WHOOPER SIGHTINGS: Tis' the season for whooping crane 
sightings ... we'll explain on Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

This time of year when you look high overhead, you 
might just see whooping cranes.

10 -- Every year, about this time of year, we start getting emails 
and telephone calls from people all excited that they've seen 
whooping cranes flying over; and usually it's between 50 and 
100 birds. 

But, Mark Klym, with the agency's Wildlife Diversity 
program, says if you do witness a huge flock of big birds 
in the clouds ... 

07 -- I'm sorry, that's not whooping cranes. Whooping Cranes 
never fly in a flock larger than about 10 birds, and very rarely 
more than six birds.
 
Well, maybe what you saw were sand hill cranes. Even so, 
North America's biggest bird could still mingle in the mix.

05 -- Usually they're off to the side. You'll get the sand hills in a 
group and the whooping cranes off in a group on their own.

Whooping cranes, on the endangered species list, come 
through Texas' Central Flyway this month on their way to 
the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to overwinter.

15 -- We are optimistic that we are going to see a good 
population at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. Certainly a 
recovery from what we saw in the past winter. And what 
happened in the past winter? Well, with the drought, we had 
very few blue crabs in the bays and as result suffered; we had a 
few losses.

If you do see whooping cranes in migration, contact Mark 
Klym. You'll find his information at passporttotexas.org. 

That's our show ... with support from the SFWR program ... 
for Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti. 



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