Severson Dells

A caller from Winnebago township reported seeing two large white birds with red on their heads and black wing tips flying near a pond a week ago, near Severson Dells.

Could they have been a pair of endangered adult whooping cranes — among the rarest birds in the world — that had been last seen north of the Illinois border near Albany in Green County, Wis.

Rockford birder Jeff Donaldson said he was told that trackers from Operation Migration lost contact with a pair of birds in Wisconsin. They are part of a flock of about 60 whoopers restablished at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge.

Friday afternoon, a tracker driving a National Fish and Wildlife Service truck equipped with radio tracking antenna stopped by the nature center, looking to pick up a signal from the birds.

Why would they be here? Well, Winnebago County is along a migration route that Operation Migration is trying to establish for the flock. For five years young birds trained to follow an ultralight aircraft have come through the region on their way from Necedah to wintering grounds at Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Florida

But officials say that the birds aren’t migrating yet. This time of year cranes — and many other migrants — head to staging areas, to feed and fatten up. Whooping cranes may stay in staging areas for five weeks before heading to wintering grounds, according to the Operation Migration Website.

So it’s possible the whopping cranes are staging somewhere in Winnebago County. Said Sara Zimorski, an aviculturist with the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wis.:

“These birds probably aren’t truly migrating yet, it’s too early; most of the sandhill cranes wait till November before they leave WI and our whooping cranes have done the same, sometime not leaving until late November. However, the birds do move around some in the fall and stage before actually beginning migration, this is what these birds are doing and it isn’t that unusual. In previous years we’ve had several other birds leave WI this time of year and settle in IL for a month or more before starting migration in November.”

If you see a whooping crane, leave it alone. But please e-mail Sara Zimorski, an aviculturist with the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wis., sara@savingcranes.org

The more information researchers have on the habits of the flock, the better chance the cranes will survive.

Birds reported this week at Severson Dells:

Yellow-bellied sapsucker
Green Heron
Junco
Cooper’s Hawk
Barred owl (calling)
Common nighthawk
Chimney Swift
Northern flicker
Eastern phoebe
Ruby-crowned kinglet
Yellow-crowned kinglet
Robin
Eastern Bluebird
Cedar waxwing
Yellow-rumped warbler
Palm warbler
Chipping sparrow
Song sparrow
American goldfinch
Winter wren
Swainson’s thursh
White-throated sparrow
Turkey vulture
House finch
Brown Creeper
Red-tailed hawk
Grackle