Today I was very pleasantly surprised to hear then see a new yardbird -- a
flock of Sandhill Cranes flying over. One looked white, above and below.
I've little bird watching experience outside of Yakima County, so haven't
seen lots of Sandhill Cranes other than once in Bosque del Apache, and
there didn't notice any light or white ones. I was simply lost in the
amazing spectacle. This white one stood out the whole time they passed
over. My photos aren't very good, but they show what I'm writing about. I
posted a cropped photo on Flickr at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/58148027 at N07/41709754421/in/datetaken/
A quick google search for leucistic Sandhill Crane yielded a link to an
article in SORA (Searchable Ornithological Research Archive) from Condor
vol. 62 issue 3 1960: Imperfect Albinism in a Sandhill Crane
https://sora.unm.edu/node/101211
And I found other mentions such as "Agency works to dispel myth of 'white
sandhill cranes'", and and another "Rare, Nearly All-White Sandhill Crane
at Bosque del Apache NWR" from 2014
http://www.birdingwire.com/releases/332665/
And yet another about one now at Fort Kearney, Nebraska, hinting to me that
they're uncommon.
The flock of 45 flew off to the north.
Good Birding,
Kevin Lucas
Selah, Yakima County, WA
listing.aba.org/ethics/
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