The Whooping Crane Twins in Lamar, Texas

Renita turned the car and slowly drove east on eighth street. If the whooper cranes were in the large field, the sun would be at our backs. We had both cameras ready. Emerging from the stand of live oak trees that lined both sides of the road, we saw the open field and spotted the whooping cranes. Two adults stood with one standing guard while the other fed. Between them a third whooping crane fed, it was a mottled brown, a juvenile also called a colt. To the right of the adults a brown head peeked out from a depression in the field. It was acting like it was in a nest and hiding from any predators. It was the whooping crane family with the twins! We had planned to stay home and resting but Renita got a text message from her friend Barb. Barb and Dan had decided to go over to Lamar and look for the whoopers and had spotted them immediately! As Dan set up his camera, (he has the same camera and lens as we do), Barb sent us a message.

We saw them from the side of the road and drove close as we dared before parking. The whoopers were watching as we exited the car. I quickly found the birds as did Renita, and both of our cameras were on the birds. Renita got a great picture of all four birds, as I started to concentrate on the twins. The one was hiding and disappeared from sight as it lowered its head but the other continued to feed.

The male kept a close watch on the photographers and birders, as two cara caras landed behind the majestic birds. Whooping cranes stand over five feet tall and have a seven-foot wingspan and are taller than their cousins the sandhill cranes

. Sometimes the sandhills are also in the field and even approach the whooping cranes but not this day.

We could not see what they were feeding on but one of the juveniles lifted a clump of vegetation and carried it past both parents. It reminded us of when we had seen a grizzly bear cub that had a stick in its mouth, kind of like a pacifier.

The other mottled juvenile/colt stood up, spread it swings and started to gallop, (that is why the young birds are called colts). The other bird laid down in the depression and disappeared while its sibling fed.

Sometimes people will comment on the large number of pictures we take, (Renita and I took a combined total of about five hundred and seventy). They do not understand that we are trying to get the perfect picture and we are also hoping to get a shot of something unique, like the one galloping and the other with its clump of vegetation.

I thought I saw that the one adult had a snake, a common food along with blue crab, fish, and mast, (seeds and nuts on the ground), but I did not get a picture. Stuff happens fast! A herd of cattle approached the birds, one was a large bull and the whoopers became agitated. They stretched their wings and the male leapt into the air as if he were showing the twins the proper take off.

He landed and then all four birds next leapt up and started to fly south towards a deer feeder by one of the houses.

As you can see the top of the juvenile’s wings do have a small amount of brown, but their underside is the same as an adult. Several years back a duck hunter shot one and stated that he claimed he thought it was a sandhill.

There is no way one could not see the difference. The juveniles always fly with their parents and the area near the wildlife refuge is closed to all crane hunting. The hunter should have gotten a bigger fine and spent some quality time in jail, but the judge gave him a break.

Let us hope the duck hunters this year are careful as the family of four whoopers allows everyone the chance to see such a rare sight. There are about five hundred whooping cranes total, and the endangered birds need all the help they can get, (at one time there were only twenty-nine birds).

The birding here is great and having the chance to see such beautiful and endangered birds is one of the reasons we return each year. This is the year to see the birds as the field is being subdivided into one acre lots for homes. Clear skies