We are aware of the possibility of the Demoiselle showing up here, and have
been watching since mid-March. The week before the Crane Festival one of
the satellite radioed cranes that wintered in the Lodi area with the
Demoiselle showed up here. We saw the radioed bird twice, but so far have
come up empty. Every crane with a black neck has changed position and lost
the shadow to turn its black neck gray.
We will be out again this evening looking through flocks west of Othello.

If anyone remembers reading passages in Peter Matthiessen's book The Birds
of Heaven, he pulled a few sightings of rarer cranes out to the delight of
his ICF companions on his Asian trips, where Demoiselles are more common.
We were hoping he could pull the same magic while he was here for the Crane
Festival, but on two separate evenings we saw only sandhills. We won't quit
looking until the cranes are all gone this spring.

Randy Hill
Othello
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matt Williams" <mattwilliamsjr at yahoo.com>
To: "RT Cox" <birder at vcn.com>; "Tweeters" <TWEETERS at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2002 10:57 a
Subject: Re: Crane Spectacular . . . and possibly one lone Demoiselle in
their midst


> RT Cox wrote:
>
> >You are 4 days late for April's Fool. Maybe those people who paint
> box cars
> >got to a Sandhill......
> >a Demoiselle? If it's still there in a week, I'll pay someone to show
> it to
> >me.
> >
> >RT Cox
> >.
> >
> RT, after having seen it numerous times while it wintered at the
> Isenberg Sandhill Crane Reserve near Lodi, CA, the Demoiselle Crane has
> left with one group or another of the migrating Sandhills on their
> northern migration. When it was first reported on September 30th, many
> Californians echoed your sentiments (see
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CALBIRDS/messages/264
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/central_valley_birds/messages/1616
>
> Not knowing what route the Demoiselle will take in it's migration path
> with its specific group of Sandhills, it was exciting to hear from afar
> of such a large concentration of migrating Sandhills as reported in the
> Crane Spectacular posting on Tweeters. So all I can say is that an
> uncountable number of birders all over the world very happy if someone
> sees and reports the Demoiselle. The resultant ear to ear grins would
> far exceed any smiles an April Fool's joke would engender!
>
> Feel free to pass this message on to any more northerly birders who are
> on any Sandhill migration routes . . . and Good Birding
>
> Matt Williams
> Davis, CA
>
>
>