Whooping Cranes Finally Safe and Sound at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

A crowd estimated at over 2000 people gathered in the bitter cold this past Saturday morning, January 17, 2009, to watch the seven endangered whooping cranes and their ultralight companions fly over St. Marks, Florida.  At approximately 8:45 a.m., the cranes made their first appearance in the distance just above the eastern treeline.  The excitement of the crowd grew as the birds and the ultralight pilots drew closer. 

When the actual flyover occurred, cameras begin clicking and bodies turned to follow the combination of bird and man dotting the sky above.  Then, before  we knew it, it was over, and the birds were making their way to their safe haven near Live Oak Island.   While short-lived,  the flyover was truly an amazing thing to witness, and a real crowd-pleaser to all who came out to brave the frigid weather.

According to Liz Condie (pictured at right), Operating Officer and Director of Communications and Fund Development, the flight was not an easy one.  Liz, who was in constant contact with the pilots via aviation radio, kept the crowd posted on the location of the birds until their arrival.  At one point the birds were close to 10 miles off course, heading more easterly.  Then, as the group approached the St. Marks River, the pilots were afraid they might try to head for the water instead of their intended destination, which was their holding pen and home for the winter months in St. Marks.

But finally the cranes, led by lead pilot Richard Van Heuvelen (pictured below) and wingmen Brooke Pennypacker, Chris Gullikson, and Joe Duff, did as they were supposed to do and thrilled the crowd below them with their spectacular display in the sky.  Thus ended the long flight that originated out of the cranes' summer grounds at Necedah NWR in Wisconsin on October 17, 2008.

The birds will winter at St. Marks in a holding pen built especially for them by St. Marks National Refuge staff and volunteers.  The cranes will begin to head north to their summering grounds in the Spring.  The staff of St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge request visitors to be respectful and aware of the safety of the whooping cranes and their pens.  Anyone who encounters a whooping crane in the wild should give them the respect and distance they need.  Do not approach birds or pens on foot within 600 feet; try to remain in your vehicle; do not approach in a vehicle within 600 feet or, if on a public road, within 300 feet.  Also, please remain concealed and do not speak loudly enough that the birds can hear you.   It is very important that all visitors to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge respect the area closed for the cranes.  Any interaction with humans is detrimental to the birds learning wild behavior. 

Whooping cranes were on the verge of extinction in the 1940s. Today, there are only about 500 birds in existence, 350 of them in the wild. Aside from the 74 Wisconsin-Florida birds, the only other migrating population of whooping cranes nests at the Wood Buffalo National Park in the Northwest Territories of Canada and winters at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas Coast. 

Whooping cranes, named for their loud and penetrating unison calls, live and breed in wetland areas, where they feed on crabs, clams, frogs and seeds. They are distinctive animals, standing five feet tall, with white bodies, black wing tips and red crowns on their heads.

One of the oldest refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System, St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge covers 70,000 acres of Wakulla, Jefferson and Taylor counties along the Gulf Coast of northwest Florida. The landscape includes coastal marshes, islands, tidal creeks and estuaries of seven north Florida rivers, and the refuge is home to a diverse community of plant and animal life. The refuge was established in 1931 to provide wintering habitat for migratory birds.

To learn more about the whooping crane migration process, visit www.operationmigration.org .

Click here for a Wakulla.com photo gallery of the event!

- Photos by Mary Katherine Westmark

This article originally published on January 20, 2009.

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