First trip to Texas. With USGS biologist Dave Brandt (aka “Crane Trapper”) and International Crane Foundation lead veterinarian Barry Hartup, I photographed the process of trapping adult whoopers and attaching telemetry devices to their legs. The first bird I saw trapped was a big sub-adult male, which Dave later named “Brutus” (1F – band Black-Blue-Black). This whooper had come into the trap injured, with damage to his beak and lacerations on his neck. Barry did the repairs. The wounds were likely from a fight with another whooper. Brutus may not have survived without Barry’s care.

I also met Kevin and Lori Sims, a local couple who charter whooping crane watching and photography tours out of the Rockport area. In lovely sunrise light, I photographed my first whoopers on their wintering grounds—up close from Kevin’s boat near Dunham Point. They were a family: Yellow-Gray-Yellow and Black-Yellow-Black were the parents, and Gray-Red-Gray (banded that year in Wood Buffalo) was their chick. I later referred to them as the Dunhams.

We also photographed whoopers foraging on wolfberries, a small red fruit that ripens in winter and is a staple of the whooping crane’s diet. Dave and I installed a small timelapse camera in a known whooper roosting area off the Blackjack Peninsula to capture tidal fluctuations and the diversity of life. Finally, I photographed whooping cranes, fulvous ducks, and white-tailed deer mingling at deer feeders.