TravelingChris Posted November 10, 2012 Share Posted November 10, 2012 I have been bird watching for about 40 years. I have lots of birds on my life list but I had never seen a Whooping Crane. And today I saw four of them and less than a half hour from my home. (There are about 437 in the wild world wide). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acorn Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 Amazing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer in MI Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 Awesome!!! I'd love to know what your resources are. I LOVE birds. I look for new ones and then try to ID them when we travel. But, I've warned my husband that in our retirement that I'm going to want to travel to some remote location so that I can see some rare bird!!! He thinks I'm crazy. It's a passion!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amira Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 That would have been amazing. What a great thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostSurprise Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 Awesome! I've wanted to see one too. They have some in a Sandhill Crane preserve southwest of here but I haven't been able to get out there. I did see the chick photos though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted November 11, 2012 Author Share Posted November 11, 2012 My dh and our son were going backpacking along the Alabama trail that is an extension of the Appalachian trail. My older dd was visiting a friend. So only the youngest and I were left at home. Since we had gone to a birding festival in early October, both of us were really eager to go birding again. I found a local birding group on the internet and it has no membership dues or anything. They just publish field trips and you show up. So they had a field trip for this morning at the nearby Wildlife Refuge and they warned that it was still early for the large flocks of migratory water fowl to arrive but that we may still see shore birds that hadn;t migrated south yet. I was expecting to see ducks and Sandhill Cranes, nothing really new for me at all. At our first stop, a observation tower, there were some of them. They are much, much bigger than Sandhill Cranes and are so white. On the internet later today, I found out that people are still killing them. Considering they are so, so rare, it really makes you mad. They are just killed because they are beautiful. Jennifer, some of the things we have a relatively poor bird watchers are several binoculars, and last year, my dh gave me a birding scope for my birthday. We also have a good camera and have a telephoto lens but nothing like many of the birders do. We haven't downloaded any app with bird calls like some of the people have. They then play something like a screech owl and try to get the other perching birds to come out to defend their territory. We do have lots of bird books but those we have acquired slowly over the years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJ. Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 I had no idea they were so rare, we used to see them near my grandparents' house when I was a kid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 very cool. did you get a pic? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 How fun! Glad you got to see them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.