Since the previous nesting update, the last pair of incubating whooping cranes unfortunately abandoned their nest on May 3.  The two eggs were retrieved from the nest and brought to ICF.  On May 6 the eggs were transferred to the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland, where the chicks will become part of the ultralight-led Class of 2009. 

There is a possibility that some whooping crane pairs will renest yet again this spring.  The only wild-hatched crane in the reintroduced eastern migratory population hatched on June 22, 2006, as a result of such a renest.  Keep your fingers crossed!....

Update by Joan Garland, ICF Education Outreach Coordinator/WCEP Communications & Outreach Team Co-chair.