Whooping cranes in IL
Mike Chervinko
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What a day! I meet two friends who live up north and wanted to see the Whooping Crane pair who spends winter nearby. Whooping Cranes are the rarest bird in North America, and populations are quickly declining. Currently, there's 600 in the world and 440 of those live in the wild. A few years ago there were around 850.They are the tallest bird in North America and boy are they majestic. And they're a hoot to watch too. Many birders are thrilled to see them from 100s of yards away, but today we got lucky and they came within 35-40 feet of us! And, there were 3! That's literally 0.5% of all in existence. It was super foggy, which was a concern, but thankfully the fog was light where they hang out.
Our experience was hard earned. I drove, since I know where they typically hang out, and, while looking for them, I got a flat. To make matters worse, my wheel had fused to the innards where the wheel mounts to the rotor/ brake assembly and it took over an hour to knock it loose. The headache was well worth it for the reward we were gifted. One gave us a loud honk, they played, they foraged, and they gave us a fly-by as we were leaving. Perfect, and well worth my friends' several hour drive here. |
