Whooping Cranes and Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge Photo Gallery by lejun at pbase.com

Whooping Cranes and Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge

Whooping Cranes and Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge (North Alabama) (Grus Americana)

The Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge is one of the richest wildlife refuges in the US known for its wide spectrum of species.
It contains a great diversity of habitats including deep river channels, tributary creeks, tupelo swamps,
open backwater embayments, bottomland hardwoood,s pine uplands, and agricultural fields. The refuge contains 35,000 acres and hosts 295 species of birds, 115 species of fish
and many species of reptiles, amphibians, custaceans, and mollusks.
The rich habitat provides one of the largest wintering sites for the endangered Whooping Cranes and Sandhill Cranes.

The Whooping Crane is the tallest bird in North America.
It is an endangered species but has rebounded from a low of 15 birds in the 1940's
to about 600 today (Source: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology). About one-half of the total live in captivity.
Its recovery is in large part due to the efforts of conservationists
including Operation Migration, a novel program that aids the young Whooping Cranes
in learning their migratory routes by leading them with ultralight aircraft http://www.operationmigration.org/

The Whooping Crane's primary natural breeding ground is Wood Buffalo National Park, in the Northwest Territories of Canada.
At the end of the summer, the cranes migrate from Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas where they winter at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.
Conservationists and Operation Migration are establishing a Wisconsin breeding population that will winter in Florida.
In Florida, a small introduced population lives year-round on the Kissimmmee Prairie.

The body length of the Whooping Crane is 4.9 feet and its wingspan is 7.5 feet.
The bird weighs from 13.3 to 17.2 pounds

The images in this gallery were taken at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge near Decatur Alabama ( http://www.fws.gov/wheeler/
At the time of these photographs, 9 Whooping Cranes and over 9,000 Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis), respectively, were present.
Wheeler NWR contains 35,000 acres and comprises a great diversity of habitat types, including wetlands and backwater embayments.
At the time of this shooting, the weather was very overcast with light rain making for a very challenging photography event.
The Whooping Cranes were approximately 200-300 yards away.
The images were taken with a 300 mm f2.8 lens with a 2X extender which on the camera body, resulted in a 900 mm focal length.

The bottom photos in this gallery are of the Operation Migration final stop in St. Marks, Florida in early February, 2016.
Unfortunately, weather conditions prevented the final flight of the ultra-light plane with the cranes following. Thus, the
birds were crated and driven by truck to their final destination in St. Marks National Wildlife Reserve. Although I did not
witness the cranes or the ultra-light flight, I enjoyed speaking with the more than 1,000 people present for this last flight.
For more information on Operation Migration see: http://operationmigration.org/

Entrance to Wheeler National Wildlife Reserve	Sandhill Cranes Arriving by the Thousands	Whooping Cranes Arriving	Whooping Cranes Descending	Adult Whooping Cranes in Flight	Preening and Stretching Wings
Six Whooping Cranes	Just Landed	Whooping and Sandhill Cranes	Whooping and Sandhill Cranes	Whooping Cranes in Flight	Northern Cardinal
Shorebirds at Wheeler NWR	American Wigeons	Whooping Cranes Preparing to Land	Three Whooping Cranes	Streching wings	Whooping Crane with Three Sandhill Cranes
Whooping Crane Preening	Whoopers and Sandhills	Whooping Crane Frontal	Whooping Cranes Departing	Long distance view of Whooping and Sandhill Cranes	Whooping Crane VIDEO
Operation Migration Trailer	Operation Migration Final Flight	Operation Migration Site of Final Flight	Operation Migration Site of Final Flight	Birding	Birding Finale
Whooping and Sandhill Cranes at Wheeler NWR

comment

Stephen Buckingham		12-Jan-2013 02:13
Great gallery of this endangered bird.

click on thumbnails for full image

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