Tweeters and Inland Birders,



Mike and MerryLynn's sighting of a white crane near Ice Harbor Dam is
intriguing. However, in my humble opinion, this is most likely a pale or
leucistic Sandhill Crane. For the record, there have been quite a few
well-documented reports of white or whitish Sandhill Cranes. For one account
of leucistic Sandhill Cranes, you can check the following publication by
Nesbitt and Parker:
http://www.fosbirds.org/FFN/PDFs/FFNv31n2p25-27Nesbitt.pdf .



One argument against this white crane being a Whooping Crane is the size,
described by the Dennys as "about the same size as the Sandhills". The vast
majority of Sandhill Cranes that migrate through Washington are Lesser
Sandhills (Grus canadensis canadensis)... the smallest subspecies. A
Whooping Crane should appear much larger than a Lesser Sandhill. According
to measurements given in "The Birds of Canada", the average closed wing
length of a Whooping Crane is 60 cm, versus 46 cm for a Lesser Sandhill-- a
difference which should be quite obvious in the field.



For the record, Sandhill Cranes as well as Whooping Cranes have black
wingtips, and could do so even in a leucistic individual.



At the same time, there is at least one well-documented record of Whooping
Crane in central BC, so nothing is impossible. However, I would expect that
the Dennys' bird is much more likely to be a leucistic Sandhill Crane than a
Whooping Crane.





Wayne C. Weber

Delta, BC

contopus at telus.net







From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Mike &
MerryLynn
Sent: October-11-10 8:34 PM
To: inland-nw-birders at uidaho.edu; Tweeters
Subject: [Tweeters] White Crane over Ice Harbor Dam



Hello All,



Today I had off so MerryLynn and I once again visited the Blood Ponds and
again saw the sub-adult RUFF along with the Woodleys, larry Umthun, Lisa
Hill and Ron Louderback. Other birds of note were......




*** snip ***



Ice Harbor Dam



Western Grebe.........30 birds

Lesser Scaup............2

Sandhill Cranes.........50 birds all headed to the southwest

WHITE CRANE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,1ad. bird, in with the Sandhill Cranes. This bird
was 2500' up and we were able to get this flock in our scopes as they
circled. This is when we could see the white body, wings and long neck. The
black primaries were very clear, We stood there in awe and watched as this
bird circled with the Sandhills. From our perspective it looked about the
same size as the Sandhills it was with. We first detected these cranes from
the Sandhills calling as they crossed the Snake River. The only species we
considered is Whooping Crane. This white crane was in the lead position
until the flock began to break up as they circled after crossing the Snake
River off to our west and south. We called and alerted Nancy LaFramboise at
McNary NWR, HQ. This was a crane and not a white pelican, snow goose or any
egret species. The black primaries were clear.




*** snip ***



Well that is it for now. Sure would like to know where that white crane ends
up.



Later Mike Denny







*******************************************************
Mike & MerryLynn Denny
Birding the beautiful Walla Walla Valley



"If you haven't birded, you haven't lived"