Brodie Thomas
Northern News Services
Published Monday, June 9, 2008

INUVIK - Biologist Kristen Callaghan has done her fair share of bird watching, but she wasn't expecting to spot one of the rarest species on Earth from her Inuvik apartment.

"We were home and heard them calling so we ran out our balcony as they flew by. There were four of them," said Callaghan.

The birds in question were most likely whooping cranes. They appeared to have been taking off from Boot Lake and heading north straight through town. Callaghan and her husband Martin heard the distinctive call from their third-story apartment on Boot Lake Road.

Callaghan said she knew the call was not the same as a sandhill crane. As soon as she saw the birds, she was certain they were not sandhill cranes.

"Sandhills tend to be more grey, or grey-brown, and these were gleaming white; not a single bit of grey on them. They had black wingtips, which is characteristic of whooping cranes. Sandhills have black on their wings as well, but their black will extend up the trailing end of their wings, and these definitely didn't have that," she said.

Callaghan is the acting wildlife biologist with the Gwich'in Renewable Resources Board. Her specialty is bats, but she describes herself as a "recreational" birdwatcher.

"After they left we just kind of looked at each other and said, 'Did we really see what we thought we saw?'" said Callaghan.

After the sighting, Canadian Wildlife Services provided her with recordings of various crane calls. After hearing a recording of a whooping crane's call, there is little doubt in her mind of what she and her husband saw.

"Officially this is down as a probable sighting, We just don't know 100 per cent," said Brian Johns, a biologist with Canadian Wildlife Services who specializes in whooping cranes.

There are different levels of confirmation when recording bird sightings. Without a photo of the birds or a sighting by a whooping crane expert, this will not be an official "confirmed" sighting.

Johns said it is very likely that the birds spotted were young "sub-adult" whooping cranes, who are too old to be with their parents but still too young to nest. This would make them one or two years of age.

If these are sub-adult birds, it is very unlikely that they will begin nesting in the Delta.

"All known nesting sights are in the northeast corner of Wood Buffalo National Park. These birds spend the winter with their parents. They know where their wintering grounds are. Once they're old enough to pair they will likely go back to Wood Buffalo National Park, as opposed to pioneering new sites. Most of the banded birds that we have records on, those birds nested within 20 km of where they were raised," said Johns.

There are about 500 whooping cranes left in the world.

There was a similar sighting last year at the Inuvik Airport. Possible sightings of whooping cranes can be reported to Canadian Wildlife Services, or a local conservation officer.