By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON — Quivira Wildlife Refuge says the usual spring migration of whooping cranes could begin by the end of March.
“We’ve had a lot of birds come in the last couple of weeks, back from the south,” Mike Oldham, Wildlife Refuge Manager for Quivira, said. “They got caught during this colder weather, so they hung around . . . but no whoopers yet.”
Oldham says that, while none of the rare birds have made their way to Quivira yet, it has still been a very busy stop over for birds this winter.
“I think we’ve held between five and seven thousand sandhill cranes on Quivira all winter long, which is kind of unheard of,'' Oldham said. “The good thing is we’re starting to see species coming back from the south and I would really fully suspect that we’re going to have whoopers coming back maybe later on this month.”
The population of the endangered birds continues to grow. When Oldham came to Quivira, the whooping crane population was around 350 birds. While no count was conducted due to COVID, the 2019 count showed the bird population had grown to 505.
Most, if not all, of the cranes' nesting takes place in Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada during the summer before they make their fall migration through Kansas.