At 03:59 PM 5/10/00 -0400, ragweed at igc.org wrote:
>Correction - Noel Warner wrote me privately to tell me that there
>is no record of Whooping Crane's ever having a non-breeding
>population in Florida. I was wrong - what I get for skimming an
>article I read a month ago.
>
>He also mentioned that the Florida non-breeding population that
>has been established had its first nesting last year.

I feel I need to clarify the information I sent to John Chapman concerning
the historical and current status of Whooping Cranes in Florida. The
following is the entire text of that post, including at least one typo. :-)

>There is no evidence at all that there was ever a non-migratory population
of Whooping Cranes in Florida. In fact, the only apparently confirmable
evidence of the species being recorded in the state in historical times is
a photograph of a specimen collected near St. Augustine in 1927 or 1928.
This specimen was apparently subsequently destroyed in a fire, but a
photograph of it survived. There are four extant specimens that are labled
as being collected in Florida, but there is some doubt about whether the
location information is correct.
>
>I think that there are fossil records of the species from the state, and
if you interested I could check on that for you.
>
>BTW, the introduced population in Florida had it's first successful
nesting this spring. Two chicks were hatched, but one soon disappeared. I
have not heard anything about the other one since a week or so after the
hatching. I need to check up on the status of the chick. Also, there are
plans to try to establish a migratory population that would winter in Florida.
>
Later...

Noel Wamer
nwamer at fcol.com http://www.badbirdz.com
Jacksonville, FL, US 30.2820 -81.4972
"A strange bird may cause a slight unrest until it is named..."
(Walker Percy)