Whooping Crane, Endangered Species

Ewing Bottoms is overwintering hundreds and hundreds of Sandhill Cranes, which have migrated down from Canada. Yesterday as I photographed the Cranes, water stood heavily in much of the farmland after significant rains last week left the area a bit waterlogged. And as luck would have it one lone Whooping Crane stood amongst the Sandhill Cranes.

Whooping Cranes, an Endangered Species and the tallest bird in North America, are threatened not only by their meager numbers, but also by climate change in the form of warmer temperatures and decreased rainfall. This threat could shrink the Whooping Cranes wetland habitat allowing foxes and lynx easier access to the breed's chicks in northern Canadian. Couple that with their southern winter habitat in Texas, where decreased rainfall and rising sea levels brings less freshwater inflow and potential flooding of the marshlands, and sadly, this species has much to overcome. Given this, I felt blessed to capture several images of this lone Whooping Crane yesterday. Such graceful looking birds. Its solid white body, black head, black legs and red face stood in stark contrast to the grays of the Sandhill Cranes surrounding it. ENJOY!

Sandhill Cranes, Ewing Bottoms

Traveling west of Mustatatuck NWR and Seymour, Indiana, you'll come to Ewing Bottoms which sits northwest of Brownstown. The Bottoms is a very, very vast and low lying area of farmland known mostly to the locals. Cross the bridge over Driftwood River just outside Ewing to reach the Bottoms.

A two lane road cuts right through the middle of the farmland and half a mile or more down the road you can find the Sandhill Cranes. Hundreds and hundreds of Sandhill Cranes are wintering here in the Bottoms. I snapped several hundred images today and was lucky enough to capture this image of an adult and juvenile standing side by side. Juvenile Sandhill Cranes have a brown or tan face and head. I love the contrast of the adult next to the juvenile.

I turned onto a farm road that was also a public road and found myself surrounded on both sides by huge flocks of cranes off in the distance. So beautiful with their long, long legs and their long beaks and red faces. You can find the Cranes here in Ewing Bottoms until late February at which time they will slowly begin to decrease in numbers as smaller flocks will pick up and head home for Canada and points north. By early March they should all be on their Spring migration home.

And if capturing these beauties wasn't enough today, I did capture an image of a Whooping Crane. Wow! So excited about that. Also I took a few images of Yellow Legged Gulls that had flown in to one of the farm fields across from the Cranes, and I also captured a few images of a pair of Northern Shovelers floating on a pond of water. What a birding day I had. More photos coming. ENJOY!