Long range shot of a rarity. Whooping Cranes in Flight at the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area in Louisiana. This is a project to hopefully create the third population in the wild in the US. These are first year birds testing their boundaries. They have been in Louisiana now for 7 weeks and are are about a week away from being fully on their own to survive in the wild. Total birds there now is 17. The goal is to establish 30 breeding pairs with 130 individuals.
Canon 7d 500mm f/4L IS USM+1.4xIII @1250s f/6.3 ISO400 uncropped
If interested I put together a 5 minute slide video of the work the biologists are doing there. They do amazing work with this endangered species of which there are only 438 worldwide.
Steve, a wonderful captured moment. Let us hope this attempt to establish a viable flock is successful. In 1975 an attempt was made to establish a migratory flock in SE Idaho at Gray's Lake NWR. Whooping Crane eggs were placed in Sandhill Crane nests. The Whooping Cranes were raised by the Sandhills and followed them to Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico where they wintered. Unfortunately, no bonding occured for mating and mortality was high. The effort was discontinued in 1989. Keep us posted on the Louisiana project.
Rare Whooping Cranes Flight Group
