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Meet
the 2008 Whooping Crane Chicks!
Hatch-year
2008 of
the Eastern Flock
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Crane
# 804
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Date
Hatched |
May
9, 2008 |
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Gender |
Male |
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Egg
Source: Patuxent WRC |
Permanent
Leg Bands
(Attached
after reaching Florida)
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- Read
about the naming system, hatch place in
Maryland, release site in Wisconsin, over-wintering
site in Florida, and leg-band codes.
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Personality
and Training:
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| Photo Brian Clauss, Patuxent WRC |
Notes
from the captive breeding "hatchery" at Patuxent WRC
in Maryland:
This
chick has a huge personality. He already had a lot to say while still
in the egg!
Barb said, "When it was in the hatcher,
we would check on the egg by
making
crane vocalizations to assess its strength and progress. Each time I
did this, #4 just peeped and peeped and peeped. It was like a little
girl who had her phone privileges
taken away for a month and finally was able to talk on the phone again
to her girlfriends. Chick #4 did this before hatching and also after
being old enough to go to a pen. When I opened the door to the aviary
I could
hear #4 peeping, peeping, peeping in the pen. It seemed like #4 was just
waiting for someone to come so he could talk their ear off. Always the
little talker! At #4's first swimming exercise, he would paddle his
little legs the length of the pen like a true olympian.
Every so often #4 would stop for a brief rest at the pool's end, and
then get motoring along again like someone shot him out of a cannon.
Amazingly
enough, #4 had very little to say while in the pool as he concentrated
on moving the legs and not the little beak!
The Aviary
is set up with pens lined up along both sides of a long aisle. One
day Barb heard two chicks peeping back and forth across the aisle
to
each
other.
Then she saw the tiny little
shape of #804 in the left pen, and #807 standing directly across in the
right side pen. Both little chicks were standing at their
doorways peeping
back and forth to each other. Both had so much to say!
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Bees
were a problem at the refuge and 804 was stung. The bee sting made
his beak get out of line, but it was soon back to normal.
Photo Operation
Migration |
Chick
#804 was always near the front of his group during training, and
paid good attention.
Notes
from "flight school" at Necedah NWR in Wisconsin:
Arrived
at Necedah NWR on June
25 with the first group of the Class of 2008. By
mid July he and #803, the two oldest birds, were starting to
fly in ground
effect. On Aug. 10 Bev took the group to the marsh where
they would be out of sight while the runway grass was cut.
Bev said “804
became the most adventuresome of the group and wandered the farthest.
At
one
point he tried
climbing up on a very small tussock that gave him that perfect ‘king
of the hill’ position. The tussock proved to be too small
and too wobbly, so 804 was soon back in the water.”
On Aug.
15th, pilot Richard reported that new flier #804 took his first first
full circuit with the trike (along with #803 and
805)! On
the Sept. 2 health check he weighed 6.6 kg.
Back
to "Meet the
Flock 2008"
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