Two whooping cranes take off over the wetlands at Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area in Greene County in December 2018. Adult whooping cranes are white with black-tipped wings with a red patch on the top of their heads. (Jeremy Hogan / Herald-Times)
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On the web
Anyone who wants to learn more about whooping cranes or other species of cranes can go online to savingcranes.org or check out the Facebook page, facebook.com/savingcranes.
If someone sees a whooping crane, they can report the sighting at savingcranes.org/report-whooping-crane/.
To report anyone disturbing a bird, call 1-800-TIPS-DNR (847-7367).
For information on Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area, go to www.in.gov/dnr/fish-wild/3094.htm.
Anyone who watches the sky as winter approaches will notice flocks of birds, often in V shapes, heading south for warmer climes. While some species of birds fly south from Indiana, other species find Indiana warmer than their summer grounds farther north.
Bird-watchers already are sharing information about the migratory species now appearing at Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area and other spots across Indiana. These include sandhill cranes, the featured species in Linton’s Marsh Madness days each spring.
But sometimes it’s not the grayish sandhill cranes that are seen flying in formation, but instead the bright-white whooping cranes with their distinctive black-tipped wings. These birds are listed as an endangered species and are closely monitored by the International Crane Foundation, which welcomes people sharing any sightings they have of the birds. Many of the adults have colored bands on their tall, black legs that identify them.
The whooping cranes that migrate from Wisconsin south to Indiana, Tennessee and Florida are part of an experimental flock that was reintroduced through a program that began in 2001. Currently, there are about 80 adult whooping cranes in what is known as the eastern migratory flock, one of three that was reintroduced in the eastern portion of the U.S. The only other migratory flock migrates between the Aransas-Wood Buffalo preserve in Texas north to western Canada and has a population of about 500 birds.
Officials with the International Crane Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources as well as the Friends of Goose Pond group have been working for years to educate Hoosiers about the special birds that often winter at Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area and surrounding parts of Greene County.
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