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I've received 4 reports of Whooping Cranes in the past day so something= may be up out there. Two reports are from the Tamarack NWR/Detroit Lakes a= rea and the other two came from the east side of Sherburne NWR and the east= side of Fremont Lake near Zimmerman, the latter bird heading southward toward a nearby wetland. The bird reported from Tamarack NWR was bande= d but does not appear to be from the Wisconsin population so thus might b= e a legitimate WILD bird from the Aransas flock (with the caveat IF it is a= whooper as Great Egrets, pelicans, and sandhills are all migrating now = and have been misidentified by many people in the past). A search earlier today did not relocate it on the refuge but it might be in the general vicinity. The Sherburne County bird might be a Wisconsin bird which wa= s last seen in early March wintering in Osceola County, Florida. Please = note any color band combinations on the Sherburne County bird if seen and re= port to me and/or call Richard Urbanek, the eastern population whooping cran= e biologist at 612-804-0959 (cellphone) between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. (he l= ikes to sleep in). Currently Richard is tracking 12 of last year's birds mo= ving northward across southern Wisconsin today. Richard requests that obser= vers keep their distance from the cranes so as to minimize human contact. Thanks to Carrol Henderson, MN DNR and Wayne Brininger, Tamarack NWR, f= or forwarding these reports. An update on the eastern population will be forthcoming. Bob Russell, USFWS= --0__=09BBFBD4DFF5578C8f9e8a93df938690918c09BBFBD4DFF5578C Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable Content-type: text/html; charset=US-ASCII Content-Disposition: inline <html><body> <p>I've received 4 reports of Whooping Cranes in the past day so someth= ing may be up out there. Two reports are from the Tamarack NWR/Detroit= Lakes area and the other two came from the east side of Sherburne NWR = and the east side of Fremont Lake near Zimmerman, the latter bird headi= ng southward toward a nearby wetland. The bird reported from Tamarack = NWR was banded but does not appear to be from the Wisconsin population = so thus might be a legitimate WILD bird from the Aransas flock (with th= e caveat IF it is a whooper as Great Egrets, pelicans, and sandhills ar= e all migrating now and have been misidentified by many people in the p= ast). A search earlier today did not relocate it on the refuge but it = might be in the general vicinity. The Sherburne County bird might be a= Wisconsin bird which was last seen in early March wintering in Osceola= County, Florida. Please note any color band combinations on the Sherb= urne County bird if seen and report to me and/or call Richard Urbanek, = the eastern population whooping crane biologist at 612-804-0959 (cellph= one) between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. (he likes to sleep in). Currently Ric= hard is tracking 12 of last year's birds moving northward across southe= rn Wisconsin today. Richard requests that observers keep their distanc= e from the cranes so as to minimize human contact. Thanks to Carrol He= nderson, MN DNR and Wayne Brininger, Tamarack NWR, for forwarding these= reports. An update on the eastern population will be forthcoming. Bo= b Russell, USFWS</body></html>= --0__=09BBFBD4DFF5578C8f9e8a93df938690918c09BBFBD4DFF5578C--