For years I have wanted to see the whooping cranes when they were here for the winter. It seems something always came up. But finally, in early February of this year, we made the trip. It would have been a perfect trip except that my husband got food poisoning the day before we left. He didn’t feel like going on the boat so I went alone. We had checked out all kinds of possibilities of things that could mess up the trip before leaving, but we forgot about a major one – fog. As I got on the boat and we headed out, we could hardly see in front of us. In some of my pictures from the refuge, I couldn’t even tell there were birds in them. But right as the boat was about to head back to shore, the sun broke through and at the very last possible spot we could have seen the cranes, there were three about forty yards from the boat. The captain knew that we all wanted pictures so he hung around about thirty minutes while everyone was taking pictures like crazy.
Whooping cranes are very interesting creatures. First of all, they are huge. They almost are as tall as I am. They form families, and the two mates stay together for their lives. In the picture above the brown headed crane is the baby, although he appears to be well fed and bigger than the parent.
The only thing that I didn’t see that I would have really like to have seen was a crane flying. I would have loved to have seen the wingspan. It is supposed to be something like seven feet. Oh well, better luck next time.
For more information about whooping cranes please check this website: https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Birds/Whooping-Crane
I loved the Aransas Wildlife Refuge, and the cranes! We spent the winter in Aransas Pass! Beautiful area.
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Here’s a helpful little bird: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2019/08/11/doing-the-dishes-bird-of-the-day-aug-11-2019/
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That is so cool, the closest I’ve ever seen to them is a sandhill crane.
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Great info! Thanks! We will have to plan a trip.
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If you ever get a chance to go to the Port Aransas/Rockport Texas area, there are several boats that will take you out into Aransas Wildlife Refuge. That is where I saw them and the tour was wonderful. The boat captain was very knowledgeable birder and pointed out lots of different birds. It was really foggy the day we went and it was hard to see very far out, but when the sun came out at the very end, he stayed there and let us take pictures for a long time.
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Certainly on my bucket list. It would be a life bird for me. There was one down in Gainesville, FL at Lachua Trail, but never saw it. A great deal of the park has been flooded since Hurricane Matthew & we can’t get back where we’d like to go & therefore, more than likely, where that Whooping Crane was hanging out.
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They are huge! It was hard to imagine just how big they were. It is hard to convey that in a photo!
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Wow birds as big as us.. Fascinating..
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Thanks! Seeing them was on my bucket list so I was really excited!
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They are beautiful!
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