I captured this photo of an adult Whooping Crane last February while visiting the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas coast. I posted a photo of another adult crane and a juvenile crane earlier this year. This particular bird is bird #2011-08. I know this from the color code on the banding on its left leg (blue on top and yellow on bottom) and the color coding of the brace on the GPS tracker of its right leg (blue top and white bottom).
United States Department of the Interior publishes a report through their Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center with the tracking details. The birds migrate from the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas to the Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Canada. They log each time the bird successfully completes the migration. The GPS transmitters have solar panels to maximize battery life. It weighs approximately 72g and it is programed to record 4 GPS locations daily.
This image was taken with my Canon EOS 5DS using my Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 II Lens + 1.4x III which extended the lens reach to 560mm (40mm x 1.4). The camera was set on Manual mode with the aperture set at f/8, shutter speed at 1/2000th of a second and the ISO set at 640. This is a single image processed in Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro.
You can view my Birds of Texas collection by clicking here. Please use the section below to post your comments, questions, or suggestions.
© 2016 T. Kahler Photography
Would be nice if our phones only tracked our movements only 4 times a day…
Yes it would.
Spiffy attire on that fellow. Height of fashion.
Yes. He looks proud wearing it…