Category Archives: nature

nature, Photography

Sandhill Cranes

21 Comments

There are lots of sandhill cranes throughout Canada and especially in the Northwest Territories.

Elegant and graceful, they arrive in late spring to mate and raise their young. They mate for life and usually have two eggs each spring. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that both chicks will survive to adulthood. The male is readily identifiable through his distinctive red forehead patch.

Happy Tuesday.

nature, Photography

Whooping Cranes

11 Comments

Whooping cranes migrate between the southern edge of the Northwest Territories and Texas. They travel a very long way!

These birds are often difficult to photograph as they are very shy and possessed of excellent hearing, so they are usually gone before you know they have been nearby. Generally, they just are not very gregarious; they like to keep to themselves in their pair bonds. Their nests are about five kilometres (three miles) apart from those of other cranes.

There are only about 500 whooping cranes in the wild, they migrate each year between wintering grounds at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas and their breeding grounds in Wood Buffalo National Park near Fort Smith, NWT.

Their numbers are very slowly improving after dropping to about 25 birds in the 1940s; their survival and growth has been helped along by protections that exist in both Northwest Territories and Texas.

Happy mid-week.