Whooping Crane Earthwatch 2016: Lockdown!

By the end of the expedition we had completed 10 observations and 10 whooping crane ecosystem assessments, a goal that Jeff and Lindsay were pleased we’d help accomplish: 1) Boat Pump; 2) Observation Tower 3) Boat Canal, 4) N Pump Canal, L; 5) N Pump Canal, R; 6) Rattlesnake Island, N; 7) Ayres Island, S; 8) Sundown Bay, S; 9) Sundown Bay, M; and 10) Dunham Bay

Our last couple of days were exciting. On one, the team I was on completed an ecosystem assessment on a spit of land north of the boathouse. On the return, rather than slogging through the muddy marsh, I decided on Jeff’s earlier suggestion to walk on the sloping paved side of the channel. When the others came looking for me, they saw a family of cranes (3) almost directly across the channel. I had not seen them as I was concentrating on keeping my balance on the sloping concrete sides of the channel, which I found out was not easier walking. Anyhow, we immediately went into “lockdown,” walking behind the channel berm where the cranes could not see us and then hiding in the boathouse—where Lindsay was able to complete an observation of the three birds on her own . . . without binoculars they were so close. We were pinned for 3 hours, and the boat team could not return to the boathouse. Though hungry and tired, the boat team took advantage of this time to complete more ecosystem assessments.

The photo above shows the three cranes from our vantage point inside the boathouse. You know the cranes were close if my cell phone captured the photo. (I had only my cell phone. My camera motor had crumped out on me.)

In the pix above,my team is dressed in camouflage shirts and waders (Deb) assessing the numbers of blue crab in an area where cranes were previously feeding. To do this Lindsay walked in the deep mud and silt in the ponds (sometimes sinking to the top of her thigh), and an observer (Deb) walked the pond edge helping count while I followed recording size and numbers, and Sue measured with a rope 100 meter segments at pond’s edge. Thus we could say that the pond contained x small, x medium, and x large blue crabs per each 100 meter area. We also established the pond’s GPS location and measured the pond water’s salinity, conductivity, and temperature. I seem to remember that the shrinking ponds above had a salinity of 38%. Without freshwater intake the shrinking wet areas could become too saline for the cranes to drink and they would have to waste energy finding freshwater in upland areas. The pond had trapped a good number of blue crabs and small fish that darted in every direction. They too will die when the water becomes too salty or evaporates.

Above, a wolfberry bush, the berries a favorite food of the whooping crane. At five fifteen-foot distances we counted red and green wolfberry berries within three PVC squares spaced 15 feet apart. The wolfberry can bear blue flowers and fruit simultaneously. Photo Terri Tipping

Boat teams got locked down twice. The first time, the cranes had moved off so the team were conducting their vegetation and water assessments when a crane flew in. They had to hunker down in the salt marsh and mud for a long time, Ellie even taking a nap.

Deb, Sue, & Terri decked out in waders and camouflage shirts before the U.S. Fish & wildlife Service boathouse

Jeff with the boat team exiting the US Fish & Wildlife Service boathouse channel

The team pulls into shore and receives their equipment and instructions; most shed their life jackets; bottom left photo shows how close to the Inland Waterway they were as a tug pushes a barge past only a few feet from them

Team in "lockdown" -- staying unmoving and low behind bushes and grass;
Top photo shows how close the team was to the crane. Ellie took advantage
of this long immobile period to take a nap--center photo.