The Chickadee   

The Oficial Website of the Albert Lea Audubon Society

71622 - 325th Street

Hartland, MN 56042

Regional News

HOMING CRANES

- Fall 2001, eight whooping cranes flew south from Central Wisconsin to Florida, a 1,200 mile trip which took 48 days. The birds were guided by an ultralight aircraft.

Five cranes flew back to Wisconsin without the ultralight guide because they knew the route.

  One of the cranes died going south  fall 2001 and two were killed by bobcats in Florida. 

The cranes who summered in Central Wisconsin made like the "snowbirds" of the upper Midwest and headed south this fall, arriving in Florida November 2002.

Whooping cranes are North America's largest bird; they are five feet tall. Biologists hope to have a flock of 25 cranes nesting in Wisconsin this summer and spending their winter in Florida.

SANDHILL CRANES

- Carol and David Wolter were awed by the sandhill cranes at the Audubon blind in Nebraska. Understanding the importance of this area can only be comprehended by being there in Nebraska. Make plans to find your way to Nebraska during mid-March--you won't be disappointed.

CONDOR CHICKS HATCH IN THE WILD

- Biologists celebrated a milestone in the recovery of the once nearly extinct California Condor -- the survival of a chick conceived and hatched in the wild.

The chick in Los Padres National Forest, about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles, is the first conceived, hatched and raised in the wild to survive more than a day. It was four days old on Monday. "The parents are feeding it, and it seems to be doing really well," said Bronwyn Davey, spokeswoman for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The birds, the largest in North America, nearly disappeared in the 1980's. Captive breeding programs have helped its numbers rebound to 185, and about 60 of those birds are in the wild in southern California and Northern Arizona. 

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