At one time, whooping cranes were once scattered throughout a wide range, extending from central Canada south to Mexico and from Utah to the Atlantic coast.
Early European explorers recorded this grand and graceful bird in six Canadian provinces, 35 U.S. states and four Mexican states. But unregulated hunting and habitat loss left only two small flocks by the late 1930s: a non-migratory flock in southwest Louisiana, and a migratory flock that nested in Canada and wintered in Texas.
By 1941, only 16 birds remained in the migratory flock and later that decade the Louisiana flock was extirpated. The birds hovered on the very brink of extinction.
Active intervention by the U.S. and Canadian governments, as well as assistance from conservation groups, has aided the whoopers and today their population stands at more than 500 individuals. More than 260 are in the flock that migrates from Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Canada to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf Coast of Texas.
Fears about a catastrophic event along the Gulf Coast, such as an oil or chemical spill from one of the thousands of barges traveling past their crucial wintering grounds, led to an effort to establish a second migratory flock that would travel between one wildlife refuge in Wisconsin and another in Florida. The flock consists of captive-reared chicks that are led from Wisconsin to Florida behind an ultralight plane. The first "class," as they are referred to, made the trip in the fall of 2001. They make their own way back the following spring.
In 2005 one of the young cranes hit a wing on the ultralight and dropped out of the class. It was subsequently captured and driven to join the rest of the flock in Florida. Perhaps because it missed its first experience of migration, when it came back north the following spring, it ended up in Lansing, rather than going to Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. It was captured again and driven to Necedah. In the following fall, it traveled back to Florida, but the next spring, it came back again to Michigan. That year, the decision was made to let the bird stay where it was.
The lone crane spent last summer between Williamston and Rose Lake in the East Lansing area. Then, on Sept. 16, Ron Hoffman, manager of Phyllis Haenle Sanctuary near Jackson, spotted the bird near the site. Gary Siegrist, a friend of ours who helps care for the property, aided in tracking the bird hanging around with sandhill cranes, flying out each morning to forage and returning again in the evening.
Not surprisingly, this stately bird became something of a celebrity. Hundreds of people came to see it. Birding hotlines were abuzz with sightings and newspapers sent reporters out to write about it. A reporter from a downstate Public Radio station interviewed Gary. I visited Gary and his wife, Nancy, in early November and he took me to see the bird. We arrived at Haenle early enough to hike one of the longer trails before joining a growing crowd waiting for the cranes to return from the local corn fields. As with most crane staging areas, flocks trickle in at first in scattered groups. Then, as the sun drops lower, more and more cranes come in for the evening. Just before dark, Gary spotted the whooper and pointed him out to an appreciative audience. The bird's white plumage glowed under the setting sun as he wheeled around, dropped his long legs and settled into the wetland where he would spend the night.
The wayward whooper stayed in southern Michigan until later in the month. Then it left for Florida where it overwintered with sandhills.
Since this crane is two years old, Gary (along with many others) hoped it would select a mate during the winter and return to Michigan, and ultimately nest here. Whooping cranes reach sexual maturity at four to five years. If this bird does find a mate (which, we would hope, would not be a sandhill), the possibility exists for us to have the first nesting pair of whooping cranes in Michigan in a very long time.
Kay Charter, of Omena, is executive director of Saving Birds Thru Habitat, an organization that teaches people how to help migrating birds whose populations are declining.
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