Wildlife Photograph

Ijams attends crane festival in Port Aransas

Saturday March 31, 2007
Annual event draws thousands

Whooping cranes are rare. In 1941, there were only 15 "migratory" whoopers left in the wild. (Four breeding pairs, two chicks and five unmated adults.) Their nesting ground was at Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada and they spent their winters at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Parents teach their young how to migrate and where to find safe haven. Today there are 237 in the western flock.

The slow comeback of America’s tallest bird is a living testament to conservation efforts to save the endangered species. Every winter thousands of birdwatchers visit the Texas coast. To celebrate the whooping crane’s recovery the Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce hosts an annual festival with exhibitors and world-renowned speakers.

This year’s "Eyes to the Sky" was the 11th annual festival. Presenters included: Tom Stehn, refuge biologist/whooping crane coordinator with U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Dr. George Archibald, co-founder of the International Crane Foundation and Joe Duff, co-founder and lead-pilot with Operation Migration (OM). The Canadian-based OM is the organization working to reestablish an "eastern" migratory flock of whooping cranes that pass through East Tennessee as they migrate. There is now a total of 62 cranes in that flock.

Stehn has been at Aransas keeping a watchful eye on the endangered species since 1982. During that time he has seen the flock triple in number and believes that the refuge has enough suitable habitat to support as many as 500 cranes.

 By Lyn Bales, naturalist 

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