whooping crane

[gman51]

I wish I had a camera at my back door today. I saw about 6 huge white birds by my pond. I don't think I ever saw such a big bird before. These birds looked as big as penguins. They had around a 5 ft. or longer wingspan. Web searching I figured they were whooping cranes.
Whooping Crane Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology


I have often seen sandhill cranes and geese around here around winter time but I never saw these big birds before. I mean they are huge and walk around on spindly stick like legs. Beautiful big birds. They made turkey vultures look small.

I love living on the edge of the country where I can see all kinds of wildlife. I used to have about 6 deer that came around but I believe hunters have killed most of them off. Dang it I see no need to be killing off deer around here when there isn't enough of them to die from starvation.

 

[oink]

Wood Stork maybe?

 

[muddocktor]

Man, I would love to see a Whooping Crane too. I've heard they are one big bird.

 

[kwselke]

Wood Storks are easily confused with Whooping Cranes.

Wood Stork Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The black areas on the wings are easy to spot and mean Storks.

I've seen Whoopers several times along the coast in the Matagorda/Aransas/Rockport area.

 

[soFlaNative]

Wood Storks are easily confused with Whooping Cranes.

I've been fortunate to see both, albeit not at the same time foraging in a retention pond at work.
The stork has that bald head and neck while the crane is about a size and a half taller and bulkier.
Both are impressive.

 

[bearfoot]

when i hunted geese in NW Pa., sometimes they would come in flocks of hundreds, they sound like babies crying, they can be heard long before one see's them. when a flock of V shaped landed in the fields a lot of guys would shoot them. and be arrested for shooting a then protected bird. they are magnificent and graceful while landing. how could someone shoot a whooping crane, not knowing the difference from a goose.

 

[rwsmith]

Deputy Dawg...

"Deputy Dawg, Deputy Dawg! It's a Whoopin' Crane!"

 

[6518John]

One of the rarest birds in N. America.

Gman51 you are in the right area to see them. They are one of the rarest birds in North America. They were near extinction, but have bounced back to 500-600 birds. You got a true treat.

 

[misswired]

There is a grey colored crane that's very common in these parts.
We call them 'shoot a streaks', when they take off they'll shoot a streak on lift-off. On a slow night striper fishing lighted docks, we had picked an old standby dock to camp on with a ton of shad circling the dock light. There happened to be one of these cranes perched on the dock feeding heavily on little finger sized shad...it would stab its beak in the water and come out with a shad every time... sometimes two. That crane ate hundreds of shad during the three or so hours we watched, literally hundreds... I couldn't believe how many shad that bird consumed.

Years later some koi fish farming friends asked me to come and shoot all the cranes I could that were a feeding in their ponds. I told them they were a protected species and could be heavily fined for shooting them. They said the cranes were so destructive that fish farmers had an exemption to kill them on the farm property. Oh boy.... here I come, this is gonna be fun. They had shot at them so much I couldn't get within three hundred yards without being spotted. Those cranes were smart as turkeys, after several unsuccessful shots with the flat shooting 17, I gave it up. Recalling that crane eating hundreds of shad in once sitting, I could picture 5 or 6 of those cranes eating thousands of koi a day. They did manage to trap a few, but those smart cranes soon learned to avoid the traps.

A professional bass fisherman said he gives a lot of attention to where these cranes are feeding on the lakes/rivers.... after all they fish for a living too.

 

[rwsmith]

So were alligators......

Gman51 you are in the right area to see them. They are one of the rarest birds in North America. They were near extinction, but have bounced back to 500-600 birds. You got a true treat.

I wish they'd bounce back like the alligators did.

I got a kick out of the "King of the Hill" episodes was when they thought they killed a whooping crane on a campout.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkRVCk19ug8[/ame]

 

[4barrel]

I have seen them 3 times in the last 20 years. They take the same route every year. A friend of mine used to do fishing reports for the local paper. I called him the first time I saw them years ago headed south and flying pretty low late in the day. He called the game warden and they got together and found them in a cove on a local lake. There were maybe 100 back then.

 

[Watchdog]

I love living on the edge of the country where I can see all kinds of wildlife. I used to have about 6 deer that came around but I believe hunters have killed most of them off. Dang it I see no need to be killing off deer around here when there isn't enough of them to die from starvation.

