been there for about a month and a half, so we thought they would remain there for the rest of the winter. We both felt a moment of dread. Not because we were worried about them messing with the chicks, but because #5-01 has a history of going to the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. Last year, he took #1-05 there as well. Every time he visits the park, we must drop everything to capture him and transport him to a top-netted pen until we can relocate him somewhere else. The people at the park have been very cooperative, leaving their dangerous animals in their nighttime enclosures until they can thoroughly check the area every morning. When our cranes are at the park, the staff essentially keeps the park closed until we can remove the birds. Not only is this a dangerous situation for the birds themselves, it is also not acceptable behavior for cranes in the population. So far in three years, he has gone to the park at least five times...twice with #1-05. The only solutions we have found are to leave him in a pen for most of the winter and release him around migration time, or transport him (and now his mate) eight hours north and back to Tennessee. Obviously neither of these solutions are ideal. And so, Richard and I shared a moment of horror at his arrival to Florida.

In the last couple of days, we have discussed our options. Finally we decided to allow #'s 5-01 and 1-05 to remain at the pen site and have access to food. This is a benefit in two ways. One; because #5-01 does not tolerate any presence of the two year old adults. Two; if they are allowed to eat, the free food will hopefully deter them from going to the park. From the chick’s perspective, handling two adults is much easier than having to deal with six, and already some of the chicks have been increasingly aggressive to the older pair. #5-01's aggressive nature towards the 2008 birds was clear this afternoon when three of the wandering cranes made an appearance at the pen. It was brief visit for them because shortly after their arrival (and after some harassment from the costumes) two of them landed in the pen, but across the pond from the chicks and #'s 5-01 and 1-05. #5-01 immediately took off, chasing them in the air until they disappeared from view, back in the direction they had come from. #5-01 returned to the pen triumphantly. We still are wary about his and #1-05's possible appearance at the wildlife park, but are optimistic about their future movements and therefore deem them a blessing in disguise....question mark.

All photos by Eva Szyszkoski

5-01 and 1-05

5-01 and 1-05 unison calling

5-01 threatening the costume

5-01 with chicks in foreground

13-01 and 1-05 have a tussle

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

7-09 (dancing) and Sara Zimorski

29-09 coming in for a landing!

investigating the new pen

Sara and Matt Strauser, ICF Intern, calling in the 10 birds

view from the blind, early morning

Whooping crane update from Eva Szyszkoski, International Crane Foundation

When I worked on the whooping crane project, I met a great person named Eva Szyszkoski.  She was a DAR intern with me, and together we helped raise 11 whooping crane chicks.  We both loved our cranes so much, we wanted to stay on the project, and became full time crane trackers.  When I left in August of 2008, Eva took over my position, and is still working for the International Crane Foundation (going on 3 years!).  Given the difficulties of the project, this is an impressive feat and deserves an award.  Eva periodically writes updates for the ICF website.  Here is one she recently wrote about doing health checks on the juvenile cranes that will be wintering at St. Marks this winter.  She talks about the cranes reactions to the health checks, in addition to some of the difficulties associated with this wintering site, including muddy access roads and feral pigs.

St. Marks NWR Health Checks – Ten Down, Ten To Go
By Eva Szyszkoski

The ten St. Marks birds have their permanent leg wear! Cranes #'s 6-09, 8-09, 10-09, 11-09, 12-09, 14-09, 15-09, 18-09, 25-09 and 26-09 arrived at their wintering location in Wakulla County, Florida on January 13th, a whopping 82 days after leaving the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin behind their surrogate ultralight parents.

Once the new batch of juvenile cranes arrive at their wintering location, whether it is the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Florida's panhandle or the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in western central Florida, they receive a final health check and their permanent transmitters, unique leg band color combinations and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service metal band. The entire tracking team is involved in the banding process. The leg bands and transmitters are attached by Dr. Richard Urbanek of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Senior Project Biologist and Tracking Team Co-Leader. Our other Tracking Team Co-Leader, Sara Zimorski of the International Crane Foundation, is one of the bird handlers, and myself and our new intern Matt Strausser are the 'glue people,' holding the glue and double checking the bands while the birds were being banded.

