Whooping Cranes At Quivera

A view of six Whooping Cranes

In March I made a trip to Quivera National Wildlife Refuge to see what migratory birds could be seen. In particular, I was hoping to see Whooping Cranes that stopover at the refuge and I had heard they were being seen regularly. I have made the journey several times with this in mind but never had the opportunity to actually see them.

These three hung together closely, my guess is this is a family unit.

On this particular day, I hit the jackpot. there was a group of seven of them on the Big Salt Marsh fairly close to the road. As usual, getting there right at dawn I had the area pretty much to myself. I was able to approach to a reasonable distance not wanting to disturb them. I was fortunate to be able to observe them for quite a while before I decided to move on.

When I first saw them I think they may have been sleeping. Then they spent a lot of time preening.

There will never be a nicer reflection.

It was very exciting to get to see these beautiful birds!

One of the really amazing things about the morning was that it was not windy. In Kansas that is a rare condition. It was so calm that the water was still and giving reflections. So Whooping Cranes, close by, and mirror like water was a triple bonus!

The still air did not last very long, so that was just a huge bonus. This was when it looked like one of them was helping to preen another

Later in the day, I was at the scenic overlook for the Big Salt Marsh and an information sign there was talking about the Whooping Cranes and said that in 1944 there were only 21 left in the world. It is mind boggling to me that the group of seven I saw would have been a third of the entire population. We are still at a small level, but they have been recovering. We have to keep wetlands like this available for them and protect them.

The entire group together.