Very bad times for Whooping Cranes in central flyway
I have extracted salient portions of the annual crane season at Aransas NWR in Texas: "The tenth aerial census of the 2008-09 crane season at Aransas was conducted April 7, 2009 with USFWS observer Tom Stehn in a Cessna 210 piloted by Gary Ritchey of Air Transit Solutions of Castroville, Texas. . . . Today's flight tallied 103 adults + 6 juveniles = 109 total. Thus, 56% of the flock has started the migration. Whooping cranes have been confirmed on April 2nd as far north as Nebraska. I expect a considerable number of cranes will start the migration in the next week. Conditions should be ideal for departure with very strong southeast winds forecast for Aransas April 8-9. . . Mortality Today's flight provided evidence of 2 additional mortalities, with total winter mortality now estimated for the winter at 7 adults and 16 chicks totaling 23 whooping cranes, a loss of 8.5% of the flock that was a record 270 in the fall. In the last 20 years, the current winter ranks as the