Birding enthusiasts continued their quest Friday to get glimpses – and photographs – of an Asian hooded crane that arrived earlier this week at Goose Pond Fish & Wildlife Area near Linton in Greene County, Indiana, but the bird was proving elusive.
“It was around for a good two to three hours this morning, but nobody has seen it since,” Goose Pond property manager Brad Feaster said Friday afternoon.
Snow flurries and cold temperatures cut down on visibility and likely kept the hooded crane and other birds from moving too far.
“This is not a good migration day,” Feaster said. “I’m sure the bird is still here. It’s just someplace where we haven’t found it.”
The hooded crane is believed to be the same bird seen at Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in Tennessee earlier this winter.
How the wayward bird ended up so far from home is unclear. Hooded cranes normally nest in southeastern Russia and northern China and spend their winters in Japan.
DNR photographer Frank Oliver was able to take a few photographs of the hooded crane on Thursday. The photos can be found in the gallery section of the Goose Pond web page at: in.gov/dnr/fishwild/3094.htm.
“The closest I could get (Thursday) was about 1,000 feet away,” Oliver said. “It was
seen about 100 yards from the road by some folks early this morning but not since. There are hundreds of sandhill cranes around, so it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Feaster estimated 50 to 70 bird watchers were at Goose Pond on Friday morning.
“Everyone is driving around trying to find the bird, so it’s hard to say,” he said. “I’ve seen vehicle plates from Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan.”
An estimated 150 bird watchers have arrived over the last three days from as far away as Georgia, Minnesota, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
The bird was first spotted Wednesday afternoon and was spending its time in Beehunter Marsh on the northeast side of Goose Pond FWA.
If you choose to go,The DNR asks that visitors to Goose Pond FWA abide by the following recommendations:
Sign in at the Beehunter Marsh information booth, near the intersection of Greene County Roads 200-S and 1000-W. Where possible, stay in your vehicle. Don’t harass the birds;
maintain a distance that will not cause them to take flight. Do not block county roads or private property entrances. Respect private property boundaries.
An overall map of Goose Pond FWA is available for download in PDF format at dnr.IN.gov/fishwild/3094.htm. (Click on the “Maps” tab in the center of the page.)
Goose Pond FWA is an 8,000-acre property of restored wetlands and prairie that is owned and managed by DNR and located near Linton.
The property opened in 2005 and has become a regional destination for bird watching and waterfowl hunting. About 260 different bird species have been spotted at Goose Pond FWA.
A confirmed sighting of a roseate spoonbill occurred on June 2, 2009, making Goose Pond FWA the first location in the state to have such a sighting.
Goose Pond FWA was created under the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and is the seventh largest project of its kind in the country.
Goose Pond FWA was paid for in part through State Wildlife Grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, donations to DNR’s Nongame Fund, sales of Indiana Environmental License Plates, and contributions from Ducks Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy and other conservation groups.
For more information on the Nongame Fund and how to donate, visit EndangeredWildlife.IN.gov. For more information on the Environmental License Plate visit Enviroplate.IN.gov.
Management of the property is paid for by hunting fees and taxes from the sales of arms,
ammunition and archery equipment pursuant to the Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937.
