Giddy With Excitement!
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (121580)
Gainesville, Florida
November 6, 2016 5:24pm CST
Okay, for most of you, this probably isn't a big deal, but this was pretty exciting for my son and I today!
The two of us went camping this weekend in the wilderness outside of our city, a state preserve that is the largest in the state. Within the park boundaries is a prairie, which is more like a swamp than a prairie. On the hike back from our campsite today, we spotted a herd of wild horses off in the distance (too far away to take a photo with our smartphones, but perfect for viewing through our binoculars). Spotting the wild horses was exciting enough, but we both noticed an amazingly huge bird that we had never seen before. It was all white, and as tall as the horses! After we gazed at the horses for a while, we continued our hike back to civilization. A few minutes later we encountered a park ranger, and told her about the horses, and the huge bird we saw. When she heard me describe it as being as tall as the horses, her eyes widened! She asked us to take her back to where we saw it. When we got back there and she had a chance to see for herself, she exclaimed, "It's a whooping crane!"
Although I've heard of whooping cranes, I have never seen one! And for good reason! By 1941, only 21 of the birds were left in the world! Through conservation efforts, the number of whooping cranes has slowly climbed, and they number about 600 left in the world today, only of which 340 are in the United States, and only 16 known whooping cranes in Florida! And we saw one today!!!!!
I'm not a bird watcher by any means, but it was incredibly exciting today to catch a glimpse of a whooping crane in the wild, knowing that it is something very few people in the world will ever get to see! When we left the area today, the park ranger was calling all the other rangers to join her so that they could try to get close enough to capture the magnificent bird on camera! I hope they were successful!
19 people like this
15 responses
@infatuatedbby (94914)
• United States
6 Nov 16
Wow ! That is neat you and your son got to witness the big bird (crane)! Too bad you weren't able to capture a photo for us to see!
2 people like this
@infatuatedbby (94914)
• United States
6 Nov 16
@moffittjc Oh I'd rather be safe :)I wouldn't venture anywhere near alligator swamp!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Nov 16
@infatuatedbby Ahhh...a conservative view! hahah
I value my safety too, so I wouldn't want to venture too far into an alligator-infested swamp!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Nov 16
I know, I was kicking myself that we couldn't get close enough to get a photo! But I would have had to trudge through alligator infested swamp to get to where the horses and crane were off in the distance.
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
7 Nov 16
That is fantastic good news. We brought back the California Brown Pelican. There are huge flocks of them along the coast now. Maybe you'll have hundreds of cranes in the future. Good luck.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
9 Nov 16
@ElizabethWallace There has been a huge effort underway in Florida for the government to create a huge wildlife corridor that stretches the whole length of the state right up through the interior of the state. It seems like it is gaining more and more traction with each passing day!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Nov 16
Well, we already know the alligator was a huge success story, and it also looks like our black bear population is having a huge resurgence, so who knows...maybe the whooping crane is the next great success story!
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
8 Nov 16
@moffittjc We need to respect their spaces for them to survive. We don't do that well enough in California.
1 person likes this
@much2say (55601)
• Los Angeles, California
7 Nov 16
@moffittjc I hope so too . . . that would help the population of his kind greatly!!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Nov 16
I hope he wasn't alone all by himself! I hope there was a misses somewhere around!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Nov 16
@much2say As long as there are no bobcats around to attack their nest!
1 person likes this
@Deepizzaguy (102799)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
7 Nov 16
Getting to see a forest or park is just wonderful for a change of pace instead of sitting inside a home watching football.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Nov 16
Well, I definitely watch my share of football on weekends, but yes...it was a nice break from football!
1 person likes this
@Deepizzaguy (102799)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
7 Nov 16
@moffittjc I do not blame you.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Nov 16
It's definitely a fun thing to do with children, because everything is new and exciting to a child!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Nov 16
@Yadah04 Ah...to see the world through the eyes of a child! It's a lovely thing!
1 person likes this
@Yadah04 (3363)
• Philippines
7 Nov 16
@moffittjc yes, exactly. Their eyes glow at the sight of new things.
