Red-crowned Cranes spar on their winter feeding grounds in Hokkaido, Japan.

In October, I traveled to Beijing Forestry University for a three-day workshop jointly organized by the University’s Center for East Asian – Australasian Flyway Studies and the International Crane Foundation. Our principal goal was to draft a ten-year Crane Strategy and Action Plan for the East Asian Flyway, comprising Russia, Mongolia, China, North and South Korea and Japan focusing on four threatened crane species – Siberian, Red-crowned, White-naped and Hooded Cranes.

Two Siberian Cranes preparing for flight at the Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve in Shandong Province, China on Dec. 22, 2018. Picture provided by Jiangxi Provincial Wildlife Rescue and Breeding Center.

Yesterday evening (India time), I received a message from the editor that our submission has been accepted for publication in the journal “Emu – Austral Ornithology.” This journal is Australia’s foremost source of scientific information on birds, and it is not easy to get work published here. Wooo–hooo!!

One of the greatest joys of my life with cranes is friendship with others who share such passion for these special birds. My colleagues at the Institute for Biological Problems of the Cryolithozone (permafrost) – IBPC in Yakutia, Russia, Drs. Nikolai Germoganov, Inga Bysykatova and Masha Vladimirtseva have been such friends for many years.