On the morning of the 15th, the four of us piled into one of our tracking vehicles with costumes and banding equipment and headed up the west coast. We do not take care of the birds that winter at St. Marks, but rather care for and watch the birds that will eventually winter at Chassahowitzka. We were met at the maintenance shop by Disney World's veterinary staff, led by Dr. Scott Terrell who would be preforming the heath checks on the chicks while they were in hand, local veterinarian Dr. Norm Griggs, Brooke Pennypacker of Operation Migration, currently the only full time caretaker of the St. Marks group, and Scott Tidmus, Disney employee and temporary volunteer. Once assembled, we headed out to the pen site, close to a half and hour away from the living quarters of the Brooke and Scott T., through two miles of bumpy, closed refuge roads with one section that I would be wary to drive on if heavy rains occurred, already riddled with deep tracks and slightly muddy.

Since the ground around the pen was mostly mucky mud, the shelter for heath checks had been set up around the chicks food shelter, inside the open-topped pen and a very short distance away from the chicks themselves in their temporary top-netted pen. They must have been slightly awed at the sight of 10-plus costumed people tromping through the mud single file to the enclosed shelter. Once in the shelter and out of sight of the birds, costumes could come off and work promptly got underway. Sara and Brian Clauss of the U.S. Geological Survey and Patuxent Wildlife Research Center employee were our two bird handlers, and there were almost always two hooded chicks being worked on simultaneously, one getting it's bands and transmitter, and one getting it's health check. Things progressed fairly quickly and we completed all ten birds in two and a half hours. Two of the chicks received PTT or satellite transmitters in addition to their VHF transmitters so these birds were held slightly longer to ensure that the glue had set enough and the transmitters would not fall off. A couple of the chicks amused themselves by biting their handlers costume and taking jabs at anything they could, clearly unhappy at the kind of extra attention they were receiving.

We packed up and headed back to the blind, taking a moment to observe the feral pig that had wandering to within 40 yards of the pen and was completely ignoring us as we passed by on the path, probably 50 feet away. We loaded up our stuff into our vehicles and headed back to the maintenance area of the refuge where we said our goodbyes and drove back down to our living area near Chassahowitzka. We expect our ten birds to arrive sometime next week, and are looking forward to taking care of chicks of our own!

Thanks to everybody involved in health check and banding.

2009 Birding Summary

Before this year, I didn't exactly keep a "life list", besides in my head. You could also, not call me a birder. My idea of "birders" were crazy people who trespassed on private land to get close to and sometimes try to touch whooping cranes. Much of my time tracking cranes in migration was spent fending off these crazy people and trying to keep crane locations secret (this is part of the idea that in a few years, whooping cranes will be more numerous, and more people will have the opportunity to see them; but in the meantime, they need protected).  I also rarely made special trips to see rare birds, and just birded the different areas where I found myself for work. However this year, I put effort into birding in my free time in new places, and because of this I got 102 life birds, mainly due to my trips to the midwest and to Hawaii.  Alex started this list for me, and even though he probably just did it for competition, it has been really fun. I now have a much happier idea of "birders" in my head, and have made friends with many of them in many states. I now realize that the crazies that do anything to see whooping cranes really have good intentions, and just get caught up in the moment and the checklist.

I started out the year ending my job with the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art, tracking saw-whet owls in central PA. This job was one of my favorites so far, because I actually found saw-whets every day on roost. We used radio-transmitters to find them in the day time, and also followed them around at night. It was really fun to be able to see so many saw-whet owls, which are very secretive and hard-to-find birds. Here are a few of the photos I took of owls on roost.

