Now that summer has “unofficially” come to an end, our thoughts begin to focus on fall with its crisp cool days, leaves changing colors, and the upcoming whooping crane migration from Wood Buffalo National Park to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. We are not the only ones anticipating the beginning of migration. Our good friend Val Mann is also waiting for migration to begin. Each year, she and her sister Kim explore the grid roads of Saskatchewan, in search of the beloved and elusive whooping crane.
In anticipation of the start of migration, Val has been working on photos of a whooping crane family taken a couple of years ago and sent us the lovely photo that she was able to capture.
Val writes, “It’s almost time for whooping cranes to begin their annual return to Texas from their summer homes in Wood Buffalo National Park including their fall stopovers in Saskatchewan. Sandhill cranes will also be on the move. A couple of years ago, we were fortunate enough to photograph a family of whooping cranes in a roadside slough using our dusty grid road-coloured vehicle as a blind. Cranes typically do not come close to the road as they tend to prefer the middle of fields, at least a mile or two from the road. In this photograph, powerful telephoto lenses and post-production cropping give the illusion that the parent crane and colt were much closer than they actually were. If extremely lucky this fall, we will see migrating cranes as they stage in farmers’ fields and sloughs.”
Friends of the Wild Whoopers thanks Val for her photo and we wish both Val and Kim success in their travels along the grid roads of Saskatchewan this fall.
***** 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.
