Local: Albuquerque hosts two major ground transportation highways. Interstate 25 bisects the city north to Denver and south to Las Cruces. Interstate 40 bisects the city east to Flagstaff and west to Amarillo. Most rental car agencies are present in Albuquerque. Local arrangements for rental cars can be made at the Albuquerque International Sunport. Make your arrangements early to avoid inconvenience.

Wednesday, January 12 and Friday, January 14: Paper sessions and business meetings. It's shaping up to be an outstanding program as over 30 papers have been submitted covering topics like reintroduction, migration, nesting, mortality, captive propagation, management problems, techniques, and wintering ecology.

Thursday the 13th is reserved for an all-day field trip and New Mexican luncheon at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, widely recognized as one of the jewels of the national wildlife refuge system. See below.

FORMAT for abstracts and papers will follow Journal of Wildlife Management or Society for Conservation Biology guidelines.

ORIGINAL RESEARCH is encouraged, but review papers will be considered.

PAGE CHARGES, ($25.00 per page), will help defray the costs of publication. Individuals lacking such funds may apply for a waiver.

STUDENT AWARD. A monetary award will be presented to the student with the best paper.

Gary Lingle has agreed to serve as Compiling Editor. The following have volunteered to serve as section editor/session chair:

Population Dynamics: Rod Drewien
Reintroduction: Richard Urbanek
Disease & Mortality: Glenn Olsen

Needed: Section editors for Breeding Biology, Migration/Wintering, Captive/Genetics, and Management/techniques. Contact Scott Hereford if you wish to serve in this capacity.

Eighth North American Crane Workshop/Attention John Taylor
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
P.O. Box 1246
Socorro, New Mexico 87801

1525 Cedar Ridge Dr. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87112-4570
Phone: 595-293-0454

SORRY FOR THE DELAY! This issue of The Unison Call was delayed while details of the Workshop were being finalized. Please note that most items were submitted in June, and therefore may not be current to date. We apologize for the delay and thank you for your patience.

WELCOME to the following new members!

Robert Kruidenier*, Socorro NM
Barbara Niccolai, Mitchelville MD
Wesley Abler, Douglas GA
Joe Ball, Missoula MT
Lorraine Grassano, San Francisco CA

*Robert Kruidenier was our first new cyberspace member following the launching of our website last February!

Just 2 days later (20 April) another pair was observed with one bird sitting on a nest. Both birds were reared at Patuxent; the male, about to turn 4 years old, was parent-reared. The isolation-reared female had just turned 5 years old. On 29 April we found that the pair abandoned the nest which contained 1 egg. Ironically, it appeared that rising water levels caused the abandonment. The previous evening, an intense thunderstorm dumped 5+cm of rain in a short time. The bottom of the egg lay against wet vegetation in the nest; Florida sandhill cranes abandon nests under these circumstances.

Neither pair nested at previous release sites. They did, however, nest in some of the wettest habitat available during the drought. Neither pair had nested in the past and both pairs stayed in their territories following nest failure. We did not observe renesting attempts.

Of 28 chicks released this past winter, 20 survive (9 June 1999). Our last chick mortality was in February. 53 older whoopers inhabit Florida. This spring, as during last, some (9) older birds have undergone simultaneous molting of flight feathers.

There have been 23 nests including six renests. There were two new CNAs. #637, a HY82 male, was documented nesting for the first time! At visits to two nests, pipped eggs were observed being attacked by fire ants. Three eggs, including one from a "fire ant nest", were taken to Audubon SSC for rearing and release later this year. Currently, only two chicks were still alive, a clutch of two were due to hatch in 1-2 days, and there was another active nest. Nest searching will continue into July. As part of a pilot chick mortality study, Glenn Olsen implanted small radios in three chicks. One died from hawk predation. Over two years, three of four known chick mortalities appear to be due to hawk predation. Plans are to have another three chicks radio-tagged by June 22. An SCA Resource Assistant Heather Pruiksma was recruited for 12 weeks to help monitor the radio-tagged chicks.

Five AHY cranes were captured using three different methods and marked and/or radio-tagged.. The carcasses of two breeding birds were discovered. #926, a HY 89 female and one of "Mini's birds", appeared to die as result of a fence. #234, a radio-tagged HY 92 male, was killed by predation, while the pair had an active nest.

The 2nd Annual Gautier Crane Festival in late March was a success. About 1000 people attended, a 300%+ increase over the first year. A refuge Friends Group is forming. Please visit our new web site at www.fws.gov/r4mis.

Biotech and NACWG member Tracy Grazia was promoted to GS-7.

A total of 18,202 RMP cranes was recorded with 44.3% in Idaho, 18.8% in Montana, 17.9% in Wyoming, 12.0% in Utah, and 7.0% in Colorado. Over 68% of all cranes were recorded at 12 areas. The 3 most important were: 1) Bear River Valley in the tri-state area of Idaho, Utah and Wyoming (1,723), 2) Blackfoot Reservoir, ID (1,626) and Yampa Valley, CO (1,200). The 1998 count tallied the second highest number of cranes recorded during 6 surveys conducted since 1987 and was exceeded only in 1992 when 19,297 cranes were counted.

An estimated 181 whooping cranes were present at Aransas in the spring of 1998. With the addition of 18 young that arrived at Aransas, the flock could have reached a maximum of 199 whoopers. The peak population of 183 thus represents a loss of 16 cranes (8.8% of the spring, 1998 population of 181). High mortality is believed to have occurred in the fall, 1998 migration. Adult female o/w-BWsp (1986) had a broken leg and was last observed at Quivira NWR in Kansas on December 29. Another notable sighting in the fall migration was one bird photographed just north of Chicago following a strong wind storm.

