How wonderful that one of the birds is from 2007! And you are so lucky to get another opportunity to see & watch them. Hope you get more details about them. Waiting anxiously!

That is really exciting to have Whoopers visiting! Yes, I too look forward to hearing more about those beautiful cranes!

with Claudia & Lin. Did they say anything about coming to your place to observe them?

The trackers know exactly where they are. The birds are loaded with telemetry.

Any idea on how long they may stay there or where they may be headed?

A few from over the last few days.

The first one is hard to get a good photo of. It is a Brown Creeper. They do not stay still!!







Flicker with Cardinals and Starling & Downy

Claudia: You have a lot of birds visiting your backyard feeders! I love the Flicker and that little Brown Creeper is so cute ... that's a new one to me.

For those that might be interested here is a good summary of the life thus far of one of the Whoopers that has blessed us with a stay here at Happily EverAfter. He is referred to as 37-07.

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/...

Thanks Dave, that was very informative & most interesting. So he's right where he's supposed to be until he migrates north again.

Claudia, lovely photos. Those Creepers look like they must be related to Wrens.

Again, not a huge bird person here, but I'm trying. Thanks for all the info on the Whooping Cranes, Dave. I know a bunch of them nest during the winter south of me at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. I admit, when I first liked Corkscrew on Facebook, I assumed they were owned by the state. But it's actually run by the Audubon Society! And I have to say, I think they're doing a better job, quite frankly. I've been meaning to wander down there to check it out since they also have other interesting things like the Super Ghost Orchid and the extremely endangered Florida Panthers. Not sure I want to actually run into a panther, but it's good to know they're there.

I see Sandhill Cranes all the time, and I'm always checking them out to see if they've got any Whooping friends, but they never do. I confess, I think Sandhill Cranes have to be one of the dumbest animals I've ever seen. They walk into traffic so much! There's even a sign in my neighborhood that has a crane crossing sign. People are generally pretty good here in Florida because we do have a lot of wildlife (and I live in a suburb so it's even worse). Unfortunately, I saw a Sandhill Crane dead on the side of the road a couple of weeks ago. I was just surprised I haven't seen more. At least they're tall enough and tend to travel in small groups so you can see them coming from a distance even if you're going the speed limit (45 mph) up the main road I live off of. I was driving to a doctor appointment on Monday night and there was a group of Sandhill Cranes on the east side of the road. One flew right over the cars (barely) to the west side. Well, then the second one tried it but he landed right in front of a car in the southbound lane (I was northbound)! He did a quick bounce of his feet, opened those wings, and got across. But I was smacking my forehead and yelling, "Stupid bird!" I felt kind of bad for the driver it jumped in front of. They also don't seem to respond to honking your horn or scooching your car real close to them. So you kind of just have to wait until they decide to move on. Oh, and they're really, really loud!

I hope the Whooping Cranes are smarter. I guess it's a good thing they have the Sandhills to hang out with, though. Safety in numbers, I suppose? I'll have to plan a little trip south soon, but I'm kind of waiting for it to warm up since I'm more of a butterfly person. I imagine the Whooping Cranes will be gone, but maybe I can see some other cool stuff. I actually have a little Florida bird field guide; I just need to start studying it!

I love sand hill cranes, or course I just look at them massed in trees and listen to them flying overhead. I figure they cant be to dumb...any bird for that matter, that can find there way 1000's of miles back and forth places, with nary a map, have to have some sort of sense. Thats not to say they would not irritate if blocking cars.

Loved the whooping cranes! How amazingly cool to see those banded birds! I would find that quite exciting as I am a bird watcher and love our flying critters!

The Sandhill Cranes are enjoyed by most people in my area. They do meander crossing the street, but that to me, just adds to their charm. They make me slow down and enjoy nature every now and again. There was one years ago that was hit by a car and lost one leg. She would hop around. She had a mate and had babies, too. We were always watching out for her because she was "disabled". She was one tough bird and her mate was totally devoted to her. She had at least 4 youngsters that we know of over the years. She must have passed away a year later, because we started only seeing the male bird. He seemed so sad. He disappeared about 5 months after that. I don't know if he found another mate, moved on to a different location, or died of a broken heart. We talked about these two birds for many years after they disappeared.

Pine Siskins

Dave, I believe you have both the Goldfinch as well as Pine Siskin in that group of photos. I could be wrong. The Goldfinch does not have any streaking on their chest or back. the Pine Siskin does have streaking.

@flaflwrgrl Ann you are correct. I actually posted the wrong photos. Both are there. If I didn't delete the photos of the Pine Siskins I will repost. Been so focused on the Whoopers (still here on the 5th day) that I didn't pay enough attention to what I was doing. Thanks for correcting. About a week or so ago I noticed that the thistle feeder was being emptied at a much faster rate. Then I noticed that the feeder was being mob by what I initially thought were some small sparrow. Closer observation showed that the birds had some yellow bars on their wings. They can surely go through some thistle seed and tend to run the goldfinches off.

I was surprised to learn the Pine Siskins look so similar to the Goldfinches and had to look up the differences to make sure I wasn't mistaking what I thought are Goldfinches for Pine Siskins. Now I believe I may have both too. According to the map the Pine Siskins are here so I will observe more closely. I'm pretty sure I've seen at least the female pine siskins here and if there are females it stands to reason there are males too. I have thought the females were some kind of sparrow. So I learned something new.

Oh hooray for the Whoppers still being there!

OH! Jay @Horntoad posted a notice about the Great Backyard Bird Count here:
The thread "Great Backyard Bird Count" in Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum

Dave, it would be fantastic to be able to include the Whoppers in the count!!!

Went over to BIL yesterday, there is a cow pasture that belongs to UF that sits at the corner of his neighborhood. The sand hill cranes come to that field and the trees that line it this time of the year and its awesome. Whats beyond awesome, is reading this thread, then going over there and my BIL asking if I wanted to see the whooping crane. After reading this, and him explaining that there are only 400 etc etc. I went to take a look. Sure as life itself, there is one tall white whooping crane standing just a little taller than the hundreds of sand hill cranes. It was really exciting. Now I now why so many people sit out there with their tripods and fancy camera 'stuff'. I tried to get a picture with my phone, but it was useless.

Woooooooooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooooo Pam!!!!!

Great pics everyone, and on the cranes. I remember back in the 60s we had a pair on an old local farm pond. Federal Officers came and caught them and my Grand was upset and watched for them for years, in case they got away. I guess that was probably the beginnings of conservation efforts.