While visiting her daughter and her family in Corpus Christi, FOTWW friend Ginny Barber and the family had the opportunity to go birding. Their first encounter with Whooping Cranes was on a birding excursion on a boat out of Fulton,TX into the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge three years ago and they have been hooked ever since. This year was the second year they have seen a pair from the Leonabelle Turnbull Center. Last year the pair had no colts and stayed further out. This year the pair had colts with them.
Ginny was nice enough to send us some lovely photos taken from Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center during this year’s excursion and visit. We hope you enjoy her photos posted below. Be sure to click on them to enjoy them at full size.
FOTWW thanks Ginny for sending us her wonderful photos of the Port Aransas family. It is nice to see the colts learning how to be Whooping Cranes.
Population estimate shows continued signs of winter range expansion for the endangered bird
Last winter, an estimated 543 whooping cranes arrived on their Texas wintering grounds after migrating 2,500 miles from their breeding grounds in Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada. Each fall the birds make their way back to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding habitats, where they spend the winter. Once they have arrived, wildlife biologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) survey the birds by air and analyze population trends.
Record year
“It is exciting to see another record year as whooping cranes continue to increase in number and expand their winter range,” saidWade Harrell, the Service’s Whooping Crane Recovery Coordinator. “Next year, we will be adding the South San Jose Island and Heron Flats Secondary Survey areas to our Primary Survey area given we detected enough whooping crane groups there to meet our protocol for inclusion. Conserving additional winter habitat for the species will be a key component of future recovery efforts.”
31 Juveniles
Whooping Crane Parent and colt. Lamar, Texas Photo by Chuck Hardin
Preliminary data analysis of aerial surveys of the Aransas-Wood Buffalo whooping crane population conducted last winter indicated 543 whooping cranes, including 31 juveniles, in the primary survey area (approximately 160,125 acres) centered on Aransas National Wildlife Refuge near Austwell, Texas. This is an increase with the last survey from winter 2019-2020 estimating 506 whooping cranes, indicating the population has grown over the last two years.
An additional 38 birds were recorded outside the primary survey area during the survey, which is also a record high. This marks the fifth year that the population has topped the 500 mark, although a survey was not conducted during winter 2020-2021 due to COVID-19 concerns.
Harrell said biologists plan to conduct the next survey in January 2023.
Whooping cranes are one of the rarest birds in North America and are highly endangered. Cranes have been documented to live more than 30 years in the wild. Adults generally reach reproductive age at four or five years, and then lay two eggs, usually rearing only one chick.
Need more info?
More information about the survey and whooping cranes can be found on the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge website or by calling the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Contact Station at: 361-349-1181.
***** FOTWW’s mission is to help preserve and protect the Aransas/Wood Buffalo
population of wild whooping cranes and their habitat. *****
Friends of the Wild Whoopers is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization.
Wade Harrell, U.S. Whooping Crane Recovery Coordinator
Birds on the ground, viewed from the survey plane (original photo: Tom Stehn)
We completed our annual whooping crane abundance survey last week, and were able to fly three primary surveys and two secondary surveys. Areas surveyed stretch along the Texas coast from Matagorda to Port Aransas. Phil Thorpe, pilot with the USFWS Migratory Birds program, flew the survey crew in a wheeled Kodiak again this year. In addition to an overall estimate of the winter population size, the survey provides us an estimate of how many juveniles were “recruited” into the population last summer. Better juvenile recruitment this past year in Canada (37) compared to 2018 (24) should result in a larger population this year. For more information on our wintering abundance survey, click here.
Our secondary survey (on the edges of the core wintering range) is crucial in determining future expansion areas for a growing population. We are getting reports of whooping cranes in quite a variety of places outside our primary survey area this year, including a pair near Matagorda, Texas, three adults in Port Aransas, and marked birds in Colorado County. A juvenile whooping crane marked last summer in Wood Buffalo National Park stopped migrating in Kansas, and is currently with a flock of sandhill cranes at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge (NWR).
