Lori first named Husker Red and started as just “Red.”

Through Mike’s book project Into Whooperland, and all the highway miles, river hours, and coastal visits, we’ve seen “Red” grow up. It wasn’t long before she was upgraded to “Husker Red” in honor of his Nebraska alma mater (Go Huskers!).

Husker Red was captured as a juvenile on the Lamar Peninsula by USGS crane-trapper Drave Brandt and outfitted with telemetry and the identifying white-red-white band. The next day, Husker Red appeared in Kevin and Lori’s backyard and sparked a years-long neighborly affection.

ICF crane biologist Dr. Liz Smith (whom we talked with in Episode 5 of WCC) called her “one of a gang of nine”– a group of subadults that hung around Aransas Wildlife Refuge. Interestingly, Husker Red started as a subordinate, but has since worked her way up the chain as the one in charge, whom Kevin even referred to at one point as the bully of Lamar.

Years later, in 2022, during a trip to Wood Buffalo National Park, joining biologists on helicopter whooper surveys, Mike’s job was to photograph the birds for the scientists recording their GPS locations. Later in the day, looking through camera memory cards… wouldn’t you know it, there she was.

The following year, the same group of researchers was out again, only this time placing remote cameras and acoustic recorders to gather data on the birds through the nesting season. Nests were chosen purely based on accessibility, with the idea to drop in, get out, place the gear, and leave. Mike was along for this excursion, equipped with a few higher-quality cameras. One of the selected nests just so happened to be… You guessed it, our friend Husker Red.

This was Husker Red’s first ever nest, and Mike’s camera captured 30 days of her nesting while researchers recorded 60 days. She hatched two chicks. One chick, along with parents Husker Red and her mate, were spotted in Quivira National Wildlife Refuge that fall on the trek down to their wintering grounds, where Husker Red skipped Lamar for the first time, and thrived raising her chick on Matagorda in the barrier islands.

Days before the WCC production crew made their way down to Aransas in November 2024, Husker Red was again photographed in a group of birds on the Platte River in Nebraska. She was on her way south to the coast.

Mike, Lori, Kevin, and others along the coast have checked in with Husker Red over the last several winters.

She’s taken us on quite a ride.