While vociferousness is typically associated with cranes – “the trumpet in the orchestra of evolution” to quote Aldo Leopold – one of the largest of the 15 species, the Wattled Crane of Africa, is usually silent. Occasionally one might hear a piercing high-pitched Guard Call or Flight Call and on extremely rare occasions a short duet or Unison Call by a mated pair that lasts but a few seconds. If you are close to a pair or family of Wattled Cranes, one can frequently hear the low burr-like Contact Call, perhaps an expression of proximity and assurance.
Category: Travels with George
Travels with George: Australia 2014
Forty-two years have rapidly passed since I enjoyed two months on Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands with Sarus Cranes, Brolgas and a new crane I discovered, the Sarolga (a hybrid). This October, crane country looked much the same, but the town of Atherton had tripled in size, and Sarus had increased from about 150, to more than a thousand.
Travels with George: Mongolia 2014
On a wide plain beside the town of Binder in northeast Mongolia, the nation’s first Crane Festival was held on June 13, 2014. Our group and other guests sat comfortably under a large colorful tent with one side open to a field surrounded by other tents, exhibits, games, vehicles, and horses. A sequence of activities unfolded for six hours, including ethnic dancing, singing, dramas, and dances about cranes, along with the three big traditional crowd pleasers — wrestling, horse racing, and archery.
Travels with George: Spring 2014
This year I have been privileged to experience four springs in Wisconsin (USA), Hokkaido (Japan), Amur Region (Russia) and the grasslands of Mongolia.
ICF Honored with Three Recent Awards
Good things come in threes — we are honored that ICF has been recognized with three recent awards that highlight our achievements in Whooping Crane recovery efforts, conservation biology in India, and international good-will.
Travels with George: Texas 2014
Late February brought me to Texas to attend three evening functions in Houston and then to participate in the Whooping Crane Festival in Port Aransas, beside the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles southwest of Houston.
Travels with George: India 2014
Several years have rapidly passed since I last visited India. And although I was just there for five days in early February, it was an opportunity to honor my late friend and colleague, Prakash Gole, by speaking at a gathering of about one-hundred like-minded souls in Pune at the release of two books respectively by and about this remarkable man I have known for 34 years.
Travels with George: South Carolina 2014
The ACE Basin encompasses 209,000 acres of wetlands where the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers join in western South Carolina – the largest undeveloped estuary along the Atlantic Coast of the United Sates.
Travels with George: Florida 2014
Late Sunday afternoon of January 5, 2014, while Baraboo was in the grips of an extremely cold winter, I had the privilege of meeting my friends and conservationists, Colin and Anne Phipps, near Tallahassee, Florida. We were waiting, in company with about 40 others, for a pair of Whooping Cranes to land beside a large pond in a cow pasture near balmy Tallahassee.
Travels with George: North Korea 2013
In late November, I traveled to the Hermit Kingdom (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – DPRK) to provide ICF support for the work of my excellent colleagues at the State Academy of Sciences and the farmers at two important wintering sites for Red-crowned Cranes.