On 7/20/2020 I observed two large long-legged pure white birds with strikingly black primaries flying south over the west tip of Sylvan Lake. As Roger T. Peterson famously said of adult Bald Eagles, they were "all field mark," and I believe that they were Whooping Cranes.
I am an experienced and conservative bird observer, but have never observed a Whooping Crane fly-over. Robert B. Janssen's Birds in Minnesota (1987) states that two May 1978 reports of this species were dismissed as "probably immature Sandhill Cranes" by the MN Ornithological Records Committee. I welcome any comments on this sighting. Charlotte Goedsche Brainerd, MN, Cass County ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html During the pandemic, the MOU encourages you to stay safe, practice social distancing, and continue to bird responsibly.