No mortality was documented during the 1998-99 winter. Adult cranes and/or potential pairs occupied 51 territories and/or use areas, two more than last winter. Thirty-seven cranes were color marked (2 less than last winter), representing 20.2% of the population. All cranes departed Aransas by April 21 in the spring migration.

Refuge Manager Brent Giezentanner retired at the end of 1998 after 12 years at Aransas and 35 years of government service. He has moved to Colorado Springs and is planning to start an environmental consulting business. The acting refuge manager at Aransas is assistant project leader Jim Halpin.

Tom Stehn, Aransas, TX

From the winter surveys at Aransas we were expecting as many as 51 breeding pairs to nest in 1999. As many as 4 pairs may have lost mates prior to their arrival on the breeding grounds as only single birds were seen in 2 territories and another 2 banded birds were not accounted for on their territories. Forty-eight pairs were known to have nested, including a new pair north of the traditional nesting area. At least 46 chicks hatched including 10 sets of twins. As of June 14, 35 chicks were still alive including 1 set of twins. Cool wet weather during the chick hatching period June 4-7 took a heavy toll on the families with two young. Even though the wet weather was hard on chick survival it provided much needed rainfall for the crane nesting marshes. Water levels increased and the marshes now appear reasonably full which should be conducive to increased survival of the remaining young.

Brian Johns, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

At the Calgary Zoo, Calgary, Alberta, they had potentially 9 pairs of whooping cranes this spring. Unfortunately, two of the pairs had to be spilt because of mate-aggression. Still, 13 whooping crane eggs were laid (6 fertile, 6 infertile, 1 unknown). Of the 6 fertile eggs, one was broken by parent birds (as was the egg of unknown fertility), 3 chicks died before hatching, and 2 chicks hatched (May 22,24) and are doing fine at this time.

Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, Maryland, had 8 producing whooping crane pairs (44 total whooping cranes). Altogether, 52 eggs have been laid, 29 chicks hatched and 26 are still alive. One whooping crane chick was killed by an adult in an adjacent pen. Two others had serious congenital problems and were euthanized. Patuxent is also rearing 26 greater sandhill cranes for release in Utah and Arizona, plus 7 Florida sandhill cranes for various projects in support of the program.

The San Antonio Zoo isolation reared 2 Whooping Cranes to fledging this year. While the staff consistently performed AI on both pairs, one pair exhibited daily natural copulation also. Of the 7 eggs produced, 5 eggs were fertile and artificially incubated, 3 chicks hatched, and 2 birds were successfully reared to fledging. Arrangements are currently being made for the 0.2 Whoopers (representing both pairs) to join a release cohort.

White Oak Conservation Center, Yulee, Florida, has 5 producing pairs of Mississippi sandhill cranes. Six eggs have been moved to Audubon Zoo and 4 chicks are being costumed reared from these eggs. Currently, one chick is being parent reared at White Oak, but two more clutches are still due at this time. Other crane species being reared at White Oak include Waddled Cranes, with one egg being sent to South Africa to join 7 or 8 other eggs from other institutions for a release project. Also, a pair of East African crowned cranes have a clutch of eggs. White Oak had two female whooping cranes; one has been sent to the Audubon Zoo, while one remains at White Oak.

At the Audubon Center for Research and Endangered Species, they have 33 adult Mississippi sandhill cranes with 12 laying females. All together, 65 eggs were laid by these birds and an additional 6 eggs were received from White Oak and 2 eggs and one chick from the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge. Seven eggs are still being incubated. Twenty-one chicks have hatched so far this year with 16 surviving. However, one of these has scoliosis so there are fifteen potential birds to release and bolster the wild flock in Mississippi. In addition, Audubon now has its first pair of whooping cranes. These two birds were just recently introduced to each other so no production is expected this year.

I wish to thank Dr. Susan Mikota (Audubon), Nancy Businga (ICF), Mike Taylor (White Oak), Angela Langs (San Antonio) and Dwight Knapik (Calgary) for supplying the information used in this report.

Glenn Olsen, Laurel, MD

The two ultralight whooping cranes led south behind an ultralight in the fall of 1997 survived the 1998-99 winter and stayed out of trouble. The two cranes had split up in the 1998 fall migration. One wintered near Wilcox, Arizona but then on February 13, 1999 joined the second ultralight whooper at Bosque del Apache NWR. The two departed Bosque on March 12, then weren't reported again until April 11 when both birds were together near Heber City, Utah. This was on the course they were led behind the ultralight in the fall of 1997. The two ultralight cranes then split up, with one reported in the Arbon Valley of southeast Idaho on May 16.

Dr. John Cannon continued work on an assessment of potential reintroduction sites. On March 5, at a meeting in Madison, involved parties agreed to limit the study to 3 sites (Crex Meadows, Necedah/Sandhill, and Horicon). Public meetings were held at these locations in May with much valuable information provided to the public that showed much enthusiasm for the project. Sampling of crane foods will be done this summer, and a decision about the suitability of Wisconsin reached September 19-23 when the Captive Management and Recovery teams will meet in Baraboo.

Tom Stehn, Aransas, TX

___________________________________

The Unison Call is published twice a year, winter/spring and summer/fall. Membership is based on a calendar year. All contributions, suggestions, opinions, drawings, cartoons are very welcome! Send newsletter items to:

JANE NICOLICH
11510 AMERICAN HOLLY DRIVE
LAUREL, MD 20708
PHONE: 301-497-5758
FAX: 301-497-5744
E-MAIL: jane_nicolich@usgs.gov

Deadlines are June 10 and December 10. Please send information on a disc (either size) in WordPerfect or as a WordPerfect attachment (e-mail) whenever possible.

Thanks to all who contributed to this newsletter!
______________________________

JOIN the North American Crane Working Group and receive the Unison Call.