Man did I ever work for these. I trudged about three quarters of a mile in a pair of knee high rubber boots through the marsh, Carrying 45 pounds of camera gear, just to HOPE to get close enough to use the 600mm on this single Whooping Crane that was hanging out with some Sandhill Cranes. It was worth it. The conditions were horrible (bad weather), but this is the closest I've ever been able to get since I found where they were quite some time ago:

http://CatcherofLight.smugmug.com/photos/258435752_uxLXB-X3.jpg

http://CatcherofLight.smugmug.com/photos/258435627_2ghEe-X3.jpg

http://CatcherofLight.smugmug.com/photos/258435914_Fh5fm-X3.jpg

He gave me a few shots on the ground, and then flew off. These were panned with the 600mm off the Wimberley head at relatively slow speeds due to the poor lighting:

http://CatcherofLight.smugmug.com/photos/258435525_Bi9tg-X3.jpg

http://CatcherofLight.smugmug.com/photos/258435969_bPNAZ-X3.jpg

Very cool, but what a shame that every one of them has a radio tracking antenae like most california condors do.

Great job and a even better find!

Nice work Bob. Looks like you had a busy weekend.

Wonderful work Bob. Just goes to prove if you put the time and effort in you will get the rewards.

Thanks for sharing with us your rare find, C_B :thumbsup:

Very cool. Wonder what happened to his wing though.

It's just molting flight feathers. All birds do.

Apart form the fact that they'd go round in circles if they didn't :)
Why is it that birds lose wing feathers in matching pairs on left and right wings?
And more important to my curious (uh oh, dead cat alert) mind is HOW the moulting of the feathers is synchronised !
Do you have any idea ?

I have seen many a hawk with 5-7 flight feathers missing on only one wing. They flew quite fine too.

Canon_Bob, great images and quite the documentation. If these were mine, I would be printing the third and fourth ones to frame and hang on my wall and I would do my best to clone out the electronic tracking stuff. A lot of work on your part, but definitely worth the rewards.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

I was more refering to the second photograph. One leg has a transmitter, but the wing above the other leg looks injured. Is it just a different view of the molting feathers?