August 16
Good Morning
Yesterday I got a hot tip from my friend Don Delaney that a whooping crane had been spotted about 1 hour south of Edmonton.
This is a very rare occurrence. There are only about 500 whooping cranes in the breeding flock in Wood Bison National Park. They normally migrate about 500 miles east of Edmonton in October. So this one is a lone wolf.
When I received the call, I was very excited so go see it. I asked Sheryl where Connor was and she told me he had gone down to the Whitemud Creek Ravine to journal and would be home at 6 pm. It was 3 pm so I had to decide what to do. Go without him or try to find him?
I went down to Whitemud Creek and made a couple of quick trips north and south of the parking lot where his bike was locked up. No luck. I decided I would have to wait. I loaded his bike in the back of my truck and finally spotted him ambling towards me at about 5:30 p.m. I jumped in the truck and drove up to Connor and told him to hop in. He nonchalantly remarked that my timing was great as he had just gotten back to the parking lot!
I told him about the whooping crane and we were off. We got down to the location where it had been spotted by 7 pm and we were relieved to see cars parked along the road. It was a sign that the crane was still there.
We were thrilled to watch it until 8:20 pm when it flew off towards Bittern Lake.
A truly spectacular day.
I have prepared a video but you will have to go to you tube to view it as it is too large to send by email. I hope the link works.
Stay well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtyUERzyiR8&feature=youtu.be