Efforts to trap and mark whooping cranes here at Aransas NWR for our telemetry study is ongoing, and thus far this winter we have marked 6 whooping cranes with cellular telemetry devices. With these devices providing locations every 15 minutes, we are able to understand daily movements (night and day) and habitat use at a level that was not available even a few short years ago. You can find more about our use of this revolutionary technology to conserve whooping cranes here.
There are several opportunities for visitors to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to view whooping cranes in publically accessible areas this winter. Whooping cranes have been consistently sighted this winter from the Heron Flats viewing deck at a much closer distance than the pair at the observation tower, providing visitors a more intimate viewing experience. You can find a map of the refuge trails here.
Habitat Management on Aransas NWR:
Due to wet weather, we are just getting started on prescribed burning. Our goal is to burn approximately 13,000 acres this year, the majority of which is whooping crane habitat. So far we have completed prescribed burns totaling 1,600 acres on the Blackjack Peninsula and plan to burn at least 900 acres more this week.
Fire crews responded to a wildfire on Matagorda Island in early December. Although this fire was unplanned, it will provide immediate and long-term benefits to whooping cranes and other wildlife. Part of the area that burned was scheduled to be burned this winter to improve habitat for whooping cranes and other wildlife. Whooping and sandhill cranes will both feed in “blackened” or freshly burned habitat and burning woody/brush species around freshwater ponds removes cover for predators. Fire also maintains coastal prairie habitat that benefits Aplomado Falcons and other prairie-dependent species.
Recent Precipitation/Salinity around Aransas NWR:
January-February-current precipitation: 4.85” @ Aransas HQ
Salinity at GBRA 1: averaging around 19 ppt
It seemed like fall would never arrive after a long, hot summer, but cooler, shorter days have finally made an appearance with many species of migrants now frequenting the friendly skies! Whooping Crane migration is in full swing and the first pair of our winter residents was reported by photographer John Humbert in the Seadrift area on October 9. Regular U.S. migration hotspots like Quivira NWR in Kansas have already reported their first whooping cranes of the season as well. If you have a question on whether the bird that you saw is a whooping crane or not, take a look at Texas Whooper Watch: Whooping Crane Look-Alikes.
It was an average breeding year in Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP), with 97 nests counted in May producing an estimated 37 fledged whooping cranes counted in August that are headed South on their first migration to Texas. With a relatively low chick recruitment (24) the previous summer (2018), the overall population size did not grow last year, but remained stable at an estimated 504 individuals.
The Whooping Crane migration from WBNP to Aransas NWR is about 2,500 miles in length and can take up to 50 days to complete. It is common for whooping cranes to spend a long period of time in Saskatchewan this time of year, “staging” for fall migration by foraging on abundant agricultural waste grains. Our partners with the Canadian Wildlife Service are actively monitoring whooping cranes in Saskatchewan now and have reported seeing several of our marked birds. As of October 23, 14 marked birds were still north of the border in fall staging areas of Central Saskatchewan, one of them was in North Dakota, one was in South Dakota, one was in Kansas, one was in Oklahoma, and one was on the Blackjack Unit of Aransas NWR. There is a slight chance that some marked cranes are still on their breeding grounds in WBNP, but the lack of cellular towers make them untrackable until they begin to head south.
You might remember last fall and winter was a record wet period and we seem to be headed the other direction this year. This summer and fall was quite dry, with September, typically one of our wettest months of the year, only producing 2.94” of rain at Aransas NWR (2.94” of rain). Thus, much of the standing water that we saw across the Refuge last winter is now gone and freshwater wetlands are shrinking somewhat. Since June, we have recorded 10.94” of rain and much of the whooping crane wintering range is currently in the “moderate drought” category with the NWS 3-month outlook mixed in regards to what the future holds.
Habitat Management at Aransas:
We were able to burn a 3,780-acre unit on Matagorda Island on June 15. The area we burned consists of upland prairies that are adjacent to coastal marsh areas heavily used by whooping cranes. We also burned an additional 4,400+ acres on the Tatton and Blackjack Units. By maintaining coastal prairie habitats in a relatively open, brush-free condition, we provide additional foraging habitat that whooping cranes normally would not be able to access. Summer burns are often provide more effective at suppressing brush species in our prairies than winter burns, thus are an important tool for us at Aransas NWR.
