2 birds may have winged way to Illinois

A family watches them live in a flooded cornfield near their home. Biologists say the pair may be from a Florida flock.

By JOSH ZIMMER

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 5, 2000

Sue Telford gets all choked up about nature.

So imagine the rush she got one evening when her husband pointed out a pair of large, white birds foraging in a flooded cornfield near their home in Sandoval, Ill. Her mind immediately said "whooping cranes." But what would they be doing in south-central Illinois? she wondered.

Rushing into the house, she reached for a birding book. Sure enough, the photo matched.

For the next three days, Telford and her family enjoyed a rare wildlife spectacle that many travel hundreds, even thousands of miles each year to see. From a distance, family and friends observed the elegant birds just being themselves -- digging at the sprouting corn, feeding on aquatic life and prancing around.

"It was quite astonishing," Telford said. "I watch TV shows constantly about wildlife. They're magnificent creatures. I just opened up the window and told my grandchildren "Don't ever forget this.' "

Biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission suspect an adventurous pair missing since April from a non-migratory flock of 80 endangered whooping cranes from the Kissimmee Prairie made the 900-mile flight.

"I think we're 75 to 80 percent certain," said commission biologist Steve Nesbitt.

"We'd still like to get the frequency (of the birds' transmitters) and really nail it down. Another thing that would nail it down is if somebody could read the number on the aluminum (identification) band."

Photos of the pair show colored bands on both cranes and a transmitter on one -- both birds just received new equipment -- but they do not clearly identify them, he said.

The female from the Florida flock -- bird 512 -- was released in Osceola County in February 1996. The male -- bird 653 -- is a known wanderer and was released in Lake County in January 1997. They became a pair last spring.

Although the birds arrived May 11, Telford did not call the Illinois Department of Natural Resources until May 15, the day the pair was last seen in Sandoval.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is attempting to find the pair for Florida biologists, who are both fearful for their health and amazed by the prospects of such a wide migration.

Their identity also is being closely watched by planners of an ambitious effort to remove the 5-foot-tall birds -- the largest in North America -- from the endangered species list, Nesbitt said.

In 2001, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hopes to establish another flock of migratory whooping cranes; the existing flock nests in north-central Canada and winters at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. Using ultralight aircraft, the birds would be flown from nesting grounds in central Wisconsin to a wintering area in the 31,000-acre Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge, which is in Citrus and Hernando counties.

The project involves detailed planning with every state along the flyway. But the recent case of these wandering whoopers is a stark reminder of their wild nature, said John Christian, an assistant Fish and Wildlife regional director who is head of the Chassahowitzka project.

"You can't always control where they're going to go," he said.

Nesbitt said the most likely scenario is that the birds left Florida to escape the drought and find a good, wet habitat. Whoopers like water even more than their cousins, the sandhill cranes, he said. Other less-ambitious members of the Florida flock also are traveling farther these days.

Another possibility, biologists said, is that a storm blew the cranes into Illinois.

Just before the mystery whoopers arrived, the area was drenched by a westerly storm, Telford said. They stayed until the cornfield began drying up.

Whooping cranes once were a common sight in the Midwest, but by 1950 they were nearly extinct because of hunting and development. The majestic animals, which mate for life, are making a slow comeback after a half-century of restoration efforts by biologists and bird lovers. Last year's record count in Texas: 183.

Wherever they come from, the cranes' game of hide-and-seek continues to puzzle biologists.

If the radio transmitters still are working, biologists should be able to pick up their signal -- within a 100-mile radius if they are flying, 40 miles if the birds are on the ground.

Biologists are discussing how to proceed if the cranes are found, Nesbitt said. They could capture the birds and bring them back to Florida or they could monitor the pair.

Nesbitt, who has worked closely with the Florida flock since it formed in 1993, isn't worried. Despite being raised in non-migratory surroundings, the Florida whoopers are wild. They follow their survival instincts and store information about places they visit. He suggests they will return to Florida.

"We can't control them," he said. "It's our experience when these guys wander they know where they came from."

In Illinois, Kruse awaits word of sightings.

"It's hard to understand (why) there aren't some sightings reported somewhere," Kruse said. "They're big, white birds."

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