This owl was notorious for roosting in dense mountain laurel.  It is likely that, while crawling around on the ground tracking her, I scared her off roost, onto the ground.  Notice the half-mouse in her talons;  saw-whets eat half of a mouse at a time, and I found them on roost many times with the butt-end of the mouse in their talons as a mid-day snack.

This is the same owl a few weeks later, still hiding in mountain laurel after an ice storm.

In February I travelled to the island of Hawaii, where I spent a month helping clean up the beaches on the southern coast. Unfortunately, this is where much of the worlds garbage ends up. This includes anything from coffee cans, to combs, to shoes, to toothbrushes, on top of thousands of pounds of derilect fishing nets, which are a major hazard to sea life. After collecting the nets, they are sent to a power plant on Oahu, to be burned for energy. Hawaii Wildlife Fund does a beach cleanup every other month on the most southerly beach in the United States, if you are ever in the area.   Thanks to Bill Gilmartin and all of his friends for all of their generosity while I was in Hawaii!!!!  I hope to go back one day soon.

fishing net stuck in rocks near Kamilo Beach; really heavy and really hard to get "unstuck"

Katie sorting through nets at the dump; she hopes to figure out where they come by classifying the different kinds of nets; all were collected on the southern coast

loading the nets onto a trailor to be sent to Oahu

I didn't spend too much time birding while in Hawaii, but I did manage to see a few great Hawaiian birds, including the hawaiian hawk, white-tailed tropic bird, and a magnificent frigate bird, that flew over me while I was hiking in Volcanoes National Park.

white-tailed tropic bird

Apapane in Bill's back yard in Volcanoes, Hawaii

I also spent time helping a grad student at the University of Hawaii, Hilo, with her project, monitoring and recording species of fish during different tide levels.  I am really not the best swimmer, but I still had fun and saw some great fish while snorkeling, like this spotted puffer fish.  It was also a ton of fun to camp on the beach!

In early March, I spent a few days at home in PA. Alex and I looked for and found a snowy owl that had been spending part of the winter near my parents home in Cambria County. This was a life bird for both of us, and we got great photos. We also saw a short-eared owl in the same field, the only one I saw all year.

snowy owl, Cambria County, March 2009

Later that day I purchased and took home my new (to me) 1986 VW vanagon. I didn't take it to Nebraska with me, but used it during the month of September when Alex and I volunteered at the Pulpit hawk watch.

In early March, I travelled to South Dakota for a few weeks of training as a Biological Technician for the USGS Nothern Prairie Wildlife Research Center least tern and piping plover project. Training was on the Missouri river, and it was an excellent time of year to see migrating waterfowl and shorebirds. I spent the rest of the summer in Nebraska on the Platte River, living in Elm Creek, monitoring the nests of least terns and piping plovers. It was a relatively low year in terms of productivity, but at least 5 piping plover nests fledged, in addition to approximately 40 tern nests. One of our piping plover families showed up in Texas in late July, which was really encouraging. We also monitored a snowy plover nest that hatched 4 chicks on the Platte River. In general, the terns and plovers do not nest on the Platte; the sand bars are too vegetated, and the water levels fluctuate too much. Of the 5 tern nests we had on the river, 4 were destroyed by hail, and only one succesfully fledged. There was only one piping plover nest on the river, which was succesful. Terns and plovers seem to have much more success on the Missouri River, and nest there in larger numbers. The ones near the Platte River prefer to nest on nearby sand pits, versus the river, but do forage at the river.

piping plover broken wing display to distract us away from nest

piping plover pair defending territory against another plover, while plover chicks forage nearby (plover chicks got pummelled numerous times but just kept getting up, only to start eating again immediately)

banding one of the first plover chicks of the season

least tern chick, 2 days old

least tern chicks, 1-2 days old

adult least tern with transmitter

least tern chicks from Platte River nest; during observation period, one chick got fed about 90% more than the other...not hard to see which one!