1 person likes this
@Happy2BeMe (99380)
• Canada
6 Nov 16
That is so exciting and the perfect ending to a wonderful camping adventure with your son.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Nov 16
The only thing we didn't see that we were really keeping an eye out for was the bison. There is a herd of wild bison living on the prairie. We had camped on the south rim of the prairie, but the park ranger said they had been spotted recently on the north rim.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Nov 16
@Happy2BeMe It would have been amazing to see! We have spotted them before, but they were so far off in the distance that even with our binoculars we cold barely make them out! They tend to be very shy and like to stay away from people. They also get very aggressive around people, so it's best to stay away from them!
It's a really interesting fact that bison used to be native to Florida, and the herd that lives in the preserve is that last known wild surviving herd outside of the midwest!
1 person likes this
@Happy2BeMe (99380)
• Canada
7 Nov 16
@moffittjc oh that would have been cool to see
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160658)
• United States
6 Nov 16
I believe they migrate through Kansas, but I have never seen them. I think that is super neat.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Nov 16
I was hoping that this guy (or girl) wasn't alone, and that it had a mate somewhere nearby. I would hate to think that a poor lonely whooping crane is out there all by itself with no one to share its nest with at night!
@IvySaysHi (4467)
• United States
7 Nov 16
That does sound amazing to see an animal that was once endangered and is rare in your area
2 people like this
@IvySaysHi (4467)
• United States
7 Nov 16
@moffittjc oh lord it is the circle of life
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Nov 16
They are still very endangered. The problem with the ones still left in the wild is that they are a favorite food of bobcats, so for all our efforts to save them, the bobcats are out there doing their part to eat them all! lol
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Nov 16
Yes, we took a bunch of photos, but I haven't gone back through and sorted and edited them yet! Been pretty busy today!
1 person likes this
@KristenH (33386)
• Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
7 Nov 16
@moffittjc No worries. Glad you had a good time.
1 person likes this
@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
7 Nov 16
It sounds like you two had a great time @moffittjc .
2 people like this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Nov 16
We sure did! I wish we could do it every weekend!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Nov 16
I think we really got lucky that we came across the ranger when we did. Usually, I don't ever see rangers out in the wilderness areas. Maybe she was just out checking on things. Hell, maybe she was checking on me to make sure I wasn't up to no good! lol
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
8 Nov 16
Oooh, exciting. I've never heard of a whopping crane. I shall have to look them up now.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Nov 16
As far as looks, it's nothing spectacular, as they look very similar to herons and egrets, but it's their size that makes them stand out. They are very large birds!
@JudyEv (339930)
• Rockingham, Australia
6 Nov 16
I can imagine how thrilled you were. We are like that whenever we spot something that isn't seen too often - that usually means 'too often by us'. The mountain devil was one. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the 600 can come back and re-establish the species?
2 people like this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Nov 16
They are having a lot of success breeding them in captivity, so it's possible their numbers can slowly be restored.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (339930)
• Rockingham, Australia
7 Nov 16
@moffittjc That's very good. Some of our little marsupials are now breeding successfully in captivity and being released back into the wild. If they can keep the fox and feral cat numbers down, most do quite well.
1 person likes this
@5thHouse (1678)
• Sheffield, England
7 Nov 16
That must've been exciting, especially just seeing one by chance when there must be many serious bird-watchers who have been looking for years for this bird with no success. I'll mention the 'whooping crane' (great name - sounds like something out of Dr Seuss) to my bird-watcher friend, Stephen, when I see him this weekend.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Nov 16
I spoke the park ranger again last night, and she confirmed it definitely was a whooping crane. They were able to get close enough to it to identify it clearly by sight, plus they were able to see that it was tagged. All the known whooping cranes left in Florida in the wild have been tagged.
I have never heard of whooping cranes before.@moffittjc (121580)
• Gainesville, Florida
7 Nov 16
It was as tall as the horses when they were bent over eating grass! The bird wouldn't have been as tall as the horses if they had been standing fully upright.
1 person likes this
