Fall Migration Field Update

Masha Vladimirtseva emailed us yesterday with news from the field about the Siberian Crane fall migration. Masha and members of the Tomponski Inspection of Nature Protection counted 798 migrating Siberian Cranes (nearly 20% of the eastern population!) between October 1 - 6 in Tomponski Ulus in southern Yakutia. This is close to the recent locations of the two banded chicks that we are following this fall (view the migration map at www.scwp.info/imaps.html).

During the survey the researchers stayed with Rosa and Alexey Zelepukhin, local residents who watch the migration every year and give their reports to Masha's Institute in Yakutsk. Their survey location was 1 km to the west of Okhotski Perevoz, on the left bank of the Aldan River.

On October, 3, the group visited the head of Okhotski Perevoz's Administration, Vasili Federov. While discussing the Three White Cranes project with Masha and her colleagues, he received a telephone call and learned from a local woman that Siberian Cranes were flying over the Administration building. They jumped out of the building and counted 11 flocks of 8 to 80 cranes, including chicks. During just 10 minutes they saw 481 Siberian Cranes.