To paraphrase William Munny, "Need's got nothing to do with it."

If it walks, crawls, swims, or flies, someone will come along and shoot it.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

I got my butt out of bed real early one day and took my dog for a walk in Hudson Springs Park, and saw a Blue Heron for a minute or so near the lake shore. It was impressive and unforgettable as it took off and flew away.

 

[dusty3030]

There is a grey colored crane that's very common in these parts.
We call them 'shoot a streaks', when they take off they'll shoot a streak on lift-off. On a slow night striper fishing lighted docks, we had picked an old standby dock to camp on with a ton of shad circling the dock light. There happened to be one of these cranes perched on the dock feeding heavily on little finger sized shad...it would stab its beak in the water and come out with a shad every time... sometimes two. That crane ate hundreds of shad during the three or so hours we watched, literally hundreds... I couldn't believe how many shad that bird consumed.

Years later some koi fish farming friends asked me to come and shoot all the cranes I could that were a feeding in their ponds. I told them they were a protected species and could be heavily fined for shooting them. They said the cranes were so destructive that fish farmers had an exemption to kill them on the farm property. Oh boy.... here I come, this is gonna be fun. They had shot at them so much I couldn't get within three hundred yards without being spotted. Those cranes were smart as turkeys, after several unsuccessful shots with the flat shooting 17, I gave it up. Recalling that crane eating hundreds of shad in once sitting, I could picture 5 or 6 of those cranes eating thousands of koi a day. They did manage to trap a few, but those smart cranes soon learned to avoid the traps.

A professional bass fisherman said he gives a lot of attention to where these cranes are feeding on the lakes/rivers.... after all they fish for a living too.

Probably great blue herons. Fish farmers do get permits to shoot them, and as you found out, there isn't that much to shoot at it. Not much bird under those feathers.

 

[Watchdog]

I got my butt out of bed real early one day and took my dog for a walk in Hudson Springs Park, and saw a Blue Heron for a minute or so near the lake shore. It was impressive and unforgettable as it took off and flew away.

There's one who frequents one of the ponds in the woods where my dogs and I go walking. I've seen him many times, and even have photos. Unfortunately, the only camera I had with me was my iPhone. As good as the late model iPhone cameras are, they're not much good for distance work, even at full optical zoom.

The heron is very aware of my presence, and I can tell he keeps his eye on the dogs. But he continues to fish. Any sudden movement will cause him to fly away, or move to the far end of the pond.

Beautiful bird. I hope to see him again this year. I want to photograph him using one of my real cameras and maybe a 600mm lens.

 

[JohnRippert]

Look like these, with the red patch on the forehead?

 

[misswired]

Probably great blue herons. Fish farmers do get permits to shoot them, and as you found out, there isn't that much to shoot at it. Not much bird under those feathers.

You're right, they are Blue Herons. I'm suffering from CRS.

 

[robvious]

If you want to see A LOT OF LARGE BEAUTIFUL BIRDS... venture up to Nebraska in the early spring, usually mid to late March, when the Sandhill Cranes stage up for mating along the Platte River... thousands in a field... people from all over the world come to see the spectacle... it is incredible...

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

We see the Blue Herons at the lakes we fish in. We call them the "Local Air Force." Don't know why I came up with that description.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

 

[oink]

I see many of those types of birds every day. I get both the Little and Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets in the pond in my front yard regularly along with a Cormorant that thinks my pond is his and curses if I walk near the pond while he's fishing or resting in a large Myrtle bush. Anhingas have visited. I pass Sandhills pretty much every time I leave the house. They don't seem to like my yard but they do like the neighbors yard for some reason. Wood Storks are common and have visited my pond. I also get some Wood Ducks in the Winter. Rosette Spoonbills visit the drainage canal that borders my lot fairly often. There is nothing cooler than to here the Storks and Cranes heading back to their roosts in the evening. I live in an area known for being wet and swampy and fairly close to some preserves that serve as roosts. The area is generally a mix of pine flatwoods interspersed with swamps. Unfortunately mosquitoes are also well represented in the local menagerie of flying wildlife. However, I don't recall seeing Whooping Cranes.