I was just contacted by Bruce Fall, an eBird editor, requesting more details about my sighting of two adult Whooping Cranes. He also said "The only Whooping Cranes possible in Minnesota at this time of year would be vagrants from the experimental Wisconsin flock; I haven't heard any other reports of sightings anywhere else in Minnesota this year."
So here are the updated details about the birds I saw on July 20, 2020: >>>>I observed two Whooping Cranes flying south not far from shore over Sylvan >>>>Lake, Brainerd, central MN. I happened to look out our 2nd floor window overlooking the cove that is at the eastern tip of Sylvan Lake, and saw two very large birds with long necks fully extended and long black legs flying together probably less than 50 feet apart. They both were pure white with strikingly black primaries, so I concluded that they were adult Whooping Cranes. I did not see any other large birds flying near them. I observed them for about 20 seconds with the naked eye before trees obscured them, and thus could not check for leg bands or coloration of head and face. I estimate that I first noticed them when they were at lat/long 46.375029, -94.373156, approximately 400 feet from me (measured on GoogleEarth Pro), and as they flew south that distance increased. In the past and in other localities I have seen multiple in-flight Sandhill Cranes, Wood Storks, American White Pelicans, Trumpeter Swans, White Egret, Great Blue Heron, and White Ibis, and these two birds were definitely none of the above. I am an experienced and conservative bird observer and amateur ornithologist (which is not reflected in my e-Bird sightings), and would rather not "check off" a bird than report it inaccurately. As Roger Tory Peterson famously wrote of Bald Eagles, they are "all field mark," and I believe the same can be said of adult Whooping Cranes.<< ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html During the pandemic, the MOU encourages you to stay safe, practice social distancing, and continue to bird responsibly.
