Just Another Whooping Crane

These things keep turning up in my neighborhood. This one has been around for three days now. What's a girl to do?

Nothing but kick back and enjoy. I reported this guy to Operation Migration, and they told me that this is bird #829 from the fall 2008 migration class. So he/she first came to Florida from Wisconsin, with a flock lead by an ultralight aircraft, last year.

The bird's ID number is a bit misleading. At the moment, there are nowhere near 829 whoopers left on the planet. According to Operation Migration's website, there are only 383 birds in the wild (including those in the ultralight-lead flock) and 152 in captivity. So a grand total of 535 in all.

I've taught undergraduate general-ed classes about this size.

Amazing that a bird this big and strong-looking can be so vulnerable—and yet, seem so happy foraging away only feet from a busy highway.

And even sadder to me is watching all the thousands of drivers just whizzing by this big white apparation without realizing what an amazing sight they have just in front of them. They obviously don't give a whoop.

Preview of Coming Attractions

Happy New Year!

I haven't posted in while, but not for a lack of interesting birds. Just the opposite: I've been all over and managed to find fun stuff just about everywhere. But...since most of my traveling involved either multiple connecting flights during the holiday rush or road trips with overnight stops in numerous random places, I chose to leave my camera behind.

Glenn, however, got some great shots that I plan to post and brag about once we finally get home.

In brief, we traveled from north-central Florida (home)to southern California, then to northern California, then back to Southern California, then back to Florida, this time the Space Coast area. And here are some of the highlights of our trip (in no particular order):

-Vermilion Flycatcher
-Masked Duck
-Common Goldeneye
-Burrowing Owl
-Painted Bunting
-Northern Gannet

And not all of these showed up where one would expect, either.

Details to follow. And all the best for a peaceful, prosperous, and bird-filled 2010!