As I'm preparing for winter field work, I stumbled across something I wrote as an intern at the International Crane Foundation in 2012. It was a nice reminder of why I love being out in the field, and is getting me excited to observe Whooping Cranes again!
Early one morning in June, I was collecting black fly samples at Necedah when I came upon two pairs of Whooping cranes in a territorial dispute on the dike road. They did not seem to notice or care that I was there and were more interested in their dispute. Since they were directly in front of my path to the black fly trap and there was no way I could go around them, I backed up, waited, and watched.
The males of the two pairs (2-04 and 11-09) were having a stand – off; standing as tall as could be with their bills slightly in the air and right next to each other. Several times it appeared that their bills could have been touching. They would stand motionless like this for quite a long time. 2-04’s mate (8-09, left in the picture) was right next to the two males and displayed every threat posture in the book. She was constantly threat – walking, dropping her wing, threat – preening, and ruffling her feathers. The other female (15-09, right in the picture), however, seemed uninterested in the whole ordeal. She stood about 5 meters away from the other three birds and didn’t get too excited about anything.
Every now and then the males would break the stand – off and pretend to forage or would unison call with their mate. The highlight of this interaction for me was when the males were standing like tall statues and 8-09 dropped to the ground in a crouch threat. I had never seen this display from a Whooping crane before and it was exciting to observe something like this in the wild. As much as I was enjoying watching these interactions, I ended up leaving and sampling at a different trap since it didn’t seem like the birds were going anywhere soon.
Moments like this are what I love about field research. Even though the mornings can be early and water from the marsh always finds its way into my waders, seeing something like this really inspires me to continue work in conservation. Thanks to the efforts of ICF and the other WCEP partners, I got to be in a beautiful wildlife refuge at dawn and see an endangered species fighting to be part of this landscape. I only wish I could have stayed longer to see how it all turned out!
The males of the two pairs (2-04 and 11-09) were having a stand – off; standing as tall as could be with their bills slightly in the air and right next to each other. Several times it appeared that their bills could have been touching. They would stand motionless like this for quite a long time. 2-04’s mate (8-09, left in the picture) was right next to the two males and displayed every threat posture in the book. She was constantly threat – walking, dropping her wing, threat – preening, and ruffling her feathers. The other female (15-09, right in the picture), however, seemed uninterested in the whole ordeal. She stood about 5 meters away from the other three birds and didn’t get too excited about anything.
Every now and then the males would break the stand – off and pretend to forage or would unison call with their mate. The highlight of this interaction for me was when the males were standing like tall statues and 8-09 dropped to the ground in a crouch threat. I had never seen this display from a Whooping crane before and it was exciting to observe something like this in the wild. As much as I was enjoying watching these interactions, I ended up leaving and sampling at a different trap since it didn’t seem like the birds were going anywhere soon.
Moments like this are what I love about field research. Even though the mornings can be early and water from the marsh always finds its way into my waders, seeing something like this really inspires me to continue work in conservation. Thanks to the efforts of ICF and the other WCEP partners, I got to be in a beautiful wildlife refuge at dawn and see an endangered species fighting to be part of this landscape. I only wish I could have stayed longer to see how it all turned out!