Three White Cranes, Two Flyways, One World: A Week in the Life of a Crane

As we wait to receive new location data from our two banded Siberian Cranes, we thought it would be fun to share with you a few more details about where the Siberian Cranes stopped to rest in Liaoning Province earlier this month.

Our first crane, No. 59947, spent at least 12 days (October 31 - November 11) near a large, shallow water reservoir (Wolong Lake). The reservoir is on the west side of Kanping City (the local county seat) in central Liaoning Province. In the past, the water in the reservoir was between 1.5-3.5 m deep; but, in 2003, the reservoir completely dried out and there was no more water. The local goverment started storing water back in the reservoir in late 2005, and the reservoir was set up as a provincial nature reserve when it was restored (a provincial reserve is similar to a state park in the United States). Most of the reservoir was covered by aquatic plants in very shallow water, especially at the southern end. In spring 2008, 800 Siberian Cranes were observed at the reservoir during annual waterbird surveys. Red-crowned Cranes and Swan Geese have also been observed at the reservoir.

The image above shows the locations of No. 59947 as it moved around the reservoir in early November (click on the image to view a larger version of the map).

At the same time, between October 30 - November 2, No. 59948 moved to southeastern Inner Mongolia, about 60 km southeast of Tongliao City. This location is in the southern part of the Keerqin Desert. There are many sand dunes and also many small lakes and ponds in the desert . The location of the banded crane is by one of those shallow lakes (click on the picture below to view a larger version of the map).

On November 6 No. 59948 moved south and stopped along the Yellow Sea coast in Liaoning Province. This location is right on the salt marsh (pictures below) near the mouth of the Daling River. Click on the image below to view a larger version of the map.