16-18 day old least tern chick hiding during a chick drive on a sand pit

adult snowy plovers

snowy plover chicks on Platte River

The weather over the summer in Nebraska was amazing.  Huge thunderstorms would show up out of nowhere, like this one.

This was the most terrifying storm I've ever been in.  I was home alone in Elm Creek, while my co-workers were stuck on the Platte, hiding under a canoe.

While in Nebraska, Alex visited in early June. We visited some amazing wildlife refuges. Some of my favorites from this trip were Wilson's phalarope, long-billed curlew, burrowing owl, lark bunting, and Mississippi Kite.

common nighthawk that Alex spotted out the window at Valentine NWR, Nebraska

Wilson's phalarope

shrike cache that Alex spotted from the window, near Crescent Lake NWR, Nebraska

lark bunting near Crescent Lake NWR, Nebraska

long-billed curlews near Crescent Lake NWR (my favorite birding moment of 2009) The birds were very territorial and 4 of them surrounded our car, calling out and walking/flying around for 15 minutes.  They are part of a radio-telemetry study at Crescent Lake NWR.

Before leaving Elm Creek, this chimney swift showed up in our house.  It was the second one to do so over the summer; they lived in the basement, and sometimes got stuck in the cobwebs, or found themselves upstairs.   I doubt I'll  have another chimney swift in my house/hand anytime soon!

In August, Alex came back, and we birded north to Wisconsin, where we visited Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. We were able to see many of the whooping cranes I used to track, including 46-07, a DAR bird that I raised in 2007, who was succesfully paired with a mate. I also saw a few of the cranes I took care of in Florida over the winter, who were also paired.

whooping cranes at Necedah NWR, Wisconsin

In September, I spent a lot of time at the Tuscarora Summit Hawk Watch, known as "The Pulpit," in central PA. Alex helped me learn how to ID raptors. Most of what we saw in September were migrating broad-tailed hawks, bald eagles, osprey, cooper's hawks, and sharp-shinned hawks, but I did see two golden eagles before I left in October.

two juvenile bald eagles playing with a stick at the Pulpit

Alex and Dale Gearhart birding and waiting for fog to clear at the Pulpit

Alex and I also found a few (large) baby barn owls in a nest box on Milton-Herhsey property in Hershey, PA.   Dan Mummert of the PA Game Commission came out to band them, and Nate Mckelvey brought out some students to watch the event.  Turns out there were 5 of them jammed into the nest box!  Alex and I also watched them one night, hunting over the field nearby, and the adults caught mice every few minutes for the babies to eat; another one of my favorite birding moments of the year.

                                         

          Dan pulling a barn owl from the box

Alex holding one of the babies

We also went on an trip with the Conococheague Audobon Society to Cape May, and saw about 120 species of birds.

In October I drove to Oklahoma, where I trained for a week to do habitat surveys for the Playa Lakes Joint Venture. While doing surveys in Kansas and Nebraska, I saw more raptors than I have in my entire life. One day, I counted over 150 red-tail hawks, that were migrating in groups of about 20. In late October I started seeing ferruginous and rough legged hawks, and when Alex arrived in South Dakota, we started seeing numerous golden eagles (mainly in Wyoming). One day, we had seen more golden eagles than red-tails. My trip list for the two month trip was 137 birds.

In December, I made it back to PA, and did some PA birding with Alex, including a trip to Conowingo Dam in PA. We ended the year with hundreds of bald eagles at the dam, and also a visit to see PA's first Allen's hummingbird. In general, it was a great year, and I enjoyed all of the jobs I had. It will be a very hard year to beat.

On January 17th I will start my next job as a Wilson's snipe survey technician crew leader. I will be helping out a graduate student who has been working on a survey design to better understand where snipe winter along the Mississippi Delta in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. This job will last two months. In late April, Alex and I will start a job through the College of William and Mary, trapping and tracking whimbrels. This job will end in early June. We are looking for another job to fill the rest of